Caddo Lake State Park, Protected wetlands in Harrison County, US

Caddo Lake State Park covers 484 acres (196 ha) on Big Cypress Bayou, west of Caddo Lake in Harrison County. Its two units hold a shallow bald cypress swamp, Saw Mill Pond, where trees draped with hanging grey vegetation stand at the water's edge and canoes pass between them.

The park came about during the Great Depression when the Civilian Conservation Corps built entrance features and trails in 1933. That same work crew also constructed nine cabins that visitors can still use today.

The park takes its name from the Caddo, who settled near the lake around 800 AD and farmed maize there by 1200. In 1542 the expedition of Luis de Moscoso Alvarado, continuing after Hernando de Soto's death, recorded the first European description of Caddoan society. Spanish missions and trading posts followed in the 1700s, and epidemics brought by European settlers nearly wiped out the local Caddo.

Caddo Lake State Park lies on Big Cypress Bayou west of Caddo Lake, near Karnack in Harrison County, reached by Texas Park Road 2. Saw Mill Pond, a shallow bald cypress swamp at the park's north end, empties into the bayou and is used for canoeing, kayaking and fishing. Watch for American alligators and eastern copperheads along the water.

Saw Mill Pond, a shallow bald cypress swamp at the park's north end, drains into Big Cypress Bayou and is used for canoeing, kayaking and fishing. The park also lies beside two separate protected units, the Caddo Wildlife Management Area and the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge.