Nathan Toon

My project focuses on the water problem that surrounds the DFW metroplex and its effects on all Northeast Texas. “Liberty Grove” was a block of land in the Sulphur River bottoms of south Delta County that belonged to everyone in the Toon family, not just one person. The old schoolhouse still stood as a relic of the Liberty Grove community; when I was a kid It was a place where Toon’s got together for family reunions, “friendly” baseball games, and fishing trips for us kids in the many ponds throughout the property. All those veterans mentioned above helped build every fence, raise cattle and other livestock, and mended a two-acre garden; things that were also taught to me and every Toon boy out at Liberty Grove, and by a group of veteran men and women that had seen it all but wouldn’t speak about it. The land would soon be confiscated, the schoolhouse tore down, and Liberty Grove Cemetery would be one of the many that would need to be relocated. Cooper Lake was coming behind order of the Corps of Engineers; Liberty Grove was in the way and eminent domain would remove all hope of fighting back. Years later I wrote a sentimental song titled “Lakes for Dallas” after standing on the piece of arid and cracked land that looked like a desert as far as the eye could see, this is what became of my beloved Liberty Grove. What once was the biggest oak tree I had ever seen growing next to what used to be the schoolhouse where my grandparents went to school, had been 12ft of water for 21 years, now looks more like Death Valley. Seeing that and still hearing the pump station roaring, pumping the water elsewhere, moved me to research and write about water conservation.