Abilene State Park, a 529.4-acre park beside Lake Abilene southwest of the city, occupies a landscape with at least 6,000 years of human presence, including Tonkawa and Comanche hunting and camping grounds. Settlers in the late 1870s farmed and grazed here until the City of Abilene dammed Elm Creek in 1918 to form Lake Abilene, displacing many residents. After the lake proved unreliable as a water source, the state acquired the property in 1933 and opened the park in 1934. Civilian Conservation Corps companies shaped much of its enduring character from 1933 to 1935, building rustic limestone and red sandstone structures that still define this recreation area.