Our Story
Celebrating over 50 years of existence, the Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation Department is dedicated to “creating a GRAND lifestyle”. The Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation department features world class parks and facilities, a wide-array of exciting program opportunities, and numerous special events throughout the year. The City of Grand Prairie has over 5,000 park acres, including the exciting 3,000 acres surrounding Joe Pool Lake. Dedicated to providing “world class service” the department was nominated by the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA) as a finalist to the National Gold Medal Award, one of only 4 in America, in 2007 and 2008, 2016 and 2017, and won the Gold Medal in 2008 and 2017! The department has racked up honors for Park Development, Maintenance Innovations and Recreation programming over the past few years. The Marion Loyd Homestead was named Loyd Park after Francis “Marion” Loyd, who settled here in 1857 and owned 78 acres of what is a part of the park land today. My internship is with the Grand Prairie Parks, Arts, and Recreation department in the Lake Parks division. This department was founded in 1966 and ever since then the department has been dedicated to “creating a GRAND lifestyle”. Specifically the park that I work at most, Loyd Park, was established by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1989 and was run by the Trinity River Authority until 2001 when the City of Grand Prairie bought the park and began operating it.