Celebrating the ArkLaTex: Betty Virginia Park

Off Fairfield and Line Avenues, that same petroleum-born prosperity carved out a public space that has anchored the community for generations: Betty Virginia Park.

Before it became Shreveport’s oldest gathering place, the land was covered by Deer Lake - one of roughly a half-dozen lakes formed by the "Great Raft," a 100-mile logjam of driftwood that blocked the Red River from Shreveport to Natchitoches for nearly a thousand years.

During the 19th century, cotton farmers hauled their wagons to the lake's shores, loading steamers bound down the Red River toward New Orleans.

When engineers cleared the river's massive logjam in the 1870s, Deer Lake drained and went dry.

The site's transformation into a civic landmark came decades later, courtesy of two local men who built fortunes off land and oil.

A.C. Steer and Elias Goldstein opted to build their estates along the dry lakebed, eventually donating their expansive backyards to the city.

The gift came with one condition: the park had to be named in honor of their daughters, Betty Goldstein and Virginia Steer.

Today, the park’s stone culverts, bridges, and towering trees offer a backdrop for local families whose ties to the land span generations.

For many residents, the park serves as a living scrapbook. Local parents who once visited on elementary school field trips now bring their own children to play under the same pavilions, continuing a neighborhood tradition that began with the oil boom over a century ago.