Formerly the Dublin Dr. Pepper Bottling Company. A few years ago they lost a lawsuit with DP about their distribution area.
They are now making their own sodas and bottling for other companies. You can tour the Dr. Pepper Museum with 10th the personal collection of a former owner. It is a very interesting collection.
You also get to see the machinery, which will not be in use until Jan. of 2016 due to needing new machines. As part of the tour you get to bottle your own drink!!
Buy tickets for the tour in the attached cafe. (I think they were $5 each.) They also have sandwiches, their sodas, and floats.
I agree that this is a great option for a weekend getaway, but it may disappoint if you are coming from far away. There really are not a lot of services and I am sure when it is busy there is not much privacy. If you are looking for these things do not stay in the park. Stay across the lake. Read their website as it is very accurate.
The picnic tables by the swimming area have lots of huge ants. Be careful, but the swimming is great!
I had gone to another state park that was impacted by the same wave of wildfires and still looks pretty devastated. PK has rebounded fast in comparison!
My grandfather took me to PK when I was little, so I have been wanting to camp at the state park for a long time. (It did not help that there is a Toadies song about PK.) My aunt told me that my grandfather road on horseback through the canyon floor before they built the dam. Apparently, the area flooded faster than was expected so they did not have time to move everything. There is still farming equipment in the lake.
If you drive past Hubbard St. (rather than driving to the pin) going west you can see the giant "Welcome" sign, which is said to be the inspiration for the "Hollywood" sign.
I have been coming to Mineral Wells since I was young, but on a recent trip with my partner he was so excited to see the sign. I guess he was not expecting it is tiny Mineral Wells.
I would not lead with "haunted." I have family from Mineral Wells, so I have been visiting since I can remember. I have always heard it referred to as "The Baker."
To me it is a cool ruin (that happens to be related to some family history). I have heard they are currently trying to renovate to reopen, but various rumors to have effect have been around for many years.
Several years ago we happened to stop by when the caretaker was there showing some boys around so we tagged along. We really only saw the entrance, but it was fun.
On a recent trip the fence was down so it was easy to get in to go under the bridge and to the back. There is a garage looking building across the street (It has the same "B" on it) that the celebrities would enter through. The entrance went underground and around to the back of the Baker.
On this trip there were a few places we could have entered if we wanted, but we choose to take pictures from outside. I have never had a problem with police, but as I was with a retired cop I decided it was not a bad idea to play it safe.
Years ago there was a skate shop in MW and they had a skateboard which said "skate the Baker."