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CANYON LAKE, TEXAS HISTORY
Canyon Lake, formerly known as Canyon Reservoir, is on
the Guadalupe River twelve miles northwest of New Braunfels
in northern Comal County. The project is owned by the United
States government and operated by the United States Army
Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. The lake, formed
by a rolled earthfill dam 6,830 feet long, is used for flood
control, water conservation, and recreation.
Construction of the dam was started on June 27, 1958, and
impoundment of water began on June 16, 1964. The crest of
the spillway is 943 feet above mean sea level, and the conservation
storage capacity is 382,000 acre-feet with a surface area
of 8,240 acres and a sixty-mile shoreline at 909 feet above
mean sea level. Stored water is used for municipal, industrial,
and irrigation purposes and for the development of hydroelectric
power downstream. The drainage area above the dam is 1,432
square miles.
The construction of the dam and subsequent growth of the
area surrounding the lake are among the most significant
developments in twentieth-century Comal County history.
Inundating a portion of the Guadalupe River valley cost
the area productive farm and ranch land as well as two rural
communities-Cranes Mill and Hancock-but it also stimulated
development that transformed the economy and demography
of the county. After the lake was filled north central Comal
County became one of the largest population centers in Central
Texas and the focus of a resort and tourist industry that
rivaled manufacturing and agriculture in importance to the
county economy. The dam made possible land development along
the lake shore and in the area downstream, which for the
first time was protected from periodic flooding.
Residents and tourists support a variety of businesses
and service industries that transformed the former farm
and ranch communities of Sattler and Startzville into thriving
commercial centers and occasioned the new town of Canyon
City. The Canyon Lake community, forty-eight miles from
San Antonio and fifty-six from Austin, continued to attract
new commuter, retired, and weekend residents.
Information courtesy of
"The Handbook of Texas Online |
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