• Buchanan Dam - Colorado River - Burnet TX
    "The Buchanan Dam is a large flood-control, water-conservation, and power project. It was originally a power project of a utility company but was taken over by the Lower Colorado River Authority in 1936 after the utility company had abandoned it. The total length of the dam is 8,400 feet and its height is 143 feet from bed to parapet. It develops a reservoir of 23,500 acres. The power plant has a capacity of 22,000 kilowatts. The project was completed in November 1938 at an estimated construction cost of $7,093,098 and project cost of $8,298,957. Included in this cost...
  • Burnet County Courthouse - Burnet TX
    In 1935 the Burnet County Commissioners’ Court requested a grant from the Public Works Administration for the construction of a new courthouse. On November 18th of that year, the PWA made available a loan of $74,000 and a grant of $61,000 for the project. An election for bonds to cover the loan was called and passed. The Commissioners then accepted the grant. Construction began February 10, 1936, and finished on August 1, 1937. The courthouse was built of the same type of granite that was used in the construction of the Texas State Capitol in Austin.
  • Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery - Burnet TX
    In 1938, the Public Works Administration, which had dam construction projects along the Colorado River in Texas, proposed the establishment of a federal fish hatchery in the area to provide fish for the newly created lakes. Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson arranged an agreement between the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and the National Youth Administration (NYA) to construct the hatchery. The NYA established a camp at Inks Dam in 1938 and began construction of the fish hatchery in 1939. Current programs at the hatchery include providing channel catfish for tribal fishery management programs in the Southwest...
  • Inks Lake State Park - Burnet TX
    "With its dependable water source, abundant fish and game, and natural beauty, the region of Central Texas around the Colorado River and present Inks Lake has been an inviting location for centuries, attracting Native American and German and Anglo settlers. In 1937 while running as a candidate for the surrounding Congressional district, Lyndon Baines Johnson promised voters that he would create a “Tennessee Valley Authority” type of transformation for the Colorado River, including dams for flood control and electricity, bridges and highways, and recreational facilities along the river. Johnson’s victory soon brought into being the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA)...
  • Park Road 4 - Burnet TX
    Park Road 4 is a 15.5-mile, two-lane scenic parkway that extends west from U.S. Highway 281 and terminates at State Highway 29 to the west of Burnet. It travels through Longhorn Cavern State Park and skirts the eastern edge of Inks Lake State Park. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed the first several miles were in the mid-1930s to provide visitor access to the newly renovated Longhorn Cavern State Park. Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers extended the road west of the park headquarters in the early 1940s. The road connected with Farm-to-Market Road 2342, and was finally completed concurrently with...
  • State Highway 29 Bridge at the Colorado River - Burnet TX
    The construction of the Colorado River bridge was part of a larger THD undertaking to reroute SH 29 around Buchanan Dam, which was under construction beginning in 1931. The original roadway and the bridge across the Colorado at Bluffton were inundated by Lake Buchanan after completion of the dam in 1937. The bridge site was fixed 1 mile below the Buchanan Dam, at a location where a granite outcropping formed a ledge at the east bank of the river. This ledge was considered an ideal location for the eastern approach to the bridge. In a preliminary inspection report dated July 17,...