Moving The Waters:
The Making of Belton Lake
July 15, 1995 - January 1996
Bell County Museum
Belton Dam and Reservoir, constructed between
1949-1954, is one of 40 major dam sites located along the Brazos
River watershed for flood control and water conservation
purposes.
The Communities
The Leon River and the Cowhouse Creek, one of
the Leon's tributaries, lay in a valley nestled between hills, or
"mountains" as the early settlers called them. The
valley consisted of a scenic trail of hills covered with huge
evergreen trees, steep bluffs where birds, particularly Martins,
nested by the thousands, and clear, swift waters. Before being
cleared by settlers, the land along the river valley was a solid
forest of timber and brush. Oak and cedar were particularly
abundant; cedar was especially valuable to settlers for building
barns, fences, and houses. Several communities and many farms
were established in the valley; early settlers were attracted to
the fertile soil and the pristine river water. During the mid- to
late-19th century, the major settlements were Aiken, Bland,
Sparta, and Tennessee Valley.
How the Cowhouse Creek Got its Name
One theory tells of wild cattle ranging on the
creek bottom and mountains. The creek furnished water and the
caves and high bluffs on the north bank served as protection from
wind and cold rains. Because these overhanging cliffs provided
the cows with shelter when they came to drink, the creek was
named in their honor. Another tale traces the creek's name to a
man named P. Cow who lived on the creek near Killeen. Supposedly,
directions were given with such phrases as "right over
yonder you'll come to Cow's house on the creek." Yet another
old yarn is that early settlers on the creek banks made their
homes out of cow hides stretched over poles and logs.
Sparta
The date of origin for the community of Sparta
is unknown. The first settlers are believed to have been the
brothers Wash and Nelson Walton who arrived in the area in the
early 1850s. It is reported that Wash Walton and nearby Cedar
Grove postmaster Francis D. Smith suggested the name Sparta when
a post office was established in the community in the early
1880s. Sparta was once home to two stores, a filling station, a
gin, a mill, a blacksmith shop, a church house, a telephone
switchboard, and a school.
Tennessee Valley
Tennessee Valley, so named because the land
reminded the first settlers of the beautiful valley they had
recently left in Tennessee, was nestled between the Sparta
mountains and a curve in the Leon River. After Bell County was
created in 1850, the prospect of cheap land brought the first
settlers to Tennessee Valley. These early settlers and their
families primarily raised sheep and cattle. The beautiful river
valley provided necessary water and some protection against
sometimes hostile Indians. The years from 1860-1880 saw a
continued growth in the area. Farmers were drawn to the fertile
valley soil, although the Civil War was difficult on many valley
families who suffered great economic hardship.
Bland
Bland was located on a bend of Owl Creek. At
one time, a general store, a school, a cotton gin, a blacksmith
shop, a corn mill, and a Baptist Church could all be found in
this town. For the first 14 years of its existence, Bland was
known as Pokerville. According to legend, the town received this
name because, in 1880, store owner Col. John Atkerson would
invite customers to the back room to "play for the
change" on their bill of goods. When a post office opened in
the store in 1894, it was decided that the community needed a
more dignified name. Bland was selected from five suggestions
submitted to the postal officials. Although a family by the name
of Bland once lived in the area, the town is not named for a
specific person.
Aiken
Located on the Leon River, about four miles
south of the present day town of Moffat, Old Aiken was once the
second largest town in Bell County. A ghost town long before the
construction of Belton Lake, the trading post boasted a
population of 600-1,000 before and during the Civil War. A post
office was established at Aiken on May 22, 1868. The community
was named for Col. Hermon Aiken, a sea captain, pioneer merchant,
farmer, and stock raiser who lived north of Belton. Old Aiken was
once home to several three-story buildings, factories, saloons,
and blacksmith shops. During the Civil War, the Confederate
government took over the towns industries and established a hat
manufacturing plant; there is record of a Confederate distillery
which shipped whiskey by ox-wagon.
Photos found in this section focus on the communities and the early settlers.
Some of those included are:
Residents: Portrait of E.H. and Martha Bigham, early Tennessee Valley settlers
Ollie Roberts, owner of Roberts Grocery, Sparta, late 1930s
Recreational activities: Valentine's Day at Tanyard Springs, 1898
Mrs. O.T. Tyler and family, Miller Springs, 1910
Miller Springs Tavern, a popular spot for dancing and drinking
Floods and Droughts in the Brazos River Basin
The Brazos River Basin cuts across Texas,
encompassing an area which ranges from Parmer and Bailey Counties
on the Texas-New Mexico border to Galveston and Freeport on the
Gulf of Mexico.
In Bell County and the other central portions
of the basin, the Brazos and her tributaries flow primarily
through valleys with steep sides or bluffs. The Little River is
one of seven principal tributaries of the Brazos River. Of the 15
sub-tributaries within the watershed, Bell County's Leon River is
one of the most important.
Flooding along the Brazos River has been a
devastating threat since the earliest days of settlement. Near
the present-day town of Navasota, ferrymen's markings on trees,
visible for many years, showed that in 1833 the floodwaters
ranged from 10 to 20 feet in depth. Such serious years of drought
followed the 1833 flood that people began to wonder if the Brazos
River would cease to flow altogether. However, in the summer of
1842, the rains again came with such force that the river widened
to six miles or more for an extended distance. Between 1842 and
1900, devastating floods periodically swept down the Brazos.
Although the overflow never became as serious as the 1842 flood,
the losses were proportionately higher each time due to a larger
population and improvements along the river.
Two floods in particular, those in 1913 and
1921, brought death and destruction of a greater magnitude than
the basin residents had seen before. Although discussions about
how to tame the Brazos had been formally organized as early as
1902, it took these disasters to spur the state into action.
A variety of photographs in this section illustrate the devastation of the floods. Images from the floods of 1900, 1913, and 1921 are included.
Taming the Waters
The Brazos River Conservation and Reclamation District
In 1923, $600,000 was appropriated for a survey
of all rivers of the state and an analysis of flood and water
problems. This action led directly to the creation of the Brazos
River Conservation and Reclamation District in 1929. The
District's 21-member Board of Directors was empowered to take
whatever action it deemed necessary and proper to control the
Brazos and its tributaries for flood control and water
conservation.
Due to the Depression, the District did not meet formally for four years, until 1934. However, several events during this time kept the organization alive. These significant actions included:
1) District Board Member Frank W. Mayborn, the new owner of the Temple Daily Telegram, and his friend and associate, Walter Humphrey, began a campaign to save the District. Humphrey made countless trips to Austin to stay in touch with the State Board of Water Engineers and the legislature, and Mayborn published story after story to keep the issue in the public eye.
2) John A. Norris, Chairman of the Board of Water Engineers, introduced District chairman Lewis Mims to S.W. Stewart, President of the Ambursen Engineering Corporation. Ambursen was one of the most active and successful hydraulic engineering companies in the world, having built more than 250 dams in the United States and abroad.
3) In 1933, Congress passed the National
Industrial Recovery Act which signaled the beginning of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program and a commitment by the
federal government to restore the economy through massive
spending.
The Ambursen Plan
In an effort to serve the Brazos River
Conservation and Reclamation District, the Ambursen Corporation
began preparing a Master Plan for a series of 13 dams to harness
the Brazos and her tributaries. Although the plan was simply a
proposal for the District, the plan was drawn up with the
knowledge of the State Board of Water Engineers and was based on
everyone's assumption that federal money would soon be available.
A drawing of the Ambursen Plan is included in
this section. This image also illustrates the size of the Brazos
River Valley because the map shows all of Texas.
Facing Financial Difficulties
It soon became apparent that no federal grants
or loans would be available without a financial commitment from
the state of Texas. As a result, the Texas legislature enacted a
law under which the state was to make a yearly appropriation of
$309,000 to the District. However, the appropriation was not to
become effective until funds from the United States government,
sufficient enough to construct one of the 13 dams, were received.
President Roosevelt did allocate over $30
million in Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds for the
construction of the 13 dams. However, he authorized only the
expenditure of $100,000 for planning and attached a maximum
acceptable cost to each individual dam, many of which were
significantly lower than the engineer's estimates. As a result of
these restrictions, plans for construction came to a halt.
The Flood Control Act of 1936
While attorneys attempted to sort out the legal
tangle of Roosevelt's authorizations, Congress was debating a
bill which would soon be passed and signed into law, the Flood
Control Act of 1936. This law significantly altered the mission
of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and affected the Brazos River
Conservation and Reclamation District.
With the Flood Control Act of 1936, the Corps
was given authority over flood control projects. WPA
Administrator Harry Hopkins requested that the War Department
take over the series of dam projects and that they be built by
the Corps of Engineers. Many discussions followed as the Ambursen
Company and the Corps argued over the most suitable types of dams
and the resulting costs. Surprisingly, the Corps budget was
significantly higher than that of Ambursen.
During W.W.II the Army Corps of Engineers preempted two proposed Brazos projects. These included the Miller Springs site, located on the Leon River above the Temple-Belton area and later to be known as Belton Dam and Reservoir.
The Evacuation
As Belton Dam and Reservoir came closer to
becoming a reality, those individuals living and working in the
valley found themselves in the path of progress. The "taking
line" for property was set at an elevation of 642 msl (mean
sea level), a line which encompassed more land than would
actually be covered by the lake, in order to take flooding into
account. All property which lay below the 642 msl line was
surrendered to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Those individuals who were unwilling to sell
their land were taken to court. Their property was condemned and
then purchased by the Corps. Those who willingly sold versus
those who had to be taken to court were split down the middle.
All monetary figures of land sales were kept confidential.
Many people moved their homes to avoid losing
them. Photographs show homes before, during, and after they were
moved. The empty sites left behind appear quietly calm.
Three rural communities and numerous farms lay
within the project area. Although the combined population of the
three community centers of Sparta, Tennessee Valley, and Bland
was less than 90 at the time of the evacuation, the relinquishing
of property affected many more. People who had been born and
raised in the area, spending their days harvesting watermelons,
helping their neighbors, and picnicking along the creek watched
as the sites of their memories were taken over, first by the
Corps of Engineers, and then by the water.
In relocating the families in the valley, the
Corps had to also consider moving 1,150 graves, located in 15
cemeteries below the taking line of 642 msl (mean sea level).
Many of these graves were relocated to Resthaven Cemetery, south
of Belton, while others were placed in two other new cemeteries
in the area. The total cost for relocation of the cemeteries was
estimated to be $108,000.00
The cemeteries (with the number of known graves in each) identified by the Corps in 1951 as destined for reinterment (reburial) at new sites were:
York - 3 Tennessee Valley - 426 Cemetery A - 8
(Denman) Walton - 141 Liberty Hill - 382 Cemetery B - 14
Taylor - 5 Ludwick - 80 Independent - 19
White - 3 Hallmark - 2 Doss - 8
Carroll - 5 Hawkins - 46 Yielding - 2
The Construction Process
Like most monumental projects, Belton Lake
spent many years in the planning stages before the actual
construction began. The dam got underway in July 1949 under a
contract with Hunter Construction Company of Ada, Oklahoma.
Clearing operations began during March 1953. Although schedules
drawn up in the Corps of Engineers Master Plan set a completion
date of June 1955, the project was actually completed in 1954.
The final cost of the project was $13.6 million.
Belton Dam is located at river mile 16.7 on the Leon River, about three miles north of Belton and about eight miles west of Temple. The original dam site was to be just slightly east of the current site, at river mile 15.5. The spot was abandoned, however, because the abundance of caverns on the site made the ground unstable, and therefore not suitable.
The Dam
Belton Dam consists of three principal features: a compacted, impervious earthen embankment,
a spillway, and the flood-control outlet works.
The dam is 5,524 feet in length. The spillway, excavated through
Edwards limestone, is located to the left abutment of the dam.
The flood-control outlet works, located adjacent to the right
abutment, consists of a conduit 22 feet in diameter, and three
gates. The gates are located 120' below the lake's surface and
are each 7 feet wide and 22 feet high.
A 36 by 36-inch gated outlet, located 54' below
the surface of the lake in the flood control outlet works, is
provided to release small, controlled amounts of water to the
City of Temple. The water released from this gate is of better
quality than that obtained through the large flood control gates
at the bottom of the lake; it contains oxygen and very little
sediment.
Water Conservation and Use
When Belton Lake was completed, the conservation pool was 569 msl (mean sea level), in 1972, at a cost of $2.2 million, the lake was raised 24 feet, to 594.0 msl, to provide more water storage.
The lake now contains a total of 372,700
acre-feet of conservation storage space.
Water from Belton Reservoir is disbursed to the following suppliers:
Water supplier Gallons Serving
(daily)
Bell County WCID #1 25 million Belton, Nolanville, Killeen, Fort Hood,
(Water Control Improvement District) Harker Heights
Gatesville 2.5 million Coryell County, Gatesville
Temple 12 million Temple, Morgan's Point
Recreational Use
Belton Lake has 136 miles of shoreline and an
average depth of 28 feet, with the depth of the water reaching
124 feet at the dam. The area is the setting for a variety of
activities including boating, water skiing, swimming, fishing,
camping, and picnicking. There are 510 campsites scattered
throughout many of the 14 public use areas and parks, and over
430 boat slips and numerous boat ramps.
Almost 3 million people a year visit the lake. Their spending adds an estimated $21 million annually to the local economy.
BellNET WebMaster
Last updated: April 17, 2000