Texas Almanac, 1954-1955 Page: 162
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162 TEXAS ALMANAC-1954-1955
a heavy runoff despite small area. The Texas-
Louisiana boundary line is at the middle of
the stream in its lower course, giving rise to
problems in water conservation. The Fifty-
third Legislature, 1953, adopted the terms of
a Sabine River Compact (Senate Bill 131),
providing for appointment of two commis-
sioners to represent Texas in administering
provisions of the compact, the compact to
become binding when finally ratified by the
Louisiana State and the Federal Government.
RED RIVER BASIN.-The channel is 960
miles long of which 680 are in Texas or along
its border. Drainage basin in Texas is 30.700
square miles. There was one active project
in this basin during 1953, though there are
several proposed reservoirs on its Texas
tributaries, the Sulphur and Cypress Bayou.
One of these, the Mooringsport project is in
Louisiana but it would raise the level of
Caddo Lake extending into Texas. The Ferrels
Bridge Dam on the Cypress above the head
of Caddo Lake is tentative. Lake Texoma on
the main channel of the Red is the biggest
reservoir touching Texas with 5,715,700 acre-
feet capacity. It is one of the largest reser-
voirs in the United States. Lake Kemp, Lake
Kickapoo and Lake Wichita are on the tribu-
taries of the Red. (See list of Reservoirs,
pp. 163-169.) Under construction during 1953
was Lake Texarkana on Sulphur River at the
Bowie-Cass County line, a flood control and
general use project with an eventual capacity
of 2,509,000 acre-feet.
CANADIAN BASIN.-Main channel is 760
miles long, from source near Raton, N.M., to
junction with Arkansas River in Oklahoma.
There are 190 miles in the Texas Panhandle
and a Texas drainage basin of 9,740, or 13.154
including the north fork which flows through
the north Panhandle into Oklahoma. Project
for a big reservoir on the Canadian Gorge
near Borger was under consideration during
1952-1953. The reservoir would impound water
for municipal supply to supplement the sup-
plies now drawn from underground sources
on the Staked Plains. The Fifty-third Legis-
lature, 1953, enacted Senate Bill 126, creating
the Canadian River Municipal Water Author-
ity to forward this project. This authority
consisteoe ies of the cities of Amarillo, Borger,
Lamesa, Levelland, Littlefield, Lubbock,
O'Donnell, Pampa, Plainview, Slaton, Brown-
field and Tahoka.
Coastal Project
A billion-dollar project for connecting the
channels of all Texas rivers with a transverse
canal was outlined by the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation during 1953. The proposed canal
would extend from the Sabine to the Lower
Rio Grande, crossing the channels of the
Neches, Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe,
Nueces and smaller coastal streams. It would
deliver water to the Rio Grande Valley area
but would not be connected with the Rio
Grande channel, an international stream. It
was proposed to construct new reservoirs on
the interconnected rivers sufficient in capacity
to furnish 12,000,000 acre-feet annually of firm
water supply, of which 3,500,000 acre-feet
would be for municipal and industrial use of
the coast area, and 8,500,000 acre-feet would
be for irrigation.
The report tentatively divides the Lower
Coastal Plain into four "nodes"-the Beau-
mont-Port Arthur area, the Houston area, the
Victoria area and the South Texas area, the
latter including the Corpus Christi and Lower
Rio Grande Valley region.
The supply would be obtained in the fol-
lowing proportion: Sabine-Neches basin,
4,000,000 acre-feet; Trinity-Brazos basins,
6,000,000 acre-feet; Colorado-Guadalupe basins,
600.000 acre-feet; Nueces basin, 1,700,000 acre-
feet.The plan suggests a "Gulf Coast Master
Authority" implementing the Gulf Coast in-
tegrated water program. It would' be com-
posed of representatives of the conservation
and reclamation districts now in existence in
these basins, plus federal participation. It
suggests also a State Water Planning Board
to co-ordinate plans of the individual river
basin districts and authorities.
Silt Load of Texas Rivers
Climatic, = topographic and soil conditions
over large areas of Texas are conducive to
rapid soil erosion with resultant heavy silt
loads in Texas streams. The Brazos River
carries an annual average of 21,948 acre-feet
of silt at Richmond. The Colorado carries
5,898 acre-feet at Columbus, the Rio Grande
12,588 at Roma, the Red 13,640 at Denison,
the Trinity 4,094 at Romayor.
The records show that the principal Texas
rivers, as measured at stations near the Gulf,
carry a total of about 63,000 acre-feet of silt
annually. (This is sufficient silt to cover
63,000 acres to the depth of one foot.) Silt
measurement is a co-operative program of the
Texas State Board of Water Engineers and
the Soil Conservation Service of the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture. The reports may be
obtained by addressing these agencies at
Austin.
Texas Natural Lakes
The largest natural lake In Texas, other
than one or two semifresh coastal bodies of
water, is Caddo Lake, which lies partly in
Marion and Harrison Counties, Texas, and
partly in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. In two
prongs, it has a maximum length of 35 miles
and an average width of three miles. Its area
is between 35,000 and 40,000 acres. Average
depth is somewhat less than ten feet. Its
surface was raised by the erection of a dam
many years ago. There is a project for a dam
at Mooringsport, La., to raise the Caddo Lake
level greatly, converting it primarily into an
artificial reservoir. Legend surrounds the
origin of this body of water. It was related
by the Indians to early white settlers that the
lake was created by a sudden sinking of the
earth's surface during an earthquake. The
largest inland body of water of natural origin
is Sabine Lake, into which the Sabine and
Neches Rivers empty. It might more properly
be classed as a bay of the Gulf of Mexico.
The same may be said of Green Lake' in
Calhoun County and some other fresh- and
semifresh-water estuaries along the coast.
There are many small natural lakes through-
out East Texas, most of which have been
formed by the cutting off of the horseshoe
bends of the rivers by changes in the river
channels during flood stage. There are some
of these horseshoe lakes along the Rio Grande
in the Lower Valley, where they are called
resacas.
On the Great Plains and the Diablo Plateau
are a number of lake basins which stand in
shallow water part of the year. Among them
are Cedar Lake in Gaines County, Shafter
Lake in Andrews County and Big Lake in
Reagan. Some of these lakes are salt. The
Salt Flats at the foot of the Guadalupe Moun-
tains in Culberson-Hudspeth Counties receive
the scant discharge of water from a large
area of the Diablo Plateau Bolson. In the
early history of this region these lakes be-
came a source of salt, and conflicting claims
caused the Salt War of 1877. There are sev-
eral salt lakes along the Gulf coast, notably
in Kenedy County and La Sal Vieja and Sal.
del Rey in Willacy and Hidalgo Counties.
which, like the Salt Flats have been sources
of production of salt for local and, in earlier
times, regional consumption.
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Texas Almanac, 1954-1955, book, 1953; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117168/m1/164/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.