Texas Almanac, 1992-1993 Page: 88
656 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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88 TEXAS ALMANAC 1992-1993
scal are 1,925 and 3,625, those for the Boquillas, 1,850 and
3,490. The river here flows around the base of the great
Chisos Mountains. For about 100 miles the river is the
southern boundary of the Big Bend National Park.
Below the Big Bend, the Rio Grande gradually
emerges from mountains onto the Coastal Plains. At the
confluence of the Rio Grande and the Devils River, the
U.S. and Mexico have built Amistad Dam, to impound 3,-
383,900 acre-feet of water, of which Texas' share is 56.2
percent. Falcon Reservoir, also an international project,
impounds 2,667,600 acre-feet of water, of which Texas'
share in Zapata and Starr counties is 58.6 percent. Fi-
nally, the Rio Grande has created a fertile delta where it
joins the Gulf of Mexico, called the Lower Rio Grande
Valley, that is a major vegetable-fruit area.
The Rio Grande drains over 40,000 square miles of
Texas.
Principal tributaries flowing from the Texas side of
the Rio Grande are the Pecos and the Devils rivers. On
the Mexican side are the Rio Conchos, the Rio Salado and
the Rio San Juan. About three-fourths of the water run-
ning into the Rio Grande below El Paso comes from the
Mexican side.
Nueces River
The Nueces River rises in Edwards County and flows
315 miles to Nueces Bay on the Gulf near Corpus Christi.
Draining 17,000 square miles, it is a beautiful, spring-fed
stream flowing through canyons until it issues from the
Balcones Escarpment onto the Coastal Plain in northern
Uvalde County. Alonso de Leon, in 1689, gave it its name.
(Nueces, plural of nuez, means nuts in Spanish.) Much
earlier, Cabeza de Vaca had referred to a Rio de las
Nueces in this region, probably the same stream. Its
original Indian name seems to have been Chotilapac-
quen. Crossing Texas in 1691, Teran de los Rios named
the river San Diego. The Nueces was the boundary line
between the Spanish provinces of Texas and Nuevo San-
tander. After the Revolution of 1836, both Texas and
Mexico claimed the territory between the Nueces and
the Rio Grande, a dispute which was settled by the Trea-
ty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which fixed the interna-
tional boundary at the Rio Grande. Nueces runoff is
about 620,000 acre-feet a year in its lower course. Princi-
pal water conservation projects are Lake Corpus Christi
and Choke Canyon Reservoir. Principal tributaries of the
Nueces are the Frio and the Atascosa.
San Antonio River
The San Antonio River has its source in large springs
within and near the corporate limits of San Antonio. It
flows 180 miles across the Coastal Plain to a junction with
the Guadalupe near the Gulf Coast. Its channel through
San Antonio has been developed into a
parkway. Its principal tributaries are the Medina River
and Cibolo Creek, both spring-fed streams and this, with
its own origin in springs, gives it a remarkably steady
flow of clear water.
This stream was first named the Leon by Alonso de
Leon during his trip across Texas in 1689. (De Leon was
not naming the stream for himself, but called it "lion"
because its channel was filled with a rampaging flood.)
pBecause of its limited and rather arid drainage area
(4,200 square miles) the average runoff of the San
Antonio River is relatively small, about 350,000 acre-feet
annually near its mouth, but its flow, because of its
springs, is one of the steadiest of Texas rivers.
Guadalupe River
The Guadalupe rises in its north and south prongs in
the west-central part of Kerr County. A spring-fed
stream, it flows eastward through the Hill Country until
it issues from the Balcones Escarpment near New
Braunfels. It then meanders across the Coastal Plain to
San Antonio Bay. Its total length is about 250 miles, and
its drainage area is about 6,000 square miles. Its princi-
pal tributaries are the San Marcos, another spring-fed
stream, which flows into it in Gonzales County, the San
Antonio, which flows into it just above its mouth on San
Antonio Bay and the Comal, which loins it at New
Braunfels. The Comal River has its source in large
springs within the city limits of New Braunfels and flows
only about 2.5 miles to the Guadalupe. It is the shortest
river in Texas and also the shortest river in the United
States carrying an equivalent amount of water. There
has been power development on the Guadalupe nearGonzales and Cuero for many years. There is now also
power generation at Canyon Reservoir. Because of its
springs, and its considerable drainage area, it has an
annual runoff of more than 1 million acre-feet in its low-
er course.
The name Guadalupe is derived from Nuestra Seno-
ra de Guadalupe, the name given the stream by Alonso
de Leon.
Lavaca River
The Lavaca is considered a primary stream in the
Texas Basin because it flows directly into the Gulf,
through Lavaca Bay. Without a spring water source and
with only a small watershed, including that of its princi-
pal tributary, the Navidad, its flow is intermittent. The
Spanish called it the Lavaca (cow) River because of the
numerous bison they found. It is the principal stream
running to the Gulf between the Guadalupe and the Colo-
rado. The principal lake on the Nueces is Lake Texana.
Runoff averages about 600,000 acre-feet yearly into the
Gulf.
Colorado River
Measured by length and drainage area, the Colora-
do is the largest river wholly in Texas. (This comparison
excludes the Brazos, whose drainage basin extends into
New Mexico.) Rising in Dawson County, the Colorado
flows about 600 miles to Matagorda Bay on the Gulf. Its
drainage area is 39,900 square miles. Its runoff reaches a
volume of more than 2 million acre-feet near the Gulf. Its
name is a Spanish word meaning "reddish." There is
evidence that the name, Colorado, was given originally
by Spanish explorers to the muddy Brazos, and Spanish
mapmakers later transposed the two names. The river
flows through a rolling, usually prairie terrain to the vi-
cinity of San Saba County, where it enters the rugged
Hill Country and Burnet-Llano Basin. It passes through a
picturesque series of canyons until it issues from the Bal-
cones Escarpment at Austin and flows across the Coastal
Plain to the Gulf. In this area the most remarkable series
of reservoirs in Texas has been built. There are two
large reservoirs, Lake Buchanan in Burnet and Llano
counties and Lake Travis in Travis County. Between
these, in Burnet County, are three smaller reservoirs:
Inks, Johnson (formerly Granite Shoals) and Marble
Falls, built to aid power production from water running
over the Buchanan Lake spillway. Below Lake Travis is
the older Lake Austin, largely filled with silt, whose dam
maintains a head for production of power from waters
flowing down from the lakes above. Town Lake is in the
city of Austin. This area is known as the Highland Lakes
Country.
As early as the 1820s, Anglo-Americans settled on
the banks of the lower Colorado, and in 1839 the Capital
Commission of the Republic of Texas chose the pictur-
esque area where the river flows from the Balcones
Escarpment as the site of a new capital of the Republic
- now Austin, capital of the state. The early colonists en-
couraged navigation along the lower channel with some
success and boats occasionally ventured as far upstream
as Austin. However, a natural log "raft" in the channel
near the Gulf blocked river traffic. Conservation and uti-
lization of the waters of the Colorado are under juris-
diction of three agencies created by the state
Legislature, the Lower, Central and Upper Colorado Riv-
er Authorities.
The principal tributaries of the Colorado are the sev-
eral prongs of the Concho River on its upper course, the
Pecan Bayou (farthest west "bayou" in the United States)
and the Llano, San Saba and Pedernales rivers. All
except the Pecan Bayou flow into the Colorado from the
Edwards Plateau and are spring-fed, perennially flow-
ing. In the numerous mussels found along these streams
occasional pearls have been found. The Middle Concho
was designated on early Spanish maps as Rio de las Per-
las.
Brazos River
The Brazos is the largest river between the Rio
Grande and the Red River and is third in size of all riv-
ers in Texas. It rises in three upper forks, the Double
Mountain, Salt and Clear forks of the Brazos. The Brazos
River proper is considered as beginning where the Dou-
ble Mountain and Salt Forks flow together in Stonewall
County. The Clear Fork joins this main stream in Young
County, just above Lake Possum Kingdom. The Brazos
crosses most of the main physiographic regions of
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Kingston, Mike. Texas Almanac, 1992-1993, book, 1991; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth279642/m1/92/?rotate=270: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.