The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) is a nonprofit public utility created in November 1934 by the Texas Legislature. LCRA's mission is to enhance the lives of the Texans it serves through water stewardship, energy and community service. LCRA provides public power, manages the lower Colorado River, builds and operates transmission lines, owns public parks, and offers community services.
Lady Bird Lake is a river-like reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas, United States. The City of Austin created the reservoir in 1960 as a cooling pond for a new city power plant. The lake, which has a surface area of 416 acres (168 ha), is now used primarily for recreation and flood control. The reservoir is named in honor of former First Lady of the United States Lady Bird Johnson.
Lake Travis is a reservoir on the Colorado River in central Texas in the United States.
Lake Austin, formerly Lake McDonald, is a water reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1939 by the construction of Tom Miller Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Lake Austin is one of the seven Highland Lakes created by the LCRA, and is used for flood control, electrical power generation, and recreation.
Mansfield Dam is a dam located across a canyon at Marshall Ford on the Colorado River, 13 miles (21 km) northwest of Austin, Texas. The groundbreaking ceremony occurred on February 19, 1937, with United States Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes attending. The dam was a joint project by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and the United States Bureau of Reclamation, with partial funding provided by the Public Works Administration. Brown and Root, headed by James E. Walters, Sr., was the prime contractor. The dam was completed in 1941. Originally called Marshall Ford Dam, the name was changed in 1941 in honor of United States Representative J.J. Mansfield. The reservoir behind Mansfield Dam is named Lake Travis. The dam is owned and operated by the LCRA.
The Texas Highland Lakes is a chain of six fresh water reservoirs in Central Texas formed by six dams on the lower Colorado River. The Texas Colorado River winds southeast from West Texas to Matagorda Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
Lake Marble Falls is a reservoir on the Colorado River in the Texas Hill Country in the United States. The reservoir was formed in 1951 by the construction of Max Starcke Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Originally named Marble Falls Dam, the dam was renamed in 1962 for Max Starcke, the second general director of the LCRA. Located near the town of Marble Falls, the lake is used as a venue for aquatic recreation and for the purpose of generating hydroelectric power. It is the newest and smallest of the Texas Highland Lakes.
Wirtz Dam was constructed from 1949 to 1951 to provide hydroelectric power and to form Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, one of the Texas Highland Lakes. Lake LBJ ‒ as it is more commonly referred to ‒ provides cooling water for the Lower Colorado River Authority's Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant along Horsehoe Bay.
Lake Lyndon B. Johnson is a reservoir on the Colorado River in the Texas Hill Country about 45 miles northwest of Austin. The reservoir was formed in 1950 by the construction of Granite Shoals Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA). The Colorado River and the Llano River meet in the northern portion of the lake at Kingsland.
Inks Lake is a reservoir on the Colorado River in the Texas Hill Country in the United States. The reservoir was formed in 1938 by the construction of Inks Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Located near Burnet, Texas, the lake serves to provide flood control in tandem with Lake Buchanan and features the smallest hydroelectric power plant on the Highland Lakes chain. Inks Lake was named for Roy B. Inks, one of the original board members of the Lower Colorado River Authority, and serves as a venue for outdoor recreation, including fishing, boating, swimming, camping, and picnicking.
Lake Buchanan was formed by the construction of Buchanan Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority to provide a water supply for the region and to provide hydroelectric power. Buchanan Dam, a structure over 2 mi (3.2 km) in length, was completed in 1939. Lake Buchanan was the first of the Texas Highland Lakes to be formed, and with 22,333 acres of surface water, it is also the largest. The surface of the lake includes area in both Burnet and Llano Counties. The lake is west of the city of Burnet, Texas.
The Connecticut Lakes are a group of lakes in Coos County, northern New Hampshire, United States, situated along the headwaters of the Connecticut River. They are accessed via the northernmost segment of U.S. Route 3, between the village of Pittsburg and the Canada port of entry south of Chartierville, Quebec. The lakes are located within the boundaries of Pittsburg, but are far from the town center. Connecticut Lakes State Forest adjoins them.
Lake Texoma is one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, the 12th largest US Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) lake, and the largest in USACE Tulsa District. Lake Texoma is formed by Denison Dam on the Red River in Bryan County, Oklahoma, and Grayson County, Texas, about 726 miles (1,168 km) upstream from the mouth of the river. It is located at the confluence of the Red and Washita Rivers. The project was completed in 1944. The damsite is about 5 miles (8.0 km) northwest of Denison, Texas, and 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Durant, Oklahoma. Lake Texoma is the most developed and most popular lake within the USACE Tulsa District, attracting around 6 million visitors a year. Oklahoma has more of the lake within its boundaries than Texas.
Lake Monomonac is an artificial lake that straddles the border between Rindge, New Hampshire, and Winchendon, Massachusetts, in the United States. It was created from a small pond in New Hampshire by the construction of dams on the North Branch of the Millers River, a part of the Connecticut River watershed.
Inks Lake State Park is a state park located in Burnet County, Texas, United States, next to Inks Lake on the Colorado River. The landscape of the park is hilly, with many cedar, live oak, prickly pear cacti, and yuccas. The ground is rocky, mainly consisting of gneiss rock.
Millwood Lake is a reservoir in southwestern Arkansas, United States. It is located 9 miles (14 km) from Ashdown. The lake is formed from the damming of the point where the Little River and the Saline River meet.
Lake Bastrop is a reservoir on Spicer Creek in the Colorado River basin 3 miles (5 km) northeast of the town of Bastrop in central Bastrop County, Texas, United States. The reservoir was formed in 1964 by the construction of a dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. The lake serves primarily as a power plant cooling pond for the Sim Gideon Power Plant operated by the LCRA and the Lost Pines Power Project 1, owned by GenTex Power Corporation, a wholly owned affiliate of the LCRA. Lake Bastrop also serves as a venue for outdoor recreation, including fishing, boating, swimming, camping and picnicking, and is maintained at a constant level year round.
Optima Lake was built to be a reservoir in Texas County, Oklahoma. The site is just north of Hardesty and east of Guymon in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Bastrop State Park is a state park in Bastrop County in Central Texas. The park was established in 1938 and consists of stands of loblolly pines mixed with post oak and junipers.
Maximillian Hugo "Max" Starcke was a businessman and then a government official in Texas for 37 years, first as Mayor of Seguin, Texas, from 1928 to 1938 and then as Managing Director of the Lower Colorado River Authority from 1940 to 1955.
