Lake Lyndon B. Johnson

Lake Lyndon B. Johnson
Lake Lyndon B. Johnson
	Lake LBJ at the intersection of Llano and Burnet counties in the Texas Hill Country.
	Lake Lyndon B. Johnson Lake Lyndon B. Johnson
Location	Texas Hill Country ; Burnet County ; Llano County
Coordinates	30°33′20″N98°20′16″W / 30.55556°N 98.33778°W
Lake type	Hydroelectric reservoir
Primary inflows	Colorado River ; Llano River
Primary outflows	Colorado River
Basin countries	United States
Surface area	6,534 acres (2,644 ha)
Max. depth	90 ft (27 m)
Surface elevation	825 ft (251 m)

Last updated July 18, 2024

Lake Lyndon B. Johnson (more commonly referred to as Lake LBJ and originally named Lake Granite Shoals) 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.

Location and history

The towns of Granite Shoals, Kingsland, Horseshoe Bay, Highland Haven, and Sunrise Beach are located on the lake. The boundary line separating Burnet County and Llano County runs down the center of the lake.

The lake was originally called Lake Granite Shoals. The dam would be renamed Wirtz Dam in 1952 for Alvin J. Wirtz, the first general counsel of the LCRA, and the lake was renamed to Lake Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 in honor of US President Lyndon Baines Johnson.^[1] In addition to his work to enact the Rural Electrification Act that formed the basis for building the Texas Highland Lakes, President Johnson owned a ranch on the lake (which was separate and apart from the LBJ Ranch in Stonewall, Texas). He and Mrs. Johnson entertained national and foreign dignitaries on the lake during his vice presidency and presidency.

The other reservoirs on the Colorado River are Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake Marble Falls, Lake Travis, Lake Austin, and Lady Bird Lake. Lake LBJ along with Inks Lake and Lake Marble Falls are pass-through lakes for Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis. There is no room in Lake LBJ for additional water storage, and water that comes in must go out. Therefore, Lake LBJ is at a near constant level, but the level can fluctuate, especially during a flood. The LCRA lowers the lake periodically for maintenance on Wirtz Dam and to allow landowners to remove sediment around their docks.

Fish and wildlife populations

Lake LBJ has been stocked with several species of fish intended to improve the utility of the reservoir for recreational fishing. Fish present in Lake LBJ include largemouth bass, white bass, catfish, and crappie. Lake LBJ is one of the Highland Lakes infested with hydrilla, a non-native aquatic plant species, and the LCRA is undergoing treatment to eradicate the hydrilla.

Recreational uses

Most of the property bordering Lake LBJ is privately owned. The Nightengale Archaeological Center at Kingsland is a unique educational park operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority that is adjacent to Lake LBJ. The lake is also home to Camp Champions, the only summer camp with property on the lake^{[ citation needed ]}. The popularity of Lake LBJ is largely due to its normally constant level water which provides ideal conditions for boating, water skiing, riding personal water craft and other water sports. Swimming in summer months is inadvisable due to the presence of the rare but deadly Naegleria fowleri.^[2]

Cooling water

The lake provides cooling water for the Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant that is located on its shores.

Related Research Articles

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.

Granite Shoals is a city in Burnet County, Texas, United States with a 2020 census population of 5,129.

Kingsland is a census-designated place (CDP) in Llano County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,030 at the 2010 census, up from 4,584 at the 2000 census. Texas Ranch to Market Road 1431 runs through the community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Bird Lake</span> Reservoir in Austin, Texas, US

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. It is named in honor of William B. Travis.

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.

The Colorado River is an approximately 862-mile-long (1,387 km) river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the 11th longest river in the United States and the longest river with both its source and its mouth within Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mansfield Dam</span> Dam on the Colorado River near Austin, Texas, United States

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 are a chain of fresh water reservoirs in Central Texas formed by 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 city 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 Horseshoe Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inks Lake</span> Hydroelectric reservoir in Texas, United States

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 Llano River is a tributary of the Colorado River, about 105 miles (169 km) long, in Texas in the United States. It drains part of the Edwards Plateau in Texas Hill Country northwest of Austin.

The Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant consists of dual natural gas fired turbines and a single steam turbine run by exhaust heat from the gas turbines in a combined cycle configuration that generates 540 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The facility is located near Horseshoe Bay in Llano County, Texas, United States. It is owned and operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and was named for Thomas C. Ferguson, a member of LCRA's first Board of Directors. Cooling water is provided by Lake LBJ, a freshwater reservoir created by Wirtz Dam.

Marble Falls is a city in Burnet County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city population was 7,037. Lake Marble Falls is part of the Highland Lakes on the Colorado River, the largest chain of lakes in Texas. Marble Falls was founded by Adam Rankin Johnson in 1887, a former Indian fighter and Confederate general.

The Antlers Hotel is a hotel and resort built in 1901 by the Austin and Northwestern Railroad on the Colorado River in Kingsland in Llano County in Central Texas. After a brief heyday, The Antlers closed in 1923 and fell into disrepair. It was eventually resurrected by a couple from Austin and reopened in 1996. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 as part of the Austin and Northwestern Railroad Historic District-Fairland to Llano historic district.

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.

Alvin Jacob Wirtz was a lawyer, politician, and undersecretary to the Department of the Interior, and was born in Columbus, Texas to Lewis Milton and Dora (Dent) Wirtz. He attended Columbus, Texas, public schools and graduated from the University of Texas in 1910 with an LL.B. He married Kitty Mae Stamps of Seguin in 1913.

References

↑ Breeding, Seth D (November 19, 2019). "Lake Lyndon B. Johnson". Texas State Historical Association . Retrieved April 24, 2020.
↑ Jones, Abigail; Hernandez, Mercedez (2023-08-30). "Person gets sick, dies from amebic infection after swimming in Lake Lyndon B. Johnson". Austin, TX: KXAN TV news. Retrieved 2023-08-31.

External links

Official LCRA Wirtz Dam and Lake LBJ website Archived 2017-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
Lake LBJ Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine
Lake LBJ - Texas Parks & Wildlife
Nightengale Archaeological Center
Lake Lyndon B. Johnson from the Handbook of Texas Online
City of Granite Shoals web site
Camp Champions

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Breeding, Seth D (November 19, 2019). "Lake Lyndon B. Johnson". Texas State Historical Association . Retrieved April 24, 2020.

[2] Jones, Abigail; Hernandez, Mercedez (2023-08-30). "Person gets sick, dies from amebic infection after swimming in Lake Lyndon B. Johnson". Austin, TX: KXAN TV news. Retrieved 2023-08-31.

[1]

[2]