Dam and Well

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the dam and well outside Goldthwaite, Mills County, Texas. Pull up a chair and listen close, because this one starts with iron rails and ends with something as simple as a drink of water. In 1885, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad came rolling into this part of Texas.

Company officials platted the town of Goldthwaite right here, and right away they had a practical problem. Steam locomotives are thirsty machines. You feed them water or they don't move, and a railroad that doesn't move isn't much of a railroad.

So the company built a reservoir to keep those engines drinking. Near this very site, they threw up a twenty-five-foot-high dam, caught the water running out of several springs, and created a pond. Now, the railroad built that pond for locomotives, but the people of Goldthwaite had other ideas.

That pond became a favorite swimming spot. Can't say I blame them. You get a good pond in Texas, somebody's going in.

Years went by, the town grew, the trains kept coming, and the springs alone weren't keeping up. So in 1906, the railroad dug a well right here at this site, fifty feet deep, spring-fed, pulling up more water to meet the demand. That bought them some time.

But by 1915, even the dam and the well together weren't enough. The sources had become inadequate, and so the railroad made a decision. The dam was broken.

The reservoir was drained. Just like that, the pond was gone. The swimming hole, the stored-up water, all of it, gone.

But here's the thing about springs. You can drain the pond, you can break the dam, but the water keeps coming. Those same springs still flow today, forming a stream that runs right through Mills County Park.

And that fifty-foot well the railroad dug back in 1906? The city still uses it. The railroad is long gone from this story, but the water it chased?

Still here.

What the marker says

When the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad reached this area in 1885, company officials platted the town of Goldthwaite and built a reservoir to supply water for steam locomotives. A 25-foot-high dam near this site stored water from several springs, creating a pond that became a favorite swimming spot. The railroad dug a 50-foot-deep, spring-fed well at this site in 1906 to provide more water. In 1915, when these sources became inadequate, the dam was broken and reservoir drained. Today the springs form a stream which runs through Mills County Park, and the well is used by the city.