Lake Lyndon B. Johnson

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, out here in Burnet County. Now, this lake didn't always go by that name.

It started out as Granite Shoals. Plain, honest, descriptive. But on April 22, 1965, the Board of Directors of the Lower Colorado River Authority, the LCRA, voted to rename it for the President of the United States.

And the reason they did it tells you something about how this place came to be what it is. Lyndon B. Johnson, as a U.S.

Congressman and then as a Senator, devoted what the marker calls much time and skill to the completion of LCRA programs. We're talking flood control, water conservation, and low cost electric power for the people of the Highland Lakes country. That's a lot of work, and the people who ran the LCRA wanted it on record that they were grateful for it.

So they put the man's name on the water. The body of water itself is held in place by the Alvin J. Wirtz Dam.

Construction on that dam began in 1949, and since its completion, the lake has primarily served as a source of hydroelectric energy, drawing overflow down from Lake Buchanan to the north. The numbers are worth sitting with for a moment. Six thousand two hundred surface acres.

A hundred and thirty-eight thousand acre-feet of water. And the lake runs about twenty miles long. Now that's a piece of Texas.

But this lake isn't out here alone. It's one of seven lakes in the LCRA system that stretch a hundred miles up the Colorado River from Austin, and together those seven lakes form the largest hydroelectric system in the entire state. Twenty miles of one lake, a hundred miles of seven.

This is big water doing big work. And in the middle of all that, there's a man who called this Hill Country home from boyhood. The marker tells us Johnson maintains a home right on the lake, uses it often for relaxation and for entertaining guests.

His ranch is nearby. His boyhood home is nearby. So when you're out on that water, boating or fishing on one of Texas' most outstanding areas for exactly that kind of thing, you're out on a lake that carries the name of a native son who helped make sure the water got there in the first place.

What the marker says

This lake, originally Granite Shoals, was renamed for the President of the United States on April 22, 1965, by the Board of Directors, Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA); in gratitude for his work as U. S. Congressman and Senator toward the development of the project. Mr. Johnson devoted much time and skill to the completion of LCRA programs creating flood control, water conservation and low cost electric power for the people of the Highland Lakes country. A native of this Hill Country, Mr. Johnson maintains a home on the lake and uses it often as a place for relaxation and the entertainment of guests. It is near his ranch and boyhood home. The body of water impounded by the Alvin J. Wirtz Dam has 6,200 surface acres and 138,000 acre-feet. Construction was begun on the dam in 1949 and since its completion the lake has primarily been a source of hydroelectric energy from the overflow of Lake Buchanan to the north. It is also one of Texas' most outstanding boating and fishing areas. This lake, some 20 miles long, is one of seven in the LCRA which extend 100 miles up the Colorado from Austin. Together they form the largest hydroelectric system in the state. (1967)