DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, the Brazos River — she has never been what you'd call polite. Flooding, destruction, the kind of damage that makes a region sit down and reckon with itself.
And that reckoning is exactly what gave rise to Morris Sheppard Dam and Possum Kingdom Lake, out here in Palo Pinto County. The flooding was disastrous — that's the marker's own word — and something had to be done. What got done was impressive.
This was an eight-and-a-half-million-dollar project, a three-year undertaking, and four and a half million of those dollars came from the U.S. Government through the Works Progress Administration — a Depression-era recovery agency. So while the nation was pulling itself up by its bootstraps, it was also, out here in West Texas, building something that would outlast the hard times by generations.
The dam was named for U.S. Senator Morris Sheppard, and it was completed in 1941. When you stand at it, the numbers start to sink in — two thousand seven hundred and forty feet long, one hundred and ninety feet high.
Nine spillway gates, built to let floodwaters and drift material pass through. And tucked inside all that concrete and engineering? Two power-generating units, each producing eleven thousand two hundred and fifty kilowatts, serving much of the surrounding area to this day.
But here's the part of the story that tends to give people pause. When the waters of the Brazos backed up behind that dam and became Possum Kingdom Lake, they didn't just fill a basin. They swallowed bridges.
They swallowed roads. They swallowed an entire town — gone, underwater, just like that. Recovery after that was slow at first.
Then World War II ended, and something shifted. Fishing lodges went up. Camping areas opened.
Recreational facilities of all kinds took root on those shores, and the area found its footing again. The marker calls all of that growth a tribute to the spirit of the surrounding communities — and it's hard to argue. They lost a town to this lake, and they came back to build a life around it.
That's not just water conservation and flood control. That's Texas.
What the marker says
Built in response to disastrous Brazos River flooding, Morris Sheppard Dam and Possum Kingdom Reservoir were early attempts at water conservation and flood control in Texas. The U.S. Government funded $4,500,000 of the three-year, $8,500,000 project through the Works Progress Administration, a Depression era recovery agency. Named for U.S. Senator Morris Sheppard and completed in 1941, the dam is 2,740 feet long and 190 feet high. Nine spillway gates allow for the passage of flood waters and drift material. Power generating facilities consist of two 11,250-killowatt units which serve much of the surrounding area. The creation of Possum Kingdom Lake from the impounded waters of Morris Sheppard Dam sent bridges, roads and an entire town underwater. Recovery was initially slow, but quickly picked up after World War II with the establishment of major fishing lodges, camping areas and other recreational facilities. The growth and success of the area is a tribute to the spirit of the surrounding communities which continue to benefit from the project's original purposes of water conservation and supply, and hydroelectric power generation. (1983)