AUSTIN, Texas — Runaway floods are very much a part of Austin’s history, in battles against the often-wild Colorado River.
The first attempt at controlling the river came in 1893. Workers built a 60-foot-high, 1,200-foot-long granite dam just west of the city. The dam provided waterpower for electric generators, and with that, Austin became one of the first electrified cities in the U.S.
But the dam wouldn't prevail against a swollen Colorado. Seven years later, in 1900, a surge of water from heavy rains smashed the dam and flooded the city. It was rebuilt in 1912, only to crumble three years later, causing a flood that claimed 60 lives and destroyed a thousand buildings in Austin.
RELATED: Austin’s Lady Bird Lake is the result of flood control and the need for more electric power
Finally, in 1940, effective flood control for the city arrived for the construction of the Tom Miller Dam, one in a series of Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) dams that regulate the Colorado River as it flows through Austin.
A second dam east of downtown, the Longhorn Dam, was completed in 1960 and created what's now known as Lady Bird Lake.
Those early dams have connections to our boomtown lives today. That first dam from way back at 1893? It's one of the reasons that Austin is among the few cities in the U.S. that still operates its own power company – known, of course, as Austin Energy. Although, it no longer uses water to generate electricity.
And next time you drive down Redbud Trail by the Tom Miller Dam, you might take a quick look at all those granite stones in the water. Those stones are once part of that first dam that collapsed in 1900, the one that brought Austin into the age of electric power, leading to more businesses and more people moving to the city.