DALLAS City of Winners

We are often reminded that there is no really good geographical reason for Dallas to exist where it does. We have no harbor. No navigable river wends its way through our city. None of the Great Lakes provides an exciting backdrop lor our civic, commercial, cultural and recreational activities. There are no mountains looming majestically in the distance.



Since we lack such physical amenities, it seems at times that we as citizens more than offset their absence by hying a little harder in areas which in the long 11111 are even more important in determining the aura, atmosphere and ambiance of a great city. Subjective attitudes such as friendliness, hospitality, warmth, common courtesy, a positive state of mind, helpfulness – these are the things that visitors seem to notice most about Dallas and Dallasites.



Strangely enough, the one area of physical endowment most obvious to visitors by air, our extensive lake system, is not natural at all. All our lakes are artificial, all carefully planned, projected and created to provide for our water requirements well in advance of need. Like all good businesses, Dallas has shaped its own future in eater supply, looking ahead with vision well into the next century, impounding lakes in the following sequence:



Bachman Lake 1903

White Rock Lake 1910

Lake Texoma 1944

Grapevine Reservoir 1952

Lake Lavon 1953

Lake Lewisville 1954

Lake Tawakoni 1960

Cedar- Creek Lake 1967

Lake Ray Hubbard 1970

Ray Roberts Lake 1986

Lake Joe Pool 1988



In our painting, a red fox. furtively stalking the east shore of Lake Kay Hubbard. flattens himself against the snow to watch a flock of Canadian geese settling into the shallows after a day in the cornfields of Rockwall County. Those still airborne in the distance can see the office owers of Dallas twenty-five miles to the west.



Settings such as this within sight of downtown Dallas? That’s what’s known as having our water and drinking it too.