50 Reasons to Love (and Save) White Rock Lake

BEGINNINGS

1. The city began acquiring land for White Rock Lake in 1907, Originally the park spread over 2,500 acres; the water surface at the crest was 1,254.2 acres (today it is 1,119). The lake’s capacity was 5.7 billion gallons. The dam, which is 2,100 feet long and 211 feet across at the base, was completed in 1911.



WHITE ROCK TO THE RESCUE

2. Had it not been for the creation of White Rock Lake, some of us might not he here- When a three-year drought gripped our city in the first decade of this century, residents were kept alive by wagons delivering drinking water to fill zinc tubs placed beside the curb. Insurance companies threatened to withdraw fire insurance from the tinder-dry city until the White Rock Lake water supply became available.

3. Faced with another agonizing drought in the ’50s and impatient with rainmaker Irving P. Krick’s efforts to “fertilize thunderstorms” by seeding the clouds with silver iodine, the city again looked CO White Rock to supplement the supply of drinking water. Swimming in the lake was prohibited and the bathing beach closed, never to reopen.



LEGENDS

4. Generations have told and retold the story of the Lady of the Lake, the beautiful young woman who, grief-stricken after being jilted by her lover, drowned herself at White Rock. Dressed in a tattered white gown (probably from Neiman Marcus), the gorgeous apparition would wander the lake at night, sometimes on shore, sometimes walking on water. Hailing a passing motorist (people stopped for hitchhikers in those days), she’d ask to be taken to a certain house on Gaston Avenue. Then she would vanish, leaving only a damp spot on the hack seat. For decades the tale has sent shivers down the spines of teen-age smoochers parking on the shores of the lake.

5. A woman claiming to he the “real” Lady of the Lake surfaced briefly in a late 70s Dallas Morning News column by-John Anders. She wrote in to describe how, back in the ’30s, she and a beau were parked by the lake to watch a full moon. While they watched, the man’s car somehow rolled into the lake. Dripping wet, she hitched a ride to her parents’ house on Gaston. The legend started soon after that. The mystery woman cryptically signed her note “Jam Net Jaid,” taunting Anders to figure out her identity. So far, Jam Net Jaid hasn’t been identified. The question is, Do we really want to know, or is the legend lovely enough as it is?

6. The Lady’s not alone out there. For decades, the story has been told of a Woodrow Wilson High School couple who were, uh, getting to know each other in the back seat of a Studebaker parked near Winfrey Point. What they didn’t know, in those days before live minicam reports, was that a desperate, one-armed man stalked the lake in the wee hours of the morning. Suddenly, the girl saw a hook reaching for her through the open window! “Eeeeeeeaaaaayyyy!” she shrieked. Her sweetheart quickly rolled up the window, leaped into the driver’s seat and took off. Home safe, they laughed it off as a hallucination-only to find a hook dangling from the rear door handle!

7. H. L. Hunt, legendary Dallas oilman and famous eccentric, built his dream house, a replica of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, on the west bank of White Rock Lake.



FLOATING DREAMS

8. The city’s only marine disaster took place on White Rock Lake in 1937, when the S.S. Joe Lawther, a dredging rig named for a former Dallas mayor, sank after less than two weeks of operation. The poorly designed rig was purchased by the city, for the grand sum of $31,973, to combat the invasion of silt that had caused the loss of the northern reaches of the lake, which once lapped at the foot of Flagpole Hill. (The more things change…) Raised and re-started, the rig sank again.

9. In 1945, a one-legged Garland man named John Williams built a party and dance boat from two World War II surplus platoon boats fastened side by side and powered by a Chrysler Sea Mule Engine. Williams had wanted to name his new vessel The White Rocker, but Eldon Miller had appropriated that name for his newspaper. So he named it the Bonny Barge, after his wife. A smashing success, the double-decker barge would comfortably accommodate 150 people, though an SMU fraternity once squeezed 250 people on board for a party. It was hard for Williams to please everybody, however. Catholics wanted liquor served aboard, while Baptists wanted the juke box covered when they were on the water. Billy Graham once rented the barge (presumably with juke box covered) fora party after a revival at Fair Park. In 1956, the Dallas City Council-pressured by overcrowding on the lake and a feud between sailboaters and power boaters-passed an ordinance that prohibited any boat with a motor larger than 10 horsepower on the lake. Williams sold the barge for junk.

10. A grandiose plan for White Rock Lake-including a floating stage, a promenade with colored lights, and a moat-surrounded nature park-was unveiled in the summer of 1959 by park planners from Texas Tech College. The multimillion-dollar plan sank under the weight of the cost of acquiring the additional real estate.

IN SERVICE TO THE NATION

11. 1935, FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps established a camp at Winfrey Point. The CCC spent the next seven years building culverts, piers, retaining walls, picnic shelters, and bridges.

12. During World War II, White Rock Lake was used as a training base and processing center for American Gls, and later as a camp for German prisoners of war captured from General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Corps. Some of the prisoners worked at a United States military shop at Fair Park repairing army equipment and sewing GI uniforms. Anxious neighbors frequently reported suspicious men they feared were prisoners making a getaway, but apparently there was never an escape attempt.



WILD ONES

13. A February 1967 brawl between hot-rodders and other lake-goers brought out police to quell potential rough Stuff. “Hey, Dad, you’d better cool it,” one motorcyclist warned a hot-rodder. Faced with the show of strength from the police department, the rowdies “cooled” it. “The result: “Heavy traffic but no rumbles,” reported the Dallas Times Herald.

14. In 1972, a mysterious group called the Alocsander [sic] Revolutionary Band created a mild panic by posting handwritten signs that proclaimed, “The Lake is Mined.” Scuba divers and bomb disposal squads searched the take, but no bombs were found.



THE SPORTING LIFE

15. In 1971, the first White Rock Marathon attracted 82 runners-including one woman-for a 26.2-mile run around the lake. Since then, “The Rock” has grown in prestige and participation. In 1994, the December race attracted 3,985 runners from all over the world and was won by Mexican runner Juan Carlos Chavez in 2:19:41. Roxi Erickson of Omaha, Nebraska, won the women’s race in 2:42.28

16. Two annual fishing events are sponsored jointly by the Dallas Park and Recreation Department and Texas Black Bass Unlimited. In June, the “Get Hooked on Fishing (Not Drugs)” program offers youth from age 4 to 18 the opportunity to fish at the lake: Kids get a rod and reel, caps, T-shirts, lunch, and a chance to meet professional anglers. The program is free. In August, the two groups sponsor the Conservation Fish Fest, a fishing tournament that allows amateur fishermen to bid for the chance to partner with one of 10 professional anglers for a day-long tournament. Call 670-8281 for more information about either program.

17. The Corinthian Sailing Club (est. 1928) holds several events each year, including the Flying Scot Open House Regatta in mid-October, which draws sailors from several states; and the Open Class Regatta (for any type of sailboat) on July 4, followed by a dockside dinner and a look at the fireworks from the Cotton Bowl. Both events are open to the public.



FLORA AND FAUNA

18. The lakeside Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden is a thing of beauty. A highlight each spring is Dallas Blooms, a show-stopping frenzy of blossoms that brings out Dallasites and their cameras like no other event in the city. Last year, the spring festival attracted 120,000 visitors, an all-time high. The most popular single day at the Arboretum is the annual Easter Egg Hunt, when children in their Sunday best seek 20,000 colored eggs hidden in the grass and foliage

19. The Arbore-tum also has the largest public collection of azaleas in the United States, with more than 2,000 varieties. One of the oldest trees in Dallas, a pecan estimated to be more than 200 years old, towers over the historic DeGolyer Gardens.

20. In the 1940s, while fishing with a “bright-eyed trolling lure” on a bamboo casting rod, E. M. White landed a 4-foot alligator after a two-hour battle on the west side of White Rock

21. Tom Norwood, owner of the Wild Bird Center in Casa Linda Plaza, has seen 155 species of birds at the lake, including sharp-shinned hawks, ospreys, and great blue herons. White pelicans winter at White Rock, and a wide variety of ducks visit the lake during their migrations. This year, on January 7 and 8, alert birders spotted a bald eagle. Gulls and snowy and great egrets can sometimes be seen feeding at the spillway, and there have been sightings of the bard owl, the great honied owl, and the Eastern screech owl. Ruby-throated hummingbirds will begin to appear April 1 and can be seen through the end of October. Norwood conducts free wild bird walks every Saturday morning. The group leaves from the Wild Bird Center at 8 a.m., and the walk lasts about two hours. Call 319-2473 for more informatio

22. Mammals spotted at White Rock Lake include squirrels,raccoons, and possums, but more unusual animals such as nutrias, beavers, and minks have also been seen. This winter, photographer and nature lover George Boyd got a rare glimpse of a red fox; last year, hespot-ted two gray foxes.

FISH STORIES

23. In June 1946, on his way home from work, H. E. Carrigan stopped CO check his trotline at White Rock Lake and found a 40-pound Opelousas catfish waiting to be dinner. His feat was topped by Charles Radle, who caught a 54-pound catfish in February 1954 using perch for hait. But the grand-daddy of them all was caught hack in 1947, when Sidney Young, a caretaker at the Dallas Sailing Club, surprised a 65-pound yellow catfish resting beneath a rowboat being hoisted out of the water, Young threw a half-nelson on the behemoth and wrestled him out onto the sand. In the process, the catfish stabbed Young in the backside with his fins. Young gave the fish to the city aquarium

24. After heavy April rains ended the long drought in 1957, fish began spilling over the spillway for the first time in years. Fishermen waded into the shallow water to catch them by hand, a practice called “noodling.

25. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife annual survey, which measures pounds of game fish per acre of lake, White Rock Lake has been a great place for fishing over the last several years. Anglers can catch large-mouth bass, crappie, and channel catfish. “Its an excellent fishery,” says Charles Baseman, operations supervisor for the White Rock Lake Park. “As an inner-city lake, it gets very little pressure from fishing.” That means more-and bigger-fish than you’ll find in some of North Texas’ more popular lakes. And the lake’s fish are safe to eat. Recent water quality studies have shown no pollution in White Rock Lake.



GREAT VIEWS

26. East Lawther Drive at Garland Road, looking west at sunset: On the right evening, you’ll see the pump station and the skyline of downtown Dallas, backlit by beautiful oranges, purples, and reds reflected in the lake’s glassy surface

27. Mockingbird Lane at Buckner Boulevard: The highest location near the lake, this is a great spot to spread out a blanket or sit at picnic tables beneath a shelter and watch the lake as the sun goes down on a summer day. From this vantage point, you can see the entire north end of the lake, with the downtown skyline, looking for all the world like the Emerald City, rising in the distance

28. The lawn at the Camp House inside the Dallas Arboretum: Looking across the lake, often dotted with sailboats on weekends, you can see H.L. Hunt’s Mount Vernon replica with its tall, white columns and expansive lawn

29. West Lawther Drive where it passes the old pump station: You can see the old boathouse, long unused, and ducks cruising in the marsh beneath a small bridge.

30. For those seeking glimpses of short-shorts and halter tops: Look just about anywhere on the lake’s shores during the first 80-degree day in the springtime.

31. Sunset Bay: Enter the park on the east side of the lake, off Buckner Boulevard at Tiffany Way. Take the road left toward the park office. Near the fishing pier you’ll find a good place to feed the many ducks and geese that like the small bay’s protection.

32. The lawn at Winfrey Point: This is a great place to watch the sun set over the lake, the old pump station, and the downtown skyline.

33. The parking lot at the intersec-tion of Garland Road and San Rafael: Watch the waters pounding over the spillway after a big rain. At certain times of the year, you can see elegant egrets perched in the trees, looking like long-necked great aunts waiting for tea.



THE LAKE AND ITS PEOPLE

34. After the development of Lake Dallas gave us another main source of water, White Rock became the recreational center of Dallas. When the bathhouse and beach opened in 1930, the lake was still out in the country, so color’ ful mayor Waddy Tate, a major lake-ophile (see #50) arranged to have the nearest streetcar line extended eight blocks. Bathing enthusiasts could ride to the spillway area and take small ferry boats across the lake to the swimming beach.

35. In the long, hot summers before air conditioning, tens of thousands thronged to the shelter of the pecans and elms around the lake to gasp at summer breezes. Described in the WPA Dallas Guide and History as a “man-made inland resort for fishing and aquatic sports,” White Rock Lake Park was the most visited municipal park in the United States in the ’30s.

36. During the 70s and ’30s, on Fourth of July holidays, families would set up army cots under the trees and sleep outside, getting up early for a day of fishing and picnicking.

37. Parkgoers got an unexpected musical treat one February day in 1972 when songwriter and native Dallasite Michael Martin Murphey (of “Wildfire” fame) and guitarists Russ Holliday and Paul Taylor sat on the hanks of White Rock and serenaded the ducks.

38. For years, dazzling Dallas women competed in the White Rock Beauty Pageant. Miss White Rock would receive a large trophy and the honor of representing Dallas County in the Texas Beauty Pageant.

39. The Annual March of Dimes WalkAmerica walkathon will he held at White Rock on April 29 this year. Volunteers raise money for research aimed at the prevention of birth defects by getting prepaid donations for the number of miles they’ll walk. The maximum mileage: 10 miles, or once around the lak

40. The annual Trash Bash to clean up the lake draws around 1,000 volunteers each Septembe

41. White Rock Lake Park has: 205 picnic tables, 1 lighted tennis court, 2 lighted softball fields, 1 football field, 7 fishing piers, 6 playgrounds, and 3 buildings that can be reserved fur group outings

42. Each summer for the past seven years, some 200 Camp Fire Boys and Girls of Dallas have enjoyed the lake during White Rock Adventure Camp, a nine-week camp for hiking, archery, canoeing, nature study, and arts and crafts.



MEMORIES

43. “White Rock Lake had been completed about the same time I was born, and it was always a center of interest to me in my younger years, It was convenient enough so that on a Saturday I could ride out on my bicycle and take a picnic lunch with me. It was a nice Sunday afternoon carriage ride. In fact, carriages, at that time, went across the dam and were encouraged to do so in order to pack down the dam and settle it good.”-LaRGENT PARKS, Reminiscences: An Oral History of East Dallas.

44. “My parents would go riding out around the lake in their Model T. There would be so many people out doing the same thing that all you could see was a cloud of dust from all the caliche that was stirred up. They used to say if you could go up Flag Pole Hill in high gear in a Model T, then you had a real good T.” -GEORGE KLEIN

45. “In 1928-I think that was the year-White Rock Lake froze over halfway down to the spillway. The ice was thick enough to support Model-T cars that I saw driven over it. Three days later 1 went out on the ice and measured the thickness in some of the creeks. It was 5 inches thick.”-H. FRANK TOWNSEND

46. “My father had a sailboat at the lake. I learned to sail there. 1 had lots of dates sailing at the lake. In the sum* mer, our church youth group would have meetings at the building on Winfrey Point. I remember sailing on the lake one Fourth of July, watching the fireworks from the Cotton Bowl and the Lakewood Country Club. Later, as a college student, I worked on a city survey crew. We’d head to the lake to eat our lunches and play cards, which we weren’t supposed to do. I’ve introduced my son to the lake. He loves to go down there and fish. He hasn’t caught anything yet, but that hasn’t discouraged him.” -LEE SIMPSON, former Dallas city councilman, ’80-83, and president of the White Rock Neighborhood Association.

47. “I graduated Woodrow Wilson High School in 1969 and all my senior year was full of reports of submarine races and the Lady of the Lake sightings at White Rock Lake. As I began dating, the dates would usually end up at Make Out Hill at White Rock. That was located by the water treatment plant just across the creek from the boat-houses. It was a popular place. In those days, the police would patrol the park and shine their flashlights into the car, but as long as they could see both your heads they would keep on cruising.” -KATHY ANDERSON*

48. “A whole bunch of my pals and I used to swim in the nude right near White Rock Lake in our own special swimming hole… And we would dive off this high embankment into the hole, and if you didn’t hit just into the tight spot, you would hit that rock that jutted out underwater. Of course, if you hit that rock, you were dead, and thus the name, ’Dead Man’s Hole.’ Although I never heard of anyone actually hitting that rock.”

-JAMES F. CAMERON*

49. “We took our grandkids to the lake in 1947, around Christmas time, so they could feed the ducks. Someone had chopped a hole in the ice for them. About dusk, the hole froze over and the ducks strung out in a line and walked across the lake.”-JOHN AHNERT



POETRY

50. A poetic tribute to former Dallas mayor J. Waddy Tate, a great lover of the lake, was written by his widow Blanche in 1951. It began this way…

All you bathers on the beach at

White Rock

Should bow your heads in honor

of the man

Who made it possible for you

to frolic

In that pure water on the clean

white sand.



and concluded with this stanza….



So now he’s gone, but will never be

forgotten –

As long asWhite Rock ripples that

clean shore,

Where thousands bathe, and spend a

pleasant evening,

Their thoughts are with him now, as

days of yore.



Amen.