Hurricanes that hit Texas
Floods of the Brazos River in Texas

Historic Crests for Rosharon, Texas of the Brazos River.  
Flood Stage: 43.0 ft

Historical Crests
(1) 56.40 ft on 12/11/1913
(2) 53.40 ft on 05/07/1957
(3) 52.00 ft on 05/01/1965
(4) 51.89 ft on 01/03/1992
(5) 51.82 ft on 10/22/1994
(6) 50.74 ft on 05/14/1968
(7) 50.67 ft on 02/10/1992
(8) 49.22 ft on 11/17/1998
(9) 48.83 ft on 10/24/1998
(10) 48.80 ft on 11/29/2004

Impacts

50.8

At levels above 50.8 feet water begins flowing across the flood plain into Oyster Creek.

50.7

At levels above 50.7 feet minor flow passes through the culvert near the Ramsey Unit Prison Farm into Oyster Creek as water is on the verge of passing over flood plain.

42.0

At levels above 42 feet flooding begins in vicinity of gage as flow escapes the main channel.

See photos of the Brazos River in minor flood stage.

1899 - 1 AM June 27 to 1 AM July 1, 1899 - Widespread heavy rain with 34-in. center in Hearne, 24-in. center in Turnersville, just north of Gatesville.

Probably stalled long wave over west Texas and/or New Mexico for period - Mid- and upper-level water vapor from eastern Pacific - Low-level moisture from jet off Gulf into Texas - and a series of short waves around the southern periphery of the long wave

1899 Tropical Storm Number One

The flood of 1899 was bad, but apparently the flood of 1913 was worse.

1913 - 7 AM Dec 1 to 7 AM Dec 5, 1913 - Widespread heavy rain with 15.50 in. center at San Marcos, 13.80 in. at Bertram, 13.60 in. at Somerville, 11.80 in. at Waco, 11.70 in. at Kaufman - Obviously a classic El Nino year - rainfall totals 20 to 25 in. had fallen in the previous 3 months in the area, and water stood in the fields between storms.

Very likely a long wave stalled over west Texas or New Mexico Dec 1-5 and sent a series of storms around its southern periphery.

The Colorado and Brazos Rivers merged below IH-10 to the Gulf because of the very widespread heavy rain, no flood-control reservoirs on the Colorado or Brazos River, and debris dams on the Colorado and Brazos Rivers.

The Colorado River dam was from river mile 28 above Bay City to river mile 52 just below Wharton - The dam wasn't successfully blasted out by the Corps of Engineers until between 1925 and 1929.

There were 180 drownings - Water was waist deep in downtown Bay City - The Colorado River went over the right bank above Columbus and made an island of the town.

The flood of 1913 was the worst because this area received a lot of rainfall at a time when the Brazos was in flood The level of the Brazos was 56.4ft in 1913 with water covering everything. The Brazos and Colorado joined. The water level was 56.3ft in 1992 but the flooding was only near the Brazos.

Then the hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900

Floods in 1902, 1908

Then the hurricane of 1915

1921 - Thrall Flood - A tropical storm formed in the Bay of Campeche the morning of Sept 6, 1921 - made hurricane intensity that afternoon - made landfall near Vera Cruz the early morning of Sept 7 - veered right and fell below depression intensity just as it crossed the Rio Grande at Rio Grande City the night of the 7th - Light rain began falling in San Antonio the 8th, which became a deluge the evening of the 9th, with totals to 18 in. in the northern part of San Antonio.

The 18 in. in northern Bexar County the evening of Sept 9, 1921, created a flood wave through downtown San Antonio 12 ft deep - The flow passed down Olmos and Apache Creeks into the San Antonio River - People caught downtown tried to evacuate vertically to upper floors - 51 didn't make it and drowned as the flood wave peaked near 1:30 AM -

Water was 4 to 5 ft deep in the current St. Marys Church and the Gunter Hotel. Olmos Dam was completed in 1928 as a flood-retention dam to protect downtown San Antonio as a direct result.

Thrall rainfall - 23.4 in. during 6 hrs/31.8 in. during 12 hrs/36.4 in. during 18 hrs/38.2 in. during 24 hrs at a U.S. Weather Bureau station at Thrall is still the national official 24-hr rainfall record ending at 7 AM Sept 10, 1921 - The storm total was 39.7 in. during 36 hrs - With 215 drownings statewide, this was the deadliest flood in Texas history.

Eighty-seven people drowned in and near Taylor and 93 in Williamson County. The confluence of the San Gabriel River and Brushy Creek was 10 mi wide. Not an El Nino or a La Nina year.

The Arcola area local flood of 1925

Several wooden houses were floated off of their blocks. Some drifted for several blocks.

 

1936 - A hurricane had made landfall between Corpus Christi and Victoria June 27 and fell below depression intensity that night as it moved into the Frio River drainage near Leakey - A second tropical storm formed in the Bay of Campeche Sept 10, made landfall at Brownsville the morning of Sept 13, moved across deep south Texas before falling below depression intensity near Del Rio the afternoon of the 14th - This flooding rainfall was widespread over central Texas around the right side of the circulation. Not El Nino or La Nina year.

Worst hit was the city of San Angelo - From USGS Water-Supply Paper 816, published in 1937 - Tate Dalrymple and others -

"Rains exceeding 30 in. in some places fell during September over a large part of the Concho River drainage basin. Three separate flood peaks occurred on the main Concho River - Sept 15, 17, and 26, the flood of the 17th being the highest.

The city of San Angelo suffered greater damage than any other place in the State. On Sept 17, the discharge of the South Concho River reached a maximum of 111,000 cfs and caused stages which backed water up the North Concho River to the center of the city. Just as this water began to recede, the flood from the North Concho River with a peak discharge of 184,000 cfs reached the city. The river channel was inadequate for this enormous quantity of water and the river broke over its banks, flooding large areas of the residential and business sections of the city.

Below the mouth of the Llano River, the stages on the Colorado River during the floods of 1936 were much lower than the stages in the notable floods of 1935."

SAN ANGELO MORNING TIMES - SEPTEMBER 18 - "An insane burst of brown waters wrapped round the dust of a prolonged drought leaped the channels of the Concho Rivers here yesterday, hurled to destruction an approximate of 300 houses in all parts of town and left an uninsured flood damage of abut $1,500,000, the worst water damage in the history of this 68-year-old city. It is the major catastrophe of all time for San Angelo.

More than 100 persons were rescued from drowning on the streets or from flooded houses, while many hundreds more were removed under conditions less dangerous. There was an estimated 300 homeless families last night, who were sleeping in the schoolhouses and in other public buildings, in stores, while hotels were filled. Numerous buildings not destroyed were flooded and filled with silt.

The North Concho River, chief troublemaker of the day, charged drunkenly into the Negro and Mexican section, threw houses and shacks against the Sixth Street Bridge now under construction spread wanton piles of other wrecked houses here and there. Then it moved into the elite residential district, climbed a 40 ft cliff to run a stream knee deep in the home of Preston Rothrup. It tore the C.R. Hallmark home from its foundations, raced it over the Santa Fe Golf Course, and cracked it into matchwood at the submerged Millspaugh Bridge."

SAN ANGELO EVENING STANDARD - SEPTEMBER 18: "Perhaps the most dramatic episode of the flood in downtown San Angelo was the evacuation of approximately 75 persons from the Naylor Hotel, at Chadbourne and Concho, at mid-afternoon. A crowd of at least 1,000 persons witnessed the rescues. The water flowed 6 ft deep through the lobby of the hotel, which stands on the site of the old Landon Hotel, destroyed by fire. The 1906 flood had brought the water up to within 2 ft of the old Landon."

SAN ANGELO MORNING TIMES - SEPTEMBER 19 - "Rockwood, Coleman County,—Hundreds of farmers and their families were fleeing from the Colorado River bottoms near here tonight as the river reached a flood stage of 70 ft, 17 ft higher than ever known. The steel highway bridge at Stacy and the one here went out this afternoon under the hammering of heavy debris pounded against them by the turbulent flood.

Flood stage here is 35 ft. The previous high-water mark here was set in 1906, when the river reached 55.5 ft long time residents said."

SAN ANGELO STANDARD TIMES - SEPTEMBER 20: Brownwood, Sept 19—"The treacherous floodwaters of the Colorado River late today claimed their second victim when a farmer was drowned while attempting to save his livestock. The angry river was 2 mi wide at Indian Creek community, in Brown County, washing away a number of homes and barns. The flood stage climbed to 72 ft where the Brownwood-Brady Hwy bridge crosses the Colorado. This mark is 14 ft higher than any ever recorded before."

1957 - April-May-June - That spring Texas was caught between an abnormally strong Bermuda high which extended into the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and a persistent long wave trough over the western U.S. - Maritime cool fronts periodically pushed across the Central Plains but didn't move into central Texas shutting off the Gulf and eastern Pacific moisture - Upper lows persistently moved around the south periphery of the long
wave into Texas, bringing eastern Pacific moisture with them into the low-level jet off the Gulf flowing into central Texas.

All of north-central, northeast Texas, much of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana had 20 to 36 in. of rain in April-June. Most bridges on the Brazos River washed out in this long lived flooding period.

1991 - Dec 18 to 23, 1991 - Christmas Flood - A stalled long wave Dec 18th over Arizona extended into the Sonoran Desert of northern Mexico. The upper low was reflected at the surface along the Arizona/Mexico border. A series of cold air masses pushed from the Pacific Northwest across the Central Plains into the southeastern U.S.

A cold-air-induced surface high was centered over Georgia. A stationary front in central Texas marked the southern periphery of the cold air masses moving across the Central Plains. At low levels, clockwise flow around the southeastern high brought a long fetch of very warm moist air across the Gulf, across the Texas Coastal Bend, and into central Texas as a low-level jet. The weather station at Corpus Christi measured 850 mph winds of 60 to 70 knots from about 160 to 170 degrees for the duration of the storm. The low-level jet slammed into the stationary front across central Texas as a trigger mechanism.

At upper levels, the long wave in the west induced a water vapor plume from the eastern Pacific across Mexico into Texas. Tremendous rain and flooding occurred at and south of the confluence of the upper vapor plume, the low-level jet, and the surface stationary front. The heaviest rain was 16 to 18 in. on an area from Llano to Bandera to Boerne. The 6-in. isohyetal extended from the Red River north of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex - to near Coleman - to between Bracketville and Uvalde - to near Corpus Christi - to near Palestine - to the Red River.

This was not a historic event in terms of large rainfall totals. But in terms of total rain volume that fell from the sky in one event, this certainly was one of the largest in Texas recorded history, if not the largest. Certainly it rivals Hurricane Beulah, the June 1935, Hurricane Alice in 1954, and the June 1987 floods.

Record flooding moved down the San Gabriel and Little Rivers into the Brazos River above Bryan. The Brazos River was 5 mi wide west of Bryan and College Station. The Navasota River was well over 1 mi wide in Grimes and Brazos Counties. A huge lake over 10 mi long by 10 mi wide was created above the confluence of the Navasota and Brazos Rivers above Washington on the Brazos State Park. High areas were above the water, but most areas flooded.

Downstream, the Brazos River and Oyster Creek merged as the Brazos River flowed over the left floodplain near Harris Reservoir. Thousands of previously unsuspecting home owners were flooded as Oyster Creek became several miles wide in Brazoria County. Residential flooding was widespread above Simonton to the Gulf in Fort Bend and Brazoria Counties. In the Valley Lodge Subdivision near Simonton, most of the 200 homes flooded, some a half mile from the river. Five-hundred homes suffered serious flood damage in Brazoria County. Two-hundred forty-five of 250 homes flooded in Holiday Lakes Estates between East Columbia and Angleton.

Flooding was disastrous also in the Colorado River drainage. Very high flows down the Pedernales and Colorado Rivers into the Highland Lakes system put a tremendous amount of storage into them. The problem was, managers could not release water from Lake Travis because disastrous floodwaters were flowing from Walnut, Onion, and all the other creeks flowing into the Colorado River below Lake Travis. Onion Creek at Hwy 183 crested at 30.50 ft, a record since a recording gage was installed March 1976. The Pedernales River severely flooded and damaged LBJ National Park at Stonewall. Flow just seeped over the stone wall at the Johnson Family Cemetery.

The Lower Colorado River Authority could do nothing but store all the very high inflow. Lake Travis quickly rose to a record elevation of 710.44 ft Dec 26, 1991. Nearly 400 homes flooded around Lake Travis with up to 22 ft of water over the lowest slabs.

Downstream, a few homes flooded near Bastrop as the Colorado River crested at a record 37.48 ft. Between Bastrop and Smithville, the Hidden Valley Estates, the Doty River Estates, and the Pecan Shores subdivisions had several tens of homes flooded up to nearly 9 ft. In LaGrange, the Fritsch Auf subdivision had over 10 homes flooded up to 6 ft.

Two homes flooded in Columbus. Downstream, 15 homes flooded up to 2 to 3 ft in Wharton. Much worse flooding was spared because the flooding escaped over the left floodplain upstream near Garwood into a widespread area of farmland.

The Guadalupe River had severe flooding. Two homes flooded near Cuero, and downstream near Thomaston in the River Haven subdivision, three homes flooded.

In Victoria, eight city blocks of the Greens Addition in the west part flooded, and also the city park, zoo, and golf course. Downstream, the Guadalupe and San Antonio Rivers were several miles wide near their confluence near Tivoli. Some ranchers would feed their cattle by boat on floodwaters into June.

1991 was an El Nino year. This flood would be followed by a series of floods a week or 10 days apart into late May or early June. Emergency spillways on every flood-control reservoir on the Brazos River would be spilling 2 to 3 ft by mid-March. Water stood in the fields between storms from late December into early June in many areas, mainly in the Brazos and Colorado River drainages below Austin to the Gulf.

The Edwards aquifer would crest at a record 703.2 ft elevation June 14, 1992.

The biggest flood in Texas did not involve the Brazos River.

1869 - Probably the biggest flood in Texas history - Produced by heavy rain that extended into northwest Texas - Tremendous flooding down the Colorado River from the headwaters to the mouth

Account of flood by Frank Brown - Travis County Clerk, in the "Annals of Travis County" -

"The highest and probably the most disastrous flood that ever came down the Colorado River within a hundred years occurred early in July 1869. Certainly none such ever occurred within the memory of oldest inhabitants of the white race. The floods of 1833, 1836, 1843, 1852, and 1870 did not approach it in volume within 8 or 10 ft.

Early in the first week of July rain commenced falling and so continued at short intervals for several days. The stream commenced gradually rising, but no apprehension was felt of the heavy overflow. On the 6th, a tremendous flood suddenly came down in solid walls, overflowing all the lowlands and spreading over the valleys to the hills. The river rose to the bluffs. The people thought the highest was reached, but the water continued to rise rapidly, and much alarm was felt. The river reached its highest mark on the evening of July 7, at about 9 o'clock.

The rise was estimated at forty-six ft. The mass of waters rushed down from the narrow and confined channel between the mountains above, to the wider one below, with such fearful velocity that the middle of the stream was higher than the sides, and the aspect it presented was appalling."

 

The Brazos River is over 300 feet wide when it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. This is the definition of a navigable stream thus making it a public waterway. The banks of the river are privately owned and therefore are governed by the Texas private property trespassing laws. So where does the public waterway end and the private property begin? One definition says the line is 18 inches above the plant growth which would allow a water traveler enough room to land and hold his craft. Remember, this is a wild natural river that upon occasion rises 10 feet overnight. Has the property line moved? Apparently is has. The high bank is generally recognized as the property line. Almost all fencing is at the high bank, not because of a property line but, because the river will destroy a fence when it floods. The only public lands joining the water are parks and road crossings with only a few of these affording a sloping access. It is common to have greater than 30 miles of river without public access.

The landowner may own the river banks but he is not the only one to control them.

1. The Brazos River Authority has control of the water usage. The landowner is only allowed a 6 inch pump for agricultural use. The Brazos River Authority owns the water and sells water to various pumping stations along the river. These pumping stations then resell the water to their customers.

2. FEMA or Federal Emergency Management Agency determines where the flood plains and where the flow plains are. Yes, that is two separate plains.

      The flood plain is determined by the highest water level on the property in the last 100 years. The highest flood on the  Brazos River in the last 100 years was in 1913  before any dams were built [before the year 2013]. Today the crest of the 1957 flood  is used for the 100 year flood. If you are in a flood plain you cannot obtain a permit to build a house on a slab. You can live in a cabin or mobile home. You can build a barn or other structure.  

The flow plain is the area that the river will flow in when it in flood at the 100 year flood level. This area is adjacent to the river bank. The idea is that if you build on or build up the land in this area you may restrict the flow of flood water thus causing some flooding upstream. There are not any permits issued for this area. [I have a property that is 5 feet above the flood plain but in the flow plain. The view of  the river is beautiful so I asked Fort Bend County for a permit to build a house and was turned down because I might hold water back in a flood. I asked how high the water would get. They said it would only get 5 feet below the bottom of the house and I wasn’t getting a permit. [You figure it.]

3.  The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department [Texas Game Warden] has a say about the mineral rights I might own to the middle of the river adjoining my property. The minerals are sand and gravel. I must obtain a permit from and give 50% of my monetary gain to the department. A Game Warden can go anywhere he wants in Texas including but not limited to cutting fences and locks.

4.   The US Army Corps of Engineers are responsible for building Dams and other structures on the river. Should I decide to pay the TP&W department 50% for the sand and gravel then I need a dredging [mining] permit from the Corps of Engineers.

 

 

              

The river starts;

Northwest of Clovis, NM with Running Water Draw

South of Clovis, NM with Blackwater Draw

Northwest of Lubbock with Yellow House Draw

          Wichita Falls, Texas where 10 miles south,

the Clear Fork of the Brazos flows to the West.

And Abilene, Texas.

           The Brazos River water level was a lot different prior to the

dam building days that started around 1930.

Here is why;

There are 3 dams on the Brazos

                  Lake Possum Kingdom,  Lake Granbury, and  Lake Whitney            

Here is a partial list of dams

on the tributaries;

Millers Creek Reservoir [NW of Clovis, NM]

White River Lake [Running Water Draw]

Buffalo Springs Lake

[Lubbock Double Mountain Fork of Brazos]

Lake Stamford [Clear Fork of Brazos]

Lake Fort Phantom Hill [Abilene]

Squaw Creek Lake

Lake Pat Cleburne

Lake Mineral Wells

Lake Palo Pinto

Lake Hubbard [Sandy Creek]

Lake Cisco [Sandy Creek]

Lake Daniel [Leon River]

Lake Leon [Leon River]

Proctor Lake [Leon River]

Lake Waco

Town House Creek Lake

Lake Mexia [Navasota River]

Twin Oaks Lake [Navasota River]

Lake Limestone [Navasota River]

Lake Belton [Lampasas River]

Stllhouse Hollow Lake [Navasota River]

Granger Lake [San Gabriel River]

Lake Georgetown [San Gabriel River]

Gibbons Creek Lake

Lake Somerville [Yegua]

 

BRAZOS RIVER AUTHORITY

 

BRAZOS RIVER. The Brazos River rises at the confluence of its Salt Fork and Double Mountain Fork near the eastern boundary of Stonewall County (at 33°16' N, 100°01' W) and runs 840 miles across Texas to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, two miles south of Freeport in Brazoria County (at 28°53' N, 95°23' W). The two forks emerge from the Caprock 150 miles above the confluence, thus forming a continuous watershed 1,050 miles long, which extends from New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico and comprises 44,620 square miles, 42,000 of which are in Texas. It is the longest river in Texas and the one with the greatest discharge. It has all of the varied characteristics of a trans-state stream, from the plains "draw" drainage through canyons at the breaks of the Llano Estacado, the West Texas rolling plains, and the Grand Prairie hill region, to its meandering course through the Coastal Plain. The elevation of the streambed at the confluence of the two forks is 1,500 feet above sea level. From this point the Brazos descends to the Gulf at a rate diminishing from 3½ feet a mile to one-half foot a mile.

Below the Caprock escarpment the Brazos traverses an area of rolling topography in the vicinity of Palo Pinto County, where low escarpments cross the watershed and the basins of the Brazos and its tributaries are deeply trenched and confined in narrow valleys with steep sides or bluffs. The floodplains are narrow, and improvements came slowly and comparatively late. When the river reaches the escarpment that crosses the watershed on a line from Georgetown to Waco, the topography changes to gently rolling, then to an almost featureless plain down to the coast. In this portion the river and its tributaries flow through much less rugged terrain, and stream valleys are wide and flat. Here the floodplain became highly developed rather early in Texas history. The Brazos has seven principal tributaries, including the Salt and Double Mountain forks. The others are the Clear Fork, the Bosque and Little rivers, Yegua Creek, and the Navasota River. In addition, there are fifteen subtributaries within the watershed, the most important being the Leon River, a tributary of the Little.

The Brazos is probably the river that Indians of the Caddoan linguistic group called Tokonohono. This name is preserved in the narratives of the expedition led by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and the Brazos is widely identified as the river that La Salle named the Maligne. The name Brazos was probably first applied to the Colorado River, and there is considerable evidence that several early explorers got the Colorado and the Brazos rivers confused. In 1716 Isidro Félix de Espinosa and Domingo Ramón probably called the Brazos "la Trinidad," but the present names were established well before the end of the Spanish period. The full name of the river, often used in Spanish accounts, is Los Brazos de Dios, "the arms of God." Many legends have grown up explaining the name. Probably the earliest is that Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and his men wandering up the Llano Estacado were about to perish from lack of water when the Indians guided them to a small stream, which the men then named Brazos de Dios. Another account tells of a Spanish ship tossed about by a storm in the Gulf of Mexico that had exhausted its supply of drinking water. The sailors were parched with thirst, lost, and unable to determine which direction they should go to find land, when one of the crew noticed a muddy streak in the waters. The ship followed the streak's current to the mouth of a wide river on a great rise. The ship sailed up the river, and the sailors drank fresh water and were saved. In gratitude they christened the unknown stream Brazos de Dios. Another account fixes the naming of the stream in the 1760s, when an extreme drought made it impossible for the Spanish miners on the San Saba to work. They had heard that the drought was even worse toward the south. They headed toward the Waco Indian village where, according to reports, there was a never-failing stream. Many of the men and beasts died en route, and the precious bullion was buried, but the few who finally reached the stream named it Brazos de Dios. The last story, told to Albert Pike in 1831, accounts for the reversal of the names of the Colorado and the Brazos.

Although the Brazos was well known to Spanish explorers and missionaries who described the Indians along its banks, the first permanent settlements on the river were made by Anglo-Americans. John McFarland, one of the Old Three Hundred, founded San Felipe de Austin at the Atascosito Crossing of the Brazos. The town became the colonial capital of Texas. The river acquired further significance as being, at Velasco, the scene of the first colonial resistance to Mexican authority, and, at Columbia and at Washington-on-the-Brazos, the site of two of the first seats of government of the republic. Cotton and sugar plantations established along the Brazos in pre-Civil War days were showplaces of Texas and homes of some of the wealthiest men in the state.

The climate of the Brazos watershed varies considerably from temperate to subtropical. The average annual temperature is 59°F in its upper reaches and 70° in the coastal region. Normally, the winters are mild and short, even in the upper reaches, but severe weather is not unknown. Temperatures of zero and even lower have been recorded. The average annual rainfall is 29.5 inches, ranging from sixteen in the northwest to forty-seven in the southeast. Soil types along the Brazos vary from sandy loams to deep clay. A variety of natural vegetation ranges from scattered oak mottes and bunch grasses in drier areas to conifers and hardwoods in areas where rain is plentiful. Virtually the entire area of the watershed is suitable for some form of farming or ranching activity. The most important products of the region have been cotton, cattle, and oil.

Originally, the Brazos was navigable for 250 miles from the Gulf to Washington. It was an important waterway before the Civil War, and efforts to improve it for navigation continued until the early twentieth century. The most important cities in the Brazos watershed are Lubbock, Graham, Waco, Temple, Belton, Freeport, and Galveston. Houston abuts the region along the Fort Bend and Brazoria county lines.

The waters of the Brazos basin are administered by the Brazos River Authority, an autonomous state agency established by the legislature in 1929. In later years the Brazos has maintained its importance as a source of water for power, irrigation, and other services. The river has been dammed in several places to form reservoirs for flood control, municipal use, and recreation, the most important of these man-made lakes being Possum Kingdom and Whitney reservoir. In Goodbye to a River (1960), John Graves gave an account of his journey in a canoe down the Brazos in the mid-1950s, with historical sketches of Indians and pioneers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: James M. Day, "The Mississippi of Texas, 1821-1850," Texana 3 (Spring 1965). Glenn A. Gray, Gazetteer of Streams of Texas (Washington: GPO, 1919). Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr., The Waters of the Brazos: A History of the Brazos River Authority, 1929-1979 (Waco: Texian Press, 1981). Pamela A. Puryear and Nath Winfield, Jr., Sandbars and Sternwheelers: Steam Navigation on the Brazos (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1976). Rupert N. Richardson, Texas: The Lone Star State (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1943; 4th ed., with Ernest Wallace and Adrian N. Anderson, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1981). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Charles Albert Warner, Texas Oil and Gas Since 1543 (Houston: Gulf, 1939).

Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr.