The City of Austin builds the first significant dam on the lower Colorado River in 1893.
In 1931, a subsidiary of the nationwide Insull utility company begins constructing the most ambitious dam project to date on the Colorado. Insull’s bankruptcy the following year will lead to plans to finish what would become Buchanan Dam – sowing the seeds for the eventual creation of LCRA.
After the Insull utility company’s bankruptcy in 1932, the only available option to finish Buchanan Dam is federal funds that can go only to a public agency. The state’s power brokers spend more than a year wrangling funding before creating the Lower Colorado River Authority in November 1934.
Governor Miriam A. “Ma” Ferguson brokers the deal that enables passage of legislation creating LCRA during the fourth special session of the Texas Legislature. She signs the bill shortly after it passes Nov. 10, 1934. This photo of Ferguson, courtesy of the Austin History Center, shows a similar signing session.
In this 1995 interview, Gaynelle King, one of LCRA’s first employees, describes working at LCRA.
Clarence McDonough becomes LCRA’s first general manager in September 1935. With a background as an engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority, McDonough oversees LCRA’s initial construction phase, which includes completion of Buchanan, Inks and Tom Miller dams, the start of Mansfield Dam, and the beginning of LCRA’s electric transmission system.
This video segment from the mid-1990s explains the meaning of the original LCRA seal designed in 1935.
This segment from an LCRA 60th anniversary video in 1995 explains the impact of LCRA on the lower Colorado River basin and Central Texas area – and the appeal of reliable public power to rural residents.
In the mid-1930s, Central Texas was feeling the pain of the Great Depression. In this 1980s interview, LCRA’s R.A. Lucksinger describes the intense interest from jobseekers who learned LCRA was hiring construction workers at Buchanan Dam.
The Colorado River basin endures massive floods in the 1930s, including a 1935 flood that sweeps through downtown Austin. LCRA was still securing federal funding to resume construction of Buchanan Dam when the June 1935 flood struck the lower Colorado River basin.