Canyon Lake

Canyon Lake, formerly known as Canyon Reservoir, is on the Guadalupe River twelve miles northwest of New Braunfels in northern Comal County (at 29°52' N, 98°12' W). The project is owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. The local cooperative agency is the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, which, for paying part of the cost, has rights to the conservation storage space and control over the use and release of conservation water. The lake, formed by a rolled earthfill dam 6,830 feet long, is used for flood control, water conservation, and recreation. Construction of the dam was started on June 27, 1958, and impoundment of water began on June 16, 1964. The general contractor was Tecon Corporation of Dallas. The crest of the spillway is 943 feet above mean sea level, and the conservation storage capacity is 382,000 acre-feet with a surface area of 8,240 acres and a sixty-mile shoreline at 909 feet above mean sea level. Stored water is used for municipal, industrial, and irrigation purposes and for the development of hydroelectric power downstream. The drainage area above the dam is 1,432 square miles.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.