Hubert H. Moss Lake

Hubert H. Moss Lake, completed in 1966, is a 380-acre lake at the juncture of the north and south forks of Fish Creek, on Farm Road 1201 eleven miles northwest of Gainesville in north central Cooke County (at 33°46'N, 97°13'W). Since its primary purpose was to serve as a water supply for Gainesville, its construction was mainly financed with municipal water and sewer revenue bonds, subject to voter approval. The total cost of the lake was $1,639,000. The Fort Worth firm of Freese, Nichols, and Endress provided planning and engineering services. The Gainesville city council awarded the contract for excavation and dam and spillway construction jointly to Buckner Construction Company of Jacksonville and Hoople Jordan Construction of Lufkin for $670,000. Construction of the lake entailed the excavation of more than 300,000 cubic yards of earth, the relocation of a stretch of Farm Road 1201 at a cost of $153,000, the purchase by the city of 1,360 acres at an average cost of $173 an acre, and timber removal-much of it native pecan. Dessamae Lorrain, a Southern Methodist University archeologist, excavated and recovered pottery remains at five prehistoric Indian sites that the lake inundated. Her efforts were funded by the National Park Service.

Construction of Fish Creek Dam began in December 1964 and was completed in September 1966. Deliberate impoundment of water began in April 1966. The dam, which is 1,500 feet long and ninety-six feet high, is an earthen structure coated with a two-foot-thick riprap of broken rock. The drainage area above the dam is sixty-nine square miles. The normal surface area of the lake is 23,210 acre-feet, and the storage capacity is 36,400 acre-feet. The average reservoir depth is twenty-one feet, with a maximum depth of seventy feet near the damsite. The lake has been stocked with black bass, small-mouth bass, channel cat, and red-ears. The city of Gainesville maintains a public-use area and two boat ramps on the lake. A five-year plan places a high priority on the development of a water plant on a ten acre site near the lake and the purchase of right-of-way easement for a water pipeline, since the city has not yet tapped the lake for city water.