Lake Austin, formerly Lake McDonald, is a water

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

on the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. The reservoir was formed in 1939 by the construction of Tom Miller Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Lake Austin is one of the seven Highland Lakes created by the LCRA, and is used for

flood control Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...

electrical power generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stora ...

, and recreation.

Hydrology

Lake Austin is a part of Texas'

; it begins below Mansfield Dam and is principally fed by the outflow of

Lake Travis Lake Travis is a reservoir on the Colorado River in central Texas in the United States. It is named in honor of William B. Travis. Serving principally as a flood-control reservoir, Lake Travis' historical minimum to maximum water height cha ...

. The lake

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...

s generally from northwest to southeast, with few significant

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

; the largest are Bull Creek, entering from the north near where Loop 360 spans the lake at the Pennybacker Bridge, and Bee Creek, entering from the west just above Tom Miller Dam, where the lake ends. Its outflow through Tom Miller Dam then becomes the principal inflow for

Lady Bird Lake Lady Bird Lake (formerly, and still colloquially referred to as Town Lake) is a river-like reservoir on the Colorado River (Texas), Colorado River in Austin, Texas, United States. The City of Austin created the reservoir in 1960 as a cooling pon ...

. Lake Austin is maintained as a constant-level lake by releases of water from Lake Travis upstream. The other Highland Lake reservoirs on the Colorado River are Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, and Lake Travis upstream, and Lady Bird Lake downstream.

History

The first lake on the same site was named Lake McDonald, a reservoir formed by the construction of Austin Dam between 1890 and 1893. In 1900 a heavy rainstorm overwhelmed and destroyed the first Austin Dam, causing extensive flooding. The dam began to be rebuilt in 1915, but repairs were abandoned because of a contract dispute, and the unfinished dam was again destroyed in a heavy storm later that year. In 1938 the Lower Colorado River Authority began building the Tom Miller Dam; the dam was completed and the lake filled in 1939.

Recreational uses

Lake Austin is a popular fishing and boating destination. Boaters often engage in activities such as

wakesurfing Wakesurfing is a water sport in which a person surfs the wake that is created by the boat. Wakesurfers ride without rope, they use it only to be pulled by the boat from the water. After getting up on the wake, typically by use of a tow rope, t ...

waterskiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on one or two skis. The sport requires sufficien ...

, and gathering in the designated no-wake zones.

Boating

Numerous companies rent out sailboats, motorboats, jet skis/waverunners, canoes, pontoon boats, and large party boats in the Austin area. The Austin Parks and Recreation Department offers classes in canoeing, kayaking, and sailing.

Fish and wildlife populations

Lake Austin has been stocked with several species of fish intended to improve the utility of the reservoir for recreational fishing. The lake is considered to have an excellent stock of

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus nigricans'') is a carnivorous, freshwater fish, freshwater, ray-finned fish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, native to the eastern United States, eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada an ...

. Other fish present include

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

and sunfish. Lake Austin is one of the Texas Highland Lakes infested with

hydrilla ''Hydrilla'' (waterthyme) is a genus of aquatic plant, usually treated as containing just one species, ''Hydrilla verticillata'', though some botanists divide it into several species. It is native to the cool and warm waters of the Old World in A ...

, a non-native aquatic plant species. The Lower Colorado River Authority has intentionally lowered the water levels in the lake in the months of January and February so that freezing air temperatures might destroy substantial portions of the

in the lake each winter. As of March 2014, hydrilla has been completely eliminated from the lake through the stocking of Asian

grass carp The grass carp (''Ctenopharyngodon idella'') is a species of large herbivorous freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae, native to the Pacific Far East, with a native range stretching from northern Vietnam to the Amur River on the Sino-Russian ...

by the City of Austin. As of September 2016 the grass carp released into Lake Austin have begun to devastate the lake’s natural resources. This has led to a decline in the wildlife native to this section of the Colorado River.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Lake Reservoirs in Texas Geography of Austin, Texas Protected areas of Travis County, Texas Bodies of water of Travis County, Texas 1939 establishments in Texas Lower Colorado River Authority