Dam and Well
Goldthwaite, Mills County, Texas
Marker Inscription
When the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad reached this area in 1885, company officials platted the town of Goldthwaite and built a reservoir to supply water for steam locomotives. A 25-foot-high dam near this site stored water from several springs, creating a pond that became a favorite swimming spot. The railroad dug a 50-foot-deep, spring-fed well at this site in 1906 to provide more water. In 1915, when these sources became inadequate, the dam was broken and reservoir drained. Today the springs form a stream which runs through Mills County Park, and the well is used by the city.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad reached the area in 1885, its officials laid out the town of Goldthwaite and built a reservoir to water their steam locomotives. A 25-foot dam impounded several springs into a pond that doubled as a favorite swimming hole, and in 1906 the railroad drilled a deep spring-fed well for still more water. By 1915 the sources fell short and the dam was breached; today those same springs feed a stream through the county park and the old well still serves the city.
Why it matters
The dam and well are a reminder that the steam railroad's constant thirst shaped where and how West Texas towns were founded and watered.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mills County State Bank
Goldthwaite, TX
Goldthwaite boomed after the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway reached Mills County, and by 1888 the growing county seat needed a bank—so D.H. Trent opened a private one with a few thousand dollars in deposits. Through decades of reorganization it became the state-chartered Trent State Bank in 1908 and, in 1952, the Mills County State Bank. It marked 120 years in business in 2008, having weathered hard times and expanded into neighboring towns.
Regency Suspension Bridge
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After repeated floods destroyed earlier crossings of the Colorado River here, San Saba and Mills Counties joined forces to build this bridge, named for the Mills County town of Regency, with the Austin Bridge Company of Dallas finishing it in October 1939. Its road deck hangs from two steel cables more than three inches thick, each spun from 475 galvanized wire strands. Restored by the Texas Department of Transportation in 1999, it is one of the last suspension bridges in Texas still open to vehicle traffic.
Site of Lometa Reservoir
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Lometa began as a railroad town in the mid-1880s, and when a second line arrived in 1909 the railroads needed water for their thirsty steam locomotives. A dam completed in 1911–12 backed up Emory and Salt Creeks into a lake—known as Santa Fe Lake—that watered the trains and doubled as a recreation spot. As diesel engines replaced steam, the need faded, and the reservoir was retired in the 1970s.
Scholten Railroad
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