Lake Somerville
Somerville, Burleson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First shovel of earth for Somerville Dam was turned Sept. 22, 1962, by Lyndon Johnson, then vice president of United States. Dam was built to control flooding on Yegua Creek. In the 46 years prior to 1958, Yegua has flooded 43 times, costing lives, crops. Project was finished 1967.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For decades Yegua Creek was a menace, flooding 43 times in the 46 years before 1958 and destroying lives and crops. On September 22, 1962, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson turned the first shovel of earth for Somerville Dam, a flood-control project completed in 1967 that created Lake Somerville. It stands among the mid-century public works that tamed Texas rivers and reshaped rural life.
Why it matters
It captures the postwar faith in federal engineering to conquer nature — and a future president's hand literally in the ground of his home region.
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Related people
- · Lyndon B. Johnson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Somerville Stadium
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As the Great Depression eased, the Somerville school board partnered with the Works Progress Administration to build a football stadium locals came to call "The Rock." Around 100 area men — most with little or no masonry experience — hauled native stone and petrified wood from the Yegua Creek bottom and raised the rustic structure, finished in 1940. Since then it has hosted football, baseball, graduations, and community gatherings.
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As Somerville pulled out of the Great Depression, its school board turned to the federal Works Progress Administration, filing a project proposal in 1938 to build a gymnasium. Local workers, skilled and unskilled, quarried native stone from nearby Yegua Creek to raise the rustic building, finished in 1940 with a gym, auditorium stage, and classrooms. Renamed the Yegua Center in 1987, it has stayed in continuous use for school and community life.
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