Morris Sheppard Dam and Possum Kingdom Lake
Graford, Palo Pinto County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in response to disastrous Brazos River flooding, Morris Sheppard Dam and Possum Kingdom Reservoir were early attempts at water conservation and flood control in Texas. The U.S. Government funded $4,500,000 of the three-year, $8,500,000 project through the Works Progress Administration, a Depression era recovery agency. Named for U.S. Senator Morris Sheppard and completed in 1941, the dam is 2,740 feet long and 190 feet high. Nine spillway gates allow for the passage of flood waters and drift material. Power generating facilities consist of two 11,250-killowatt units which serve much of the surrounding area. The creation of Possum Kingdom Lake from the impounded waters of Morris Sheppard Dam sent bridges, roads and an entire town underwater. Recovery was initially slow, but quickly picked up after World War II with the establishment of major fishing lodges, camping areas and other recreational facilities. The growth and success of the area is a tribute to the spirit of the surrounding communities which continue to benefit from the project's original purposes of water conservation and supply, and hydroelectric power generation. (1983)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in response to devastating Brazos River floods, Morris Sheppard Dam was an early Texas experiment in flood control, water conservation, and hydroelectric power. The federal government financed much of the three-year, $8.5 million project through the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, completing the 2,740-foot dam in 1941. Its reservoir, Possum Kingdom Lake, drowned bridges, roads, and an entire town but later blossomed into a recreation destination after World War II.
Why it matters
The dam captures the New Deal's transformation of American rivers, trading a submerged town for flood control, electricity, and a new economy of recreation.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
For as long as people have farmed and settled along the Brazos River, they have lived with its moods. The river runs a long way across Texas, and it could swing from a trickle in drought to a destructive flood after heavy rains. The marker says plainly that Morris Sheppard Dam was built in response to disastrous Brazos flooding: towns, farms and families downstream needed some way to tame the water.
The project came together during the Great Depression, when the federal government was spending heavily on public works to put people back to work. The Works Progress Administration, one of the best-known New Deal agencies, paid for more than half of the three-year, $8.5 million project. All over the country, New Deal money was going into dams, bridges, roads and power plants that reshaped rural America.
The late 1930s were also when electricity was finally reaching much of the countryside. For rural Texans who had lived by lamplight and hand pumps, a dam that could make hydroelectric power promised a very different daily life.
People & events
The dam carries the name of Morris Sheppard, a longtime U.S. Senator from Texas. Sheppard is best remembered nationally as a leading champion of Prohibition. He was the author of the Eighteenth Amendment, which banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol, and he spent decades in Congress. Naming a big Texas public work after him honored a senator who had been a fixture of the state's political life for a generation.
The real story of the dam, though, is the work of many hands. Over three years, crews raised a structure 2,740 feet long and 190 feet high, with nine spillway gates to let floodwater and drift pass and two generating units of 11,250 kilowatts each. When it was finished in 1941, the waters rising behind it formed Possum Kingdom Lake.
That new lake came at a price. According to the marker, the rising water swallowed bridges, roads and an entire town. People who had lived in the valley had to move, and familiar places vanished beneath the surface. The area was slow to recover at first, and just as the dam was completed, the United States was pulled into World War II. After the war, fishing lodges, campgrounds and other recreation businesses sprang up, and the lake became a destination in its own right.
Its place in the American story
Morris Sheppard Dam belongs to the great era of American river-building, when the federal government set out to control flooding, store water and generate electricity on rivers across the country. The Tennessee Valley Authority is the most famous example, but projects like this one carried the same idea to many regions, Texas among them.
The dam also shows the trade-offs that came with that vision. Flood control and electricity helped many people downstream and across the region, but the price was paid by communities that were flooded out. Stories of drowned towns and relocated families come up again and again in the history of American reservoirs.
Finally, Possum Kingdom Lake shows how a public works project can take on a second life. Built for flood control, water supply and power, it became, after World War II, a playground for boaters, anglers and campers. That pattern of engineered lakes turning into recreation destinations is repeated all over the postwar United States.
If you visit
Stand near the dam and take in its size: more than half a mile long and taller than many city buildings. Look for the spillway gates, and imagine them opened wide with a flood surging through. It is a striking piece of Depression-era engineering that is still doing its job.
Then turn toward the lake. Possum Kingdom is known for its clear water, rugged shoreline and limestone bluffs, and it draws boaters, swimmers and anglers. Somewhere beneath that water lie the old roads, bridges and town the marker mentions, which gives an ordinary lake view an unexpected depth.
The dam and lake make a good stop on a drive through the hills of Palo Pinto County west of Fort Worth. Plan time to linger. Possum Kingdom State Park and the lake's many marinas and campgrounds make this a place to spend a day or a weekend, not just a quick photo.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Morris Sheppard
Related events
- · Works Progress Administration
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Civilian Conservation Corps at Possum Kingdom State Park
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