Wichita County Water Improvement District No. 2
Wichita Falls, Wichita County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Wichita County Water Improvement Districts No. 1 and No. 2 played major roles in the agricultural development of Wichita County. By 1900, Joseph Kemp, whose business activities were vital for the growth of Wichita Falls, developed plans for irrigation, leading to the construction of Lake Wichita. By 1914, Kemp and his brother-in-law, Frank Kell, filed a plat for irrigation subdivisions. They hoped agriculture would become the backbone of Wichita County's economy, even after the area later experienced an oil boom.In 1919, Water Improvement District No. 1 organized, consisting of 15,543 acres including all of Wichita Falls and areas to the north, south and east. In 1920, District No. 2 formed, encompassing 76,784 acres west and northeast of the city. Under the leadership of Kemp, Lake Kemp and Lake Diversion, two large reservoirs with a gravity irrigation system, were constructed between 1921 and 1924. The completed system provided water for irrigation and municipal purposes, as well as a means of flood control for the city of Wichita Falls from periodic flooding of the Wichita River.Although co-owned and operated on the same system by District No. 2, two different boards governed the district using different revenue sources. in 1961, the city of Whichita Falls abolished Disctrict No. 1 by annexing its lands, taking conrol of its assets and liabilites, and assuming performance if its functions and services. Even though a major agricultural ecnomy never developed in Wichita County, Water Improvement District No. 2 provides an important source of water for minicpal use to the cty's erverse osmosis plant and continues to play a vital role in irrigation and flood control. (2008)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1900, Wichita Falls booster Joseph Kemp began dreaming of turning the dry country around the city into irrigated farmland, and by 1914 he and brother-in-law Frank Kell had platted irrigation subdivisions. Water Improvement Districts formed in 1919 and 1920, and between 1921 and 1924 Lake Kemp and Lake Diversion rose to supply a gravity irrigation system, municipal water, and flood control on the Wichita River. Though the hoped-for farm economy never eclipsed oil, District No. 2 still delivers water and tames floods today.
Why it matters
It shows how early-20th-century Texans engineered scarce water into the foundation for settlement and growth across an arid region.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Joseph Kemp
- · Frank Kell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
O'Donohoe, John F.
Wichita Falls, TX
John F. O'Donohoe arrived in Wichita Falls in 1909 as a scout for the Guffey Petroleum Company — later Gulf Oil — and, working without a surveyor, staked the firm's first Clay County lease in what became the Petrolia Oilfield. Over the following decades the wildcatter organized a string of petroleum companies, managed a Chamber of Commerce development firm, and married into the family of oilman Frank Kell. Active in banking and civic life, he chaired the board of what is now Midwestern State University.
John Hart Wilson
Wichita Falls, TX
Trained as an electrical engineer at Purdue and hardened by service in World War I, John Hart Wilson found his calling in the Texas oil boom. After moving to Wichita Falls in 1926, he became a prolific inventor of drilling equipment, introducing a mechanical drilling rig in 1932 that helped retire the old steam-powered rigs and patenting well over a hundred devices, including a chain transmission that let bigger engines drill faster and deeper. During World War II he even retooled his shops to build barrage-balloon winches for the war effort.
Central Baptist Church
Burkburnett, TX
In 1924 fourteen people met at Bradley's Corner Community Center to organize a missionary Baptist church, soon relocating to the nearby oil boomtown of Thrift and building with donated lumber. As members moved into Burkburnett, the congregation carried its building into town in 1952 and, after further growth, renamed itself Central Baptist Church in 1961 to reflect its new role as a city church. It continues to serve the Burkburnett community.
First Methodist Church of Burkburnett
Burkburnett, TX
Methodists in the young oil town of Burkburnett first worshipped in a one-room building that doubled as school and social hall. Led by former schoolteacher "Mother Majors" and circuit rider Frank McGehee, they held their first service in a new frame sanctuary in 1908. The congregation boomed with the 1918 oil strike and again as Sheppard Air Force Base expanded after World War II, building a brick sanctuary in 1925.