"Colorado" is Spanish for "red" — an odd name for a river that early Spanish explorers noted had such clear water. Historians speculate the explorers intended to name the river "Brazos de Dios" (Arms of God), perhaps because of its tributaries in its watershed. But mapmakers switched its name with the adjacent Brazos River basin, perhaps because of a clerical error.
During prehistoric times, the Colorado was home to nomadic communities of native Americans. In the 1700s and early 1800s, Spanish and Anglo settlers established what are today the communities of Bastrop and Columbus. In 1839 the Republic of Texas selected the site for its capital of Austin partly because of the area's abundant resources, including the Colorado River.
Early-day residents recognized the potential value of building dams on the river. One of the earliest proposals was in the 1850s by Adam Johnson, a Burnet County surveyor and stage driver. He sketched a dam for a location that would later become the site of Buchanan Dam.
A hard life
Residents learned early on that the Colorado was a river of extremes. Located in an arid region, the river could easily drop to a trickle during hot, dry weather. But the Hill Country portion of the basin, with its steep slopes and thin soils, funneled runoff from storms into the river, resulting in devastating floods that inundated downstream communities, killed people, and resulted in millions of dollars in damages.
Rural Central Texas faced an additional problem: the lack of reliable, economical electric service, as investor-owned utilities focused on serving larger Texas cities. At most, Hill Country communities like Johnson City had a small generator that ran for a few hours every evening. Farms and ranches had no electric service at all. Many rural residents of the early 20th century lived and worked much like their ancestors of 100 years earlier.
The birth of LCRA
In 1931, a Texas subsidiary of the Chicago-based Insull utility company began construction of Hamilton Dam on the Colorado River in Burnet County, on the site originally proposed by Adam Johnson. The project brought jobs for as many as 1,500 people in the deepening stages of the Great Depression. But a year and a half later, the utility went bankrupt, leaving the dam less than half-built.
Alvin Wirtz, a lawyer and politician skilled in water issues, was appointed receiver for the bankrupt company's assets and began looking for funding to finish the dam. The only option turned out to be a package of loan and grants from the federal government, on one condition: that the money go to a public agency created and owned by the State of Texas.
In 1933 Wirtz drafted legislation creating a Colorado River Authority, modeled after the federal Tennessee Valley Authority. Three times the Texas Legislature considered the bill, and each time — pressured by private utilities and West Texas water interests — the Legislature voted it down.
Finally, Gov. Miriam A. "Ma" Ferguson arranged a compromise, and the Legislature passed the bill. As a compromise to the West Texas interests, the new entity would have jurisdiction only over the lower portion of the river, with authority to store and sell water, generate electricity, prevent flood damages, and implement reforestation and soil-conservation programs.
On Nov. 13, 1934, Gov. Ferguson signed the bill creating the Lower Colorado River Authority. More than three months later, on Feb. 19, 1935, LCRA opened for business.
See: Early years and first critical test
The Colorado River is the largest river entirely within the state of Texas. In a typical year, almost 600 billion gallons flow through the Colorado's 900-mile course from its source near the Texas Panhandle to its mouth near the Gulf of Mexico. The river's drainage basin spans more than 42,000 square miles —
