National Register Testing of Nine Archeological Sites at Waco Lake, McLennan County, Texas

Abstract

From October 2000 to February 2001, personnel from Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted National Register of Historic Places eligibility testing of nine sites located at Waco Lake in McLennan County, Texas. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, sponsored the project as a result of the proposed plan to raise the conservation pool level of the lake by 7 ft to 462 ft above mean sea level. Waco Lake is located in central McLennan County, Texas, on the west side of the City of Waco (Figure 1). It is on the Bosque River, with the dam lying ca. 6.6 km upstream from where the Bosque flows into the Brazos River. Two arms extend west and south from the main body of the lake following the North Bosque and South Bosque Rivers. Two major tributaries, Hog Creek and the Middle Bosque River, enter the southern arm from the west. No major streams feed the lake from the east. The original dam was completed in 1929, and at an elevation of 430 ft, the lake covered ca. 2,700 acres. In 1965, a new dam was finished and the level raised to 455 ft, with the new conservation pool covering ca. 7,300 acres.