The White Rock Lake Museum: Historical Timeline

Historical Timeline

Prior to 1910 | 1910-1929 | 1930-1958 | 1959-Present

1930: City Park Board establishes a Fish Hatchery at White Rock Lake, at a cost of $23,700.

January 7, 1930: Park Board approves plans for the development of White Rock Lake as a public park, complete with sand bathing beach and a bath house on the eastern shore of the lake, as well as a municipal boathouse for speedboats on western shore.

February 24, 1930: Sheriff Hal Hood leads deputies on a raid on a house near White Rock Lake, where "moonshiners" operated a 500-gallon whiskey still.

Spring 1930: In editorials and an editorial cartoon, The Dallas Morning News opposes any "Coney Island" style amusements for White Rock Lake Park.

April 26, 1930: Responding to a letter from a concerned citizen, Park Board Member Hugh January publicy assures the public that the board does not plan to erect "Coney Island" style amusements at White Rock Lake, stating that only a boathouse, a beach and bathhouse, and a golf course are to be built.

June 1, 1930: 17,000 people line the shore of White Rock Lake to watch speedboat races.

June 2, 1930: The Dallas Morning News reports that six picnic areas and playgrounds at White Rock Lake Park will soon be open to the public.

July 4, 1930: The Daily Dallas Time Herald reports that F. W. Day has been awarded a contract for a motorboat sightseeing concession at White Rock Lake. Half-hour rides in the ten-passenger clippers will cost 50 cents per person, with the city receiving 20 percent of Day's revenues.

July 13, 1930: The Daily Dallas Times Herald sponsors a Dally Boat Club regatta.

August 9, 1930: Mayor Tate attends opening of Bath House and Bathing Beach on lake's eastern shore. Street car line extended to western shore, where fleet of speedboats are available to transport swimmers from new boathouse to new bathing beach.

1931: Dallas Sailing Club formally organized. Park Board lifts ban on "aquaplaning," causing a surge in surfboard orders at local sporting goods stores.

June 7, 1931: A feature article in the The Daily Dallas Times Herald includes a photograph of picnickers enjoying the stone tables at the Dixon Branch area of White Rock Lake Park.

1931: Dallas Sailing Club formally chartered.

April 9, 1932: J. M. Martin's Silver Spray reportedly becomes first snipe boat launched at White Rock Lake (another source credits Bill Crosby, who reportedly sailed a snipe on the lake as early as 1930).

October 2, 1932: Dallas Sailing Club hosts first annual Texas Championship Regatta at White Rock Lake. Meredith Ellis of Fort Worth won the men's championship and Helen Harris of Dallas won the women's competition.

December 7, 1933: Dallas Sailing Club's clubhouse on eastern shore, located in a former restaurant, burns to the ground following a going-away party for Commodore Hub Isaacks.

January 10, 1934: While "stunting" over the lake and surrounding area, a small private airplane crashes into the water near Garland Road and East Lawther Drive, killing the pilot and two passengers, and narrowly missing fishermen. The dead are identified as Oscar Poynter, age 40, Jack Binion, age 24, and Walter A. "Tige" Flowers, age 31, pilot and owner of the aircraft.

1934: Using CWA (Civil Works Administration) money and workers, city constructs a picnic pavilion at Stone Tables. A bridle path is also constructed at White Rock Lake Park as well as a dance pavilion, costing more than $5,000, near the bathing beach. Throughout the summer of 1934, Babe Lowry and her "Rhythm Sweethearts," an all-girl band, entertain lake visitors nightly except Sundays when they perform an two hour afternoon concert. By Labor Day, admission receipts to the pavilion total more than $4,000.

1935: City discontinues use of the "Pea Patch," a prison farm located on western shore of lake, where non-violent offenders worked off fines at a rate of $1 per day by picking up litter along lake shore and cutting weeds. White Rock Lake Fish Hatchery conveyed to Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Commission in exchange for fish hatchery at Fair Park. An automobile, fitted with an "electrolytic carburetor," invented by Charles H. Garrett and his father, Henry "Dad" Garrett, is filmed by Pathé News being fueled with water from White Rock Lake.

August 8, 1935: The Civilian Conservation Corps establishes a camp, designated SP-55-TX, at Winfrey Point. A week later the first recruits arrive to form Company 2896. Over the next seven years, some 3,000 CCC workers plant trees and build a variety of permanent improvements around the lake including the overlook and picnic pavilion at Flag Pole Hill and recreation buildings at Winfrey Point, Big Thicket and Sunset Bay.

1936: City Park Board recovers use of White Rock Lake Fish Hatchery from State in exchange for $1,454 and "accumulated salvage pipe for state use in constructing a new hatchery at Lake Dallas."

September 15, 1937: First major desilting of White Rock Lake commences using a $31,973 dredge named the "Joe E. Lawther." Over the next three and a half years in excess of 500,000 tons of sediment will be removed and 90 acres of land reclaimed.

November 17, 1937: After springing leaks, the "Joe E. Lawther" dredge sinks in six feet of water at Dixon's Branch.

1938: For $69,000, oil magnate H. L. Hunt purchases Mount Vernon, an estate on the lake's western shore that resembles George Washington's Virginia home.

April 1938: After a Galveston diver refloats the "Joe E. Lawther," dredging of the lake resumes.

1939: Corinthian Sailing Club formally chartered.

1939: Geophysicist Everett L. DeGolyer builds Rancho Encinal on lake's eastern shore, site of today's Dallas Arboretum.

July 1939: City of Dallas orders demolition of eleven White Rock Lake private fishing shacks.

1940: Use of prisoners to work off fines by cleaning up lake shore temporarily re-instituted.

January 1940: White Rock Lake freezes over for the first time.

1941: First dredging of lake comes to an end.

March 1941: Park Director L. B. Houston announces plans to stock city parks with grey squirrels because "this variety becomes tame readily and will be of more benefit from the recreational angle than the red squirrels now found in some parks."

January 15, 1942: Civilian Conservation Corps Co. 2896 ceases operations at White Rock Lake Park.

February 25, 1942 - mid-1943: U.S. Army Fifth Ferrying Command operates a temporary "boot camp" at former C.C.C. campsite.

November 16, 1944 - October 1945: Approximately 300 German P.O.W.s imprisoned at former C.C.C. and Army camp. Most volunteer to work at Fair Park Centennial Building, repairing army supplies.

1946: The Bonnie Barge, a floating dance hall, begins operating on the lake.

April 14, 1946: The Dallas Morning News reports that the Dallas Sailing Club will be enlarging its clubhouse.

June 17, 1946: On a sweltering summer day, White Rock Bathing Beach is overwhelmed by some 10,000 patrons.

1946-1947: Faced with a student housing shortage, SMU uses the old barracks buildings at the former CCC-POW camp site as temporary housing for about 250 of its students, many of who are veterans attending classes on the G.I. Bill.

1947: A 75 lb. catfish, caught inside a sunken boat, is donated to the Dallas Aquarium.
City of Dallas begins demolishing, relocating, or selling surplus buildings at old CCC-POW camp site.

January 22, 1951: The Dallas Morning News reports that 100 new picnic tables and benches have been placed in White Rock Lake Park. The paper also noted that the bathing beach was being enlarged and that 15 acres of wooded land were being cleared "to make the space available to the public."

March 1951: Former German P.O.W. at Camp White Rock Lake writes letter to The Dallas Morning News, expressing desire to emigrate to Texas and seeking a sponsor.

1951: The last remaining CCC-POW barracks building is damanged by a dynamite blast. Police suspect college pranksters. Shortly afterward, the building is demolished by the Park Dept.

April 1952: En route to Indiana from Fort Hood, hundreds of U.S. Army soldiers bivouac at White Rock Lake for several days.

September 1, 1952: White Rock Bathing Beach is open for the last time. When a drought forces the City of Dallas to use the lake as a water supply, swimming is temporarily banned.

1953: The ghostly "Lady of the Lake" legend included in Frank X. Tolbert's book Neiman Marcus, Texas.

1953-1954: During the drought, swimming in White Rock Lake continues to be banned. The ban eventually becomes permanent.

1955-1956: Lake is dredged for second time. Over 15,000 cubic yards of sediment removed.

1958: City passes ordinance forbidding boats with engines larger than 10.5 horsepower on the lake. Bonnie Barge stops operatiing.

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