Mansfield Dam

Mansfield Dam

By Karen R. Thompson Friday, 05 March 2010

WEST AUSTIN — Since the 1830s, when the City of Austin was laid out as the capital of the Republic of Texas, the town suffered from periodic flooding of the Colorado River. Austin and Central Texas had found no solution to flooding, or the lack of electrical service, particularly to rural counties.

Through the years, Austin had built several dams on the Colorado River. Most had been washed away by floods, including the Austin dam which washed away in the 1900 flood.

The 1930s brought depression, drought and unemployment. Small farming communities like Jollyville and Pond Springs suffered low farm prices. Livestock was almost worthless, and no one hired farm help.

By the time President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in November 1932, the country had 13 million unemployed and many banks had closed. Roosevelt’s solution, the New Deal, created the Civilian Conservation Corp and Workers Progress Administration. One of the first projects for these civilian work groups was to construct hydroelectric dams for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Central Texans saw the TVA initiative as a blueprint for resolving their problems caused by the Colorado River. In 1934 the Texas Legislature created the Lower Colorado River Authority.

The ground breaking for the WPA’s Marshall Ford Dam project was held Feb. 19, 1937. It provided work for young men in nearby communities.

Jollyville resident Fred Drittich, 85, worked for Brown & Root three or four years at the dam site.

“It was a good and safe job, and stopping flooding was a very good thing,” he said.

Bill Dittrich bought several trucks and got a sub-contract with Brown & Root. He hired young neighbors, such as John F. Thompson, Jr. (Swede) and Artie Henry to drive his trucks to the dam.

It was more than three years before the first unit began generating electricity, but on Jan. 27, 1941, power was turned on. The entire project was completed in May of 1942 at a cost of $29 million. Just before completion, the dam was given the name Mansfield to honor U.S. Rep. J.J. Mansfield of Columbus, Texas. Mansfield, for whom Port Mansfield was also named, had been a major influence in obtaining funding for this project.

The WPA provided jobs for 8.5 million of the 13 million unemployed people. In Texas 600,000 people were hired for projects including dams, schools, artwork, libraries and bookmobiles. A total of 748 school libraries and 42 public libraries were built. The limestone school building that is now C.D. Fulkes Middle School in Round Rock was built as a WPA project and local Round Rock men were hired for the job.

In Austin the first WPA project was the construction of Deep Eddy swimming hole on the Colorado River into Texas’ first (now oldest) open-air concrete swimming pool. Deep Eddy has been a popular swimming pool since 1902, and swimmers rejoiced when they learned to swim well enough to go over “the wall” to the deep end.

Karen Thompson is a seventh-generation Texan passionate about preserving and recording Texas history. She has written books on Williamson County, Round Rock and Austin.