Home Care In Bluffton, TX

The state of Texas is full of ghost towns -- some become ghost towns due to Mother Nature, others just get abandoned. Some that have been abandoned are not so easy to find, because they can be found...underwater. Here are some Texas cities that can be found in the waters throughout the Lone Star State.

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One of the most famous underwater cities in Texas is Bluffton, found under Lake Buchanan. When the Buchanan Dam flooded in 1939, the original site of Bluffton became underwater. While there's a NEW Bluffton now, the old Bluffton sits quietly under Lake Buchanan.

A city that once had one of the biggest ports in the entire state, the town of Indianola in Calhoun County was a booming place in the 1800s. On September 16, 1875, many people lost their lives to a deadly hurricane. The town was rebuilt but 11 years later, on August 20, 1886, another hurricane came by and wiped the town out. The town was abandoned in 1887 and while some of it sits on land, there's also a chunk that now sits underwater in Matagorda Bay.

Just 50 miles northeast of Austin, marked the location of Friendship, Texas. After the town was partially destroyed by a flood in 1921, the town slowly became abandoned. A few more floods would slowly claim the town before finally becoming fully swallowed by Lake Granger in the late 70s. Today it's a popular site for bass & crappie fishing.

Not much is known about the East Texas city called Zana, Texas in San Augustine County. But what we DO know is that between 1886 to 1916, at least 50 people lived in the area. It was abandoned in the 1930s & the town became submerged when the Sam Rayburn Reservoir flooded. We do that ANOTHER city is buried under the Sam Rayburn Reservoir: the town of Concord.

If you travel to Lake Whitney (just a short drive from Waco & Dallas), found just a little over 100 miles under the surface, you will find out the old town of Towash. The town became entirely underwater when The Whitney Dam flooded in the 1950s. In nearby Hillsboro, you can find replicas of what Towash used to look like, thanks to the Cell Block Museum.

So next time you're swimming in the waters, it's more than sharks you need to look out for; you might just find a building too.

It's really pretty sad. We use to have three or four cafes and stuff like that…. Nowadays a lot of our population is older folks, retirees. So those cafes were pretty much the center of things. Now we don't even have one left anymore. There's one trailer that sells burgers and fast food, but other than that, you can't go anyplace for a plate lunch and a cup of coffee.

—Karon Milam whose family owns a local charter fishing business along Lake Buchanan

Located 60 miles northwest of Austin, Texas, the Lake Buchanan Dam was built in 1938 on the Colorado River in the Texas Hill Country of Llano County. Houses and businesses in Old Bluffton—a small farming town founded in 1859—as well as nearby farms were purchased either voluntarily or involuntarily through an eminent domain process. Twenty-two thousand acres of river basin was flooded to create the lake 31 miles long and five miles wide.

Eminent domain and change are intertwined in the case of Lake Buchanan. There were the few families displaced from farms that would ultimately be underwater. There was the town that was moved. The newly-created lake was an effort to reduce the extreme cyclical changes—floods and droughts—that negatively affected this area of Texas. However, the recreational area established as a positive by-product of the dam and newly-formed Lake Buchanan, was also to see extreme change in the early 21^st century decades after its formation.

As with other water-inundation eminent domain sites, a price was paid by existing residents. Although the 50 families displaced was small in comparison with the populations that benefited and the new businesses developed, residents in Old Bluffton saw homesteads and farmland taken away from them.[1] Today the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of those displaced repeat stories of this loss.

However, the project was seen as having multiple benefits. The dam was expected to control floods and protect homes, businesses, and farmland further down the river. A 1900 Colorado River flood cleared a mile-wide path through the center of Austin. The dam was expected to provide a more even water supply for nearby farms and cities in a state known for dramatic swings between floods and drought. The catastrophic dust storms of 1934 and 1936 had already devastated other parts of Texas, destroying farmland and displacing residents and setting off a historic migration out of these other regions of Texas and Oklahoma. The dam and the resulting lake represented insurance against future floods and droughts.

1935 Austin Flood[2]

[Colorado River Flood], Photograph, June 15, 1935; (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth124019/: accessed January 31, 2016), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, Austin, Texas.

There are other benefits as well. New hydroelectric power generated by the dam was also seen as an engine for industry and commerce as the region and the entire country was trying to pull itself out of the Great Depression. Increased irrigation capacity would benefit farmers. It created a new lake that could become a new recreational area. In fact, Lake Buchanan became the most visible outcome of the dam project, as resorts, motels, restaurants, and boating businesses emerged on its shores.

In 2012 when Richard Wasserman’s photographs were taken, Lake Buchanan water levels had fallen to historical lows as a result of the longest drought since the dam had been built. With the dramatically shrunken lake came the loss of tourists, the closing of motels, the boarding up of restaurants, and the decline of the area’s economy. Although the project was designed to moderate the ups and downs of Mother Nature’s water machine, it was meeting its limits.

In 2015 multiple heavy rain storms and floods have started to bring Lake Buchanan’s water levels back from historic lows. While Lake Buchanan’s tourist economy may be on the rebound, the elusive long-term goal that the eminent domain project would even out the variations of weather cycles is underscored more than ever. As put by the qualifying statement on the Lower Colorado River Authority’s web site under the “daily lake level” report: “Forecast is subject to change as conditions develop.”[3]

[1] Robyn Ross, “Bluffton: Texas’ Lost Civilization Rises from Lake Buchanan.” Texas Observer. Nov. 14, 2012. http://www.texasobserver.org/bluffton-texas-lost-civilization-rises-from-lake-buchanan/ Accessed January 18, 2016.

[2] University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, “1935 Austin Flood.” http://texashistory.unt.edu

[3] Lower Colorado River Authority. 2016. “Situation Report” (Lake Buchanan). http://floodstatus.lcra.org/. Accessed January 18, 2016.

Bluffton schools superintendent Greg Denecker shared the news that former athletic director Jim Raabe has been inducted into the OIAAA-Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Hall of Fame.

“Jim did an outstanding job as our Athletic Director from 1995-2011. He was dedicated to our student-athletes, coaches and our community to help our athletic department grow successfully under his leadership. Jim is very deserving of this Hall of Fame Induction and we thank him for his service and dedication to Bluffton Schools,” Denecker commented.

The OIAAA provided the following details of Raabe’s career and background:

“Jim began his teaching career at Bluffton Exempted Village Schools in Bluffton, Ohio in 1981 teaching Business Education courses at the high school level and stayed there for 30 years. He also started coaching that same year as the assistant girls basketball coach. Other coaching assignments throughout the years included assistant varsity football, junior high football and head boys basketball.

He also spent many years as the "official statistician" for the varsity football program.

“Jim began his athletic administration career at Bluffton as the Faculty Manager in 1985 and held that position until assuming the position of Athletic Director in 1995. At Bluffton, he oversaw both the High School and Junior High athletic departments while still maintaining a teaching schedule. During his tenure, he oversaw a total of 17 sports with 41 teams. His first year as Athletic Director saw the creation of the varsity girls soccer program following the establishment of the boys soccer program several years earlier. As one of the early "small" schools in NW Ohio to have a soccer program, Jim often fielded calls from other schools asking about issues/benefits/procedures for establishing a soccer program. Jim retired from teaching and the Athletic Director position in June of 2011. Having spent his entire career in the Northwest Conference (student/athlete in high school and professional career at Bluffton), Jim was hired as the Commissioner of the Northwest Conference in 2013 and retained that position until June 2020.

“Upon taking the Athletic Director position in 1995, Jim became a member of both the NW Ohio Athletic Administrators' Association (NWOIAAA) and the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators' Association (OIAAA) and remained a member until his retirement in 2011. During his membership in the NWOIAAA, Jim served on the board as a representative of the Northwest Conference and also was elected as Treasurer of the NWOIAAA. Athletic administrator awards received include the OIAAA Meritorious Service Award (2009), the NWOIAAA Athletic Administrator of the Year Award (2010, and an award for 25 years of Service to Ohio HS Athletics (2009).

“Raabe is a graduate of Delphos Jefferson High School (1971) and a graduate of Capital University (Business Administration/Accounting, 1975). After working in private business for five years he returned to school to get certified to teach and earned his Master's Degree in Business Education from Bowling Green State University,1981. He also took post-Master's Degree courses from the University of Dayton.

“Jim and Pam (retired elementary teacher) have been married for 48 years and have two adult sons. Tim, the oldest, is a computer software engineer working for a defense contractor in Arlington, TX. Tim is married (Adrian) to a nurse practitioner for the Veterans' Administration and they have one daughter. Alex is a Lutheran minister serving Oceanside Lutheran Church on Long island, NY. He is married to Chris and they have no children. Pam and Jim grew up in Delphos, OH together and lived in Bluffton for 39 years. A move to Texas was made in 2020 to help out with granddaughter Kaylee when Covid forced home-schooling upon most of the country.”

Five years ago Texas history fanatics marveled at a lost Lone Star town that emerged on the banks of a partially dried up Lake Buchanan. Now it's back underwater, awaiting Texas' next drought.

It's funny how in just five years one person's uncovered ghost town can become someone else's country-fried Atlantis.

At one time Old Bluffton boasted 50 families but the completion of the nearby Buchanan Dam and a rising Colorado River submerged the settlement by 1937. A new Bluffton was built seven miles away.

Left under the new Buchanan Lake would be the remnants of the town, even the former graveyards that once held the town's dead. The earthly remains were re-interred elsewhere, leaving behind gravestones.

RELATED: Depleted Texas lakes give up the past

As the dam was being built by the New Deal federal work program, local families sold off their land to the Lower Colorado River Authority -- sometimes at a lower price than they would have liked -- in anticipation of the rising waters.

Since the late '30s Lake Buchanan has occupied the former Bluffton. The lake filled ahead of schedule thanks to additional flooding in the area at the time.

The drought earlier this decade slowly lowered Lake Buchanan's levels some 26 feet and with it Old Bluffton was again visible to locals.

The Associated Press came to the site in November 2011 as the Texas Historical Commission's archaeological division investigated the remains of Old Bluffton, once covered by nearly 30 feet of water. Drought conditions in 1984 had exposed parts of the underwater ghost town but not quite like in 2011.

That year Old Bluffton was teeming with vacationers and history buffs getting their fill.

Old Bluffton wasn't the only historical bonanza uncovered by drought. Lake Whitney, Lake Georgetown, and an area in Navarro County also showed off hidden histories as Texas baked in the sun.

RELATED: Here's why dams in Texas are so darn important

Around the same time the next year the Texas Observer went to the site and surveyed the scene as guides pointed out the foundations of homes, a cotton gin, and even the local bank.

Heavy rains over the past year have pushed Lake Buchanan back up to nearly 99 percent full and a local website proclaims it "full and beautiful" welcoming visitors to the area.

Clara Tuma, spokeswoman foe the Lower Colorado River Authority, said that the lake was considered "full" after months of major flooding.

"The Bluffton area began to get re-submerged May 2015 and it was completely covered by this past May after all the rain we got," Tuma told the Houston Chronicle.

It had a decent run, it appears, as a local tourist attraction.

Let's hope we won't be seeing Old Bluffton for some time, but when and if drought hits Texas again the remains of the city once bolstered by a yearly pecan harvest will be there for a new generation to explore.

For now, the man-made lake is great for striped bass and white bass fishing and the fish are the only visitors to Old Bluffton.

Though salt appears everywhere, you may have never seen a salt works. Today, finding salt cheaply and easily is simply a matter of going to your nearest grocery store, but that salt has to come from nature. Salt works extract the salt from water or the ground, and a very important one of these facilities once sat near the Colorado River. Now, that salt works has disappeared beneath the waters of Lake Buchanan, though you can visit the historic marker near the original site, located between Old Bluffton and Tow Valley.

CSA Salt Works

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

CSA? Yes, the Confederacy ran the salt works under what is today Lake Buchanan. Most humans and animals must have salt to live, and the Confederacy operated the salt works to supply salt to the horses in its cavalry in addition to salt for human consumption. In the days before refrigeration, salting meat preserved it, which made salt for military meat rations a critical part of supplying the troops. Though started before the war by David Cowan, the CSA made use of the facility through the war. It lasted until 1871 when a “salt works cyclone” destroyed the facility.

Origins of the Salt

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Where did the salt come from? Lake Buchanan is a fresh water lake, and the Gulf of Mexico is hundreds of miles away. How did the salt works procure salt without an ocean? Though no ocean exists today, 500 million years ago, much of Texas was under a shallow sea. At various times throughout history, the sea level rose and fell, depositing layers of salt on the ground. Men later took advantage of these mineral deposits through the salt works. Natives in the area directed white settlers to a salt plain, which remained in use by locals until the salt works was established.

Production Levels

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

At its peak, the CSA salt works produced 20 to 30 bushels each day. To generate this much, workers boiled water in 100 iron kettles, each holding 250 gallons. This salt contributed to supplying Confederate troops throughout the war and to others in the area after the war ended.

References:

The Portal to Texas History: Ledbetter Salt Works

The Historical Marker Database: C.S.A. Salt Works

Wikipedia: Tow, Texas