Brazos River Levee

The levee guarded the part of Burleson County that was farmed hardest. The Brazos bottoms, a nearly level alluvial valley covering almost a quarter of the county, filled with cotton plantations in the 1850s, worked by enslaved people. Later most Black families there were tenants, and in the 1890s landowners who needed field hands helped settle Sicilian sharecroppers in the same eastern bottoms. These were the farms and families the bond money was meant to shield. Somerville Dam on Yegua Creek, finished in 1967, finally ended the flooding and made the thirty-mile bank of earth obsolete.

What the plaque says

Brazos River Levee Destructive Brazos River floods have often plagued residents of Burleson County. In 1899, a 30-inch rain killed 35 and caused about $9 million in property damage. Again in 1900, 1902 and 1908, Brazos River bottom inhabitants endured serious flooding. In 1909, W.S. Mial and 49 other citizens asked commissioners of Burleson County to build levees along the Brazos to protect the valuable farm land. In July 1909, voters unanimously approved the issuance of bonds and the higher taxes to pay off the debt. Contractors Roach and Stansell built the 9-foot levee which extended south for 30 miles. Its test came in December 1913 with a storm far worse than the 1899 flood. Residents of this area, depending on the levees for safety, did not flee until the water had risen dangerously. Too late, they discovered the levee trapped water and then broke, unleashing a wall of destruction from which there was no escape. Victims rode out the flood on roofs and in treetops. There were 180 deaths and $8 million in property loss. Still convinced of the value of the levees, voters in 1914 approved reconstruction bonds. The indebtedness was not retired until 1963, long after modern flood control methods made the area safe. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 10 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 23 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 26 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 30 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.

More markers nearby

• Moseley's Ferry — 1.4 mi
• Bryan Air Force Base — 4.2 mi
• Fort Oldham — 4.6 mi
• Near Homesite of Judge Andrew S. Broaddus — 5.0 mi