Old Lake Dam

The water here was a promise. The Handbook of Texas says Ennis won the railroad's northern division headquarters on condition that it supply water to the machine shops and roundhouse, and that as long as it could, the shops could not be moved. The city built a lake for that purpose in 1891, another in 1895 and a third in 1940, and used the water for more than trains, while wells supplied drinking water. Between 1910 and 1915 the railroad tried to move the shops anyway, and the community won in the courts.

What the plaque says

Old Lake Dam Constructed in 1891, this dam created a body of water known variously as the City Reservoir, Ennis Railroad Lake, and Old City Lake. It was built in answer to a proposal by the Houston and Texas Central Railroad to move its divisional headquarters to Ennis from Corsicana. The lake provided water for the train station and machine shops. The location of the railroad here contributed to the growth of the city, and in recent years the Old Lake Dam has provided recreational facilities and flood control for the area. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ellis County Courthouse — 12 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 20 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Cedar Ridge Preserve — 28 mi
  A 633-acre Audubon Dallas preserve at the western edge of Dallas County, with about nine miles of trails through prairie, woodland and escarpment hills.

More markers nearby

• Frederick Harrison Rankin — 1.1 mi
• Jay Justin Clarke — 1.1 mi
• Katie Daffan — 1.1 mi
• Jack Lummus — 1.1 mi