Inks Lake
About 8,000 years ago, prehistoric peoples lived and worked here along the banks of the Colorado River. Later, Spanish and Anglo settlers built communities in the area. A dependable water source, abundant fish and game, and the area’s natural beauty combined to make this an inviting location. Those same features bring people to the shores of Inks Lake today.

For early Hill Country residents, the river proved as much a danger as a blessing. The Colorado River, the largest river entirely within the state of Texas, has a 900-mile course, through which almost 600 billion gallons of water flow in a typical year. Steep slopes and thin, rocky soils channeled runoff into the river, causing frequent, devastating floods.

Created as a means of flood control, Inks Lake is the second in a series of six lakes that make up the “Highland Lakes Chain.” Two dams form the boundaries of Inks Lake—Buchanan Dam to the north, and Inks Dam to the south. Built by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) at the height of the Great Depression, the construction not only improved flood control but employed as many as 1,500 people.

The Texas State Parks Board originally acquired much of the acreage from the LCRA in 1940. The decision to gift the State Parks Board with the property was part of a larger plan, endorsed by local business leaders, to aid the development of the Colorado River. The flood control project on the Colorado River was a signature issue of U.S. Rep. (and future President) Lyndon B. Johnson, who once stated, “Of all the endeavors on which I have worked in public life, I am proudest of the accomplishments in developing the Colorado River.

Gneiss Islands and Vernal Pools
At Inks Lake, the pink rock outcrops jutting up through the surrounding limestone are Valley Spring Gneiss (pronounced “nice”), a pinkish granite-like metamorphic rock formed from recrystallized sedimentary rocks.

These gneiss “islands” support unique, localized, and ecologically significant microhabitats. Over many hundreds of years, larger rocks are broken down into gravels and soil by the plants that grow in crevices and at the base of these formations. Outcrops support a wide array of wildflowers, grasses, forbs, mosses, lichens, and ferns. Most of these plants are small, requiring a keen eye to see tiny flowers, interesting shapes, and colors; well worth the search!

Shallow temporary rainwater basins called vernal pools form on rock outcrops. The thin layer of sand and organic material on the bottom of the pools sustains a great variety of aquatic plants which become dormant when the water dries up in summer. All that’s visible by mid-summer is a thin crust in a dry basin which regenerates with the next spring rain.

Some of these plants, such as rock quillwort and basin corn salad, are found only in this area of Texas, and nowhere else in the world. Dry, gravelly areas, shaded crevices, and the outcrop base may support wild onions, carpets of spike mosses, sedges, native grasses, spiderworts, and several arid land fern species.

Bare rock outcrops offer outdoor laboratories for the study of plant succession, soil development, interesting microhabitats, and their plant communities. Many of these outcrops are quarried or developed throughout Central Texas. Inks Lake State Park protects a valuable representative of this special natural community.

Creating Parks
With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the nation suffered from debilitating unemployment levels. With more than half the young men under 25 years of age out of work, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide employment. The program put young men to work developing state and national parks, as well as rehabilitating forests and controlling soil erosion.

Between 1934 and 1942, the young men of CCC Company 854 labored to create two new state parks here. At Longhorn Cavern, they removed debris from the cavern, and built trails, an administration building, an observation tower, and a lighting system. The beginning of World War II cut short plans for Inks Lake State Park. Despite this, the CCC constructed a boat house and road system with dozens of stone culverts.

The men of CCC Company 854 cleared 30,000 cubic yards of mud and debris from Longhorn Cavern by hand. That’s equal to about 3,000 dump truckloads.