The earthen dam that holds Lake Raven in Huntsville State Park was built by Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1823, an African American company of First World War veterans. The company began work in 1937, building the park under the National Park Service and the Texas State Park Board on land Walker County had bought with a $20,000 bond issue. Before the lake could fill, the men cleared the future lake bed of standing timber, then raised a dam about 1,000 feet long that impounded Prairie and Chinquapin creeks to form Lake Raven. They also built the group recreation hall, the boathouse, stone culverts and road curbing. In November 1940, 12 inches of rain fell in two days. The spillway gave way and Lake Raven drained, which ended plans for a bathhouse and cabins. There was no money for repairs, and the CCC withdrew in 1942, during the Second World War.
The lake stayed empty for more than a decade, though the park opened on a limited basis in wartime summers. In the 1950s the State Parks Board was authorized to sell timber from the park, under the supervision of the Texas Forest Service, to pay for rebuilding the dam. A private contractor began the repairs in 1955 and finished in April 1956, and the 2,083-acre park opened to the public on May 18, 1956.
Getting there
30.6095, -95.5341
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
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