Project
Purpose: The Wallisville Lake Project was originally authorized
by Congress for five purposes: navigation, salinity control, water
supply, fish and wildlife enhancement, and recreation. These purposes
are still current today even though the Project is much different now than
originally conceived. The Trinity River is navigable by pleasure
boats from its mouth and north as far as Liberty, Texas. The Galveston Bay area
shrimp fleet utilizes the Trinity as safe harbor during major hurricane
events. The Wallisville Lock & Dam and Structure A provide for salinity
control by opening and closing depending on tides, river flows, winds,
and drought conditions. The Trinity River is a major source of water
for the Houston metro area, for several smaller communities, and for
irrigation canal districts in both Liberty and Chambers Counties.
Unlike most other Corps projects, Wallisville has no impounded
reservoir so the bottomland forests, grasslands, streams, marshes,
swamps, and pools are still preserved as natural habitats for a wide
variety of fish and aquatic animals. Depending on tides and fish
movements, anglers could find marine species one day and fresh species
the next. Birds, such as colonial waders, shore birds, waterfowl,
songbirds, and raptors call Wallisville home for breeding, wintering,
or temporary residence during migration. Mammals large and small find
forage and shelter in the grasslands, forests, and swamps. And we
mustn’t forget our large reptile, the American alligator. Except for the
coldest part of the winter, visitors can expect to see alligators,
sunning along stream or pool banks, or swimming in the Project’s
waters. Parks, Recreation Areas, and the Visitor Center provide
opportunities for picnicking, hiking, birding, primitive camping,
fishing, canoeing and kayaking, and other activities for visiting
families. Fishing can be enjoyed year-round and during waterfowl season
hunters can try their luck and aim on the many waterfowl that migrate
through the Project.
Project Location:
Take I-10 east
from Houston to exit 806. Continue on east on
the feeder road to the Trinity River Island
Recreation Area. Turn right (south) through the gate and drive
approximately 2 miles to the Recreation Area. From the Beaumont area,
take I-10 west, take exit
807. Continue on west on the feeder road to the underpass. Turn left
under I-10 and turn right onto the south feeder road. Turn left (south)
at the Trinity River Island Recreation Area. Go
through the gate and drive approximately 2 miles to the
Recreation Area. The office and visitor center are in the building with the green
roof. There’s room for RV’s, vehicles with or without trailers. Handicap accessible parking is also available. Click here for a pdf
copy of the
Project Map.
Project Area History:
187
archeological sites are recorded on Wallisville Project lands dating
from about 1700BC through the mid twentieth century. Two areas are
listed as National Historic Register Districts: Orcoquisac Archeological
District and the Old Wallisville Townsite. In 1984, 19,700 acres of the
Wallisville Project were determined eligible as a National Register
District. 164 of the archeological sites are shell middens and 23 sites
are from the presidio, mission, town site, and home sites scattered
across the Project. No other area along the Texas coast has been so
thoroughly inventoried for existing archeological sites. The shell
midden sites primarily consist of rangia clam and/or oyster shells
discarded by the early Native Americans who used the clams and oysters
as staple food sources. Akokisa, Arkikosa, and Orcoquiza are alternate
spellings of the names used for these Native American peoples. In 1756
AD the Spanish established Presidio San Luis Agustin de Ahumada del
Orcoquisac and Mission Nuestra Senora de la Luz to help prevent French
settlement and trading with the Orcoquiza and Bidai who were living in
the area at that time. The Presidio was garrisoned with Spanish troops
through 1771. It was officially abandoned in 1772. The missionaries
were the last persons to leave the site. For more information on these
early days see the website for the Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Online
www.tsha.utexas.edu. Search on “Spanish Activities on the Lower
Trinity River, 1746-1771”. The Wallisville area began to be settled by
illegal immigrants from the United States in 1810. Legal immigration
began with Elisha Henry Robert Wallis and family in 1824. The Wallis’s
were part of Stephen F. Austin’s “Old 100” group of settlers. Elisha HR
Wallis’s sons Daniel and Solomon were instrumental in the founding of
the town of Wallisville in the year 1854. Trading, ranching, and
logging were major activities of the settlers. Steamer traffic began in
1838 with the vessel, the Branch T. Archer and by 1893 at least 100
steam powered vessels plied the Trinity. From 1858 – 1908 Wallisville
served as county seat for Chambers County. A thriving community,
Wallisville’s businesses included sawmills, stores, the first newspaper
in Chambers County, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, and Presbyterian
churches, schools, a saddle shop, a cotton gin, a hotel and boarding
houses, physicians and attorneys. The town suffered major damage by the
1875 hurricane and was almost completely destroyed by the hurricane of
1915. For more information on historic Wallisville see the website for
the Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online at
www.tsha.utexas.edu. Search on “Wallisville”. Or you can visit the
Wallisville Heritage Park on the south feeder road of I-10 just east of
the Project entrance.
Project History:
Efforts to construct a saltwater barrier and/or reservoir at Wallisville
on the Trinity River began in 1952. Congress first authorized the
construction of the Project through the River and Harbor Act of October
22, 1962. The government purchased the property and construction began
in 1966. At this point, the Project would have been a 19,700 acre
reservoir with surface elevation of 4 feet above mean sea level. A
contract for water supply, salinity control, and recreation was signed
between the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Trinity River Authority, the
Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District, and the City of Houston
and was approved by the Secretary of the Army on February 2, 1968. In
September 1971, a lawsuit was filed by the Sierra Club in US District
Court against the construction of the Project. At approximately 72%
complete, the construction was halted in 1973 by a summary judgment
decision of the Court. Between 1973 and 1987 the Project was revised
and reevaluated. And in May of 1987 the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
dismissed the lawsuit in favor of the government and lifted the
injunction against continuing construction. Then in November of 1989 a
pair of nesting bald eagles was discovered near Miller Lake and the
Project was reevaluated again. It was this reevaluation that gave rise
to the Project as it stands today: a set of levees along the east and
west banks of the Trinity in conjunction with the dam across the
Trinity, the navigation lock and engineered navigation channel, the
gated control structure on main stem of the Trinity, Structure A in the
Cut-Off near Pickett’s Bayou, Structure B at the head of Lost River, and
our parks and recreation areas. The original 39,000 feet long concrete
dam structure across the marsh was abandoned after it was breached in
2001 to allow for normal water flows of the Old River and several
smaller streams and bayous. Cedar Hill Park was completed in October
2000 and is leased to Chambers County for operation and maintenance.
The JJ Mayes Wildlife Trace was opened to the public in May 2003. Hugo
Point Park was opened in August 2003 and is leased to Chambers County
for operation and maintenance.
Wallisville Lake Project
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
P.O. Box 293
Wallisville, TX 77597
Phone: (409) 389-2285
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