BBE 5 - White Rock Lake

Not too far from Swiss Avenue is another Dallas treasure, White Rock Lake. There are some big, impressive estates along the road around this 1000-acre lake. One that sits on a hill, at the top of acres of lawn, is the family home of the H.L. Hunt family, called Mount Vernon. It resembles George Washington’s house.

When Dallas was growing in the early 1900s, it outgrew its water supply. So a creek was dammed and White Rock Lake was formed. Facilities at the lake were built by CCC crews. During WW II, the site was used first as a boot camp, and then as a prisoner-of-war camp for German soldiers (some of whom asked to stay when the war was over).

The Lake went through a period of disrepair, but in recent times has been refurbished for multi-use recreation. It’s beautiful. It’s used by lots of birds, too, some of them – cormorants and pelicans – seem strangely out of place so far inland.

Again, you can see better pictures of the area on the internet. This is the only one I took. All those little lumps in the trees are cormorants. I had never seen them in a tree before.



This blog site has some great Pictures of Dallas.