Dinosaur tracks discovered on river bottom

Lake Grapevine has attracted fishermen, boaters and campers to its sparkling waters for more than five decades.

But along with the abundant opportunities for outdoor enjoyment, the lake has also been a source of heartache and tribulation when Mother Nature has been unkind.

Periodic droughts have meant water conservation measures in area cities and forced the closing of boat ramps, reducing access to the lake.

Currently at 525 feet, nearly 10 feet below full pool level, the lake is at one of its lowest levels since impoundment in 1952—making it hard to imagine that extreme rainfall twice sent water rushing over the spillway in major floods.

The first flood occurred in June 1957, when water ran over the spillway because of heavy rainfall.

"The fire department and the Boy Scouts put out sandbags on the spillway to stop the flooding," said former Fire Chief Bill Powers, who retired in 1999 after 44 years of service with the Grapevine Fire Department.

Officials had a hard time keeping residents away from the spillway, according to Grapevine historical accounts. Children enjoyed sliding down the waterfall on pieces of cardboard.

Another major rainfall that occurred Oct. 31, 1981, sent water gushing over the spillway as the lake reached a historic high of 563.5 feet in what has become known as the Great Flood.

"The force of the water rushing out of the lake ripped out bridges crossing Denton Creek below the dam at Fairway Drive and Dalton Road," according to a report in the now defunct Grapevine Sun. "The creek itself was widened and deepened to a roaring river of water more than 70 feet across and 40 feet deep."

The Grapevine Municipal Golf Course was "inundated with 13 holes underwater," according to the report. Also, lakeside businesses were swamped, lift stations were flooded and thousands of fish littered the roads and shoreline areas around the 7,280-acre lake.

Flooding of area roads was widespread. The rushing water "created an awesome and beautiful, if temporary, natural wonder," according to the Grapevine Sun. The waters tore away layers of topsoil, exposing natural formations and "creating a 70-foot-wide, 50-foot-deep chasm filled with rushing water."

"The sight attracted hundreds of sight-seers who walked more than a mile over the barricaded dam to watch the waters cascading down from the spillway, creating leaping columns of water sometimes 10 feet high," according to the report.

After the waters subsided three weeks later, a deep channel created by the rushing water yielded an unexpected discovery—dinosaur tracks.

These tracks were a first in Tarrant County, and archeologists determined they were the first hadrosaur tracks in Texas. The hadrosaur was a duck-billed dinosaur that lived in the area about 80 million years ago.

Cast replicas of the dinosaur tracks are on display in the Grapevine Historical Society Museum, 705 S. Main St. The museum is open on weekends.