The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993 Page: 218
681 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historzcal Quarterly
On January 3 the Board of Trade met in the hall of the Musical
Union, where they had rented rooms. Wooldridge re-read his letter,
along with a communication from John Pope, the city engineer. Pope,
apparently at Wooldridge's behest, had made a preliminary survey of
the Colorado River valley and drawn up a plan for a 5o-foot dam and
other facilities. An animated discussion followed. John McDonald, a
local building contractor, took exception to Wooldridge's description of
the surrounding land as poor and partly "sterile." Others shared his
annoyance; the city was trying to lure settlers and the newspaper was a
primary instrument of propaganda.
They turned the matter over to Judge Alexander Terrell, a local in-
stitution who had served sixteen years in the state legislature. In true
legislative fashion, and from behind his heavy mustache, he supported
both sides, saying that the hard words about agriculture were unfor-
tunate, though he agreed with "my friend Wooldridge" that irrigation
was, in principle, a fine idea.7 But talk soon turned to other matters.
The propagandizers of "Austin, Texas, the Invalid's Home" preferred
to lure settlers in other ways, stressing their town's religious and social
institutions and balmy climate, cooled by "incessant gulf breezes."8 In
fact, serious interest in a dam died down for more than a year.
This "season of inaction"9 ended in 1889, when Wooldridge tried
again. There was some current interest in the prospect of a spinning
mill, and he supported the idea, wondering whether "our people know
that the very cotton grown in Travis County is, some of it, shipped to
the mountains of Switzerland and Spain, there to be manufactured by
cheap water power into cloth, which cloth is, perhaps, shipped back
here to Travis county for use and consumption?" It would be "foolish,
almost criminal" to let the water power of the Colorado River go by
Austin's doorstep while such a state of affairs was ("perhaps") the case.
His new plan called for a stripped-down, 38-foot dam without a canal,
to cost $100oo,ooo, which he figured could be raised half by private sub-
scription and half through a bond issue. Irrigation had left the stage
and would not be considered again. Cheap water power from the
Colorado would lure factories to Austin, and general industrialization
would not be far behind. The water power could be used at the dam
or converted by "modern science and art" into electricity for general
use. How much power would this be? Wooldridge did not speculate,
7Austin Daily Statesman, Jan. 1 (1st quotation), 4 (2nd quotation), 1888; Humphrey, Austzn-
An Illustrated Itstory, 6o
8Austin Daily StateAman, Jan 4 (1st quotation), Mar. 19, 1888 (2nd quotation)
gIbid., June 8, 1893.218
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 96, July 1992 - April, 1993, periodical, 1993; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101215/m1/262/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.