Jacob Vaughn Unfair Park from p4 Now, he said, “To turn it back to a lake would take a lot of money.” It could cost a couple million dollars, he said, “and what else could you do with a couple million dol- lars in this neighborhood other than fix an old lake? On the needs list, I think it would probably be pretty far down.” After all, the area is plagued by issues like high crime, food insecurity and a lack of eco- nomic growth, all of which could use such an investment. Lemmon Lake’s story began in May 1897 when it was purchased for a fishing and hunting club known as the Trinity River Rod and Gun Club. In the late 1800s, hunting and fishing clubs were a trend and many were created along the Trinity River in Dallas. The Trinity River Rod and Gun Club was created as a hunting and fishing paradise before the car was brought to North Texas. An old newspaper clipping about the club purchase at the time read: “The Trinity Rod and Gun Club, recently organized, has just purchased 300 acres of land, including and surrounding Miller’s lake, close to the river, eight miles south of Dallas. Its mem- bers claim that by this purchase they have obtained possession of one of the finest hunting and fishing tracts in the state. There is a lake of 200 acres in the tract and it is pro- posed to develop it to the utmost.” People liked the club because it was close to downtown Dallas. You could travel there by horse or by trains, Sandifer said. A set of train tracks run past Joppa Preserve off of River Oaks Road, and there used to be a stop there called Lakewood where well-healed people could stop and be right at the club. At the entrance of Joppa Preserve, you can see where the old fishing and hunting club used to stand. Trees are scattered throughout the area now. Some of the post oak and hickory trees predate European set- tlement of Dallas. “So, these are ancient trees,” Sandifer said. Before the club was there, Dallas had its first Juneteenth cele- bration with freed slaves at the site. There have been many events at Joppa 66 Preserve since. Claudia Fowler, a former Joppa resident, has only walked the trails at Jacob Vaughn Left to right: An aquifer pond in the Trinity forest; Sandifer stands in the Trinity forest. Bottom left: Lemmon Lake was a sportsmans’ paradise in the 1950s. the Trinity River channel grew wider and deeper due to urbanization upstream, so the river carries a lot more water than it used to. This is because there are more non-porous surfaces like parking lots upstream with ur- ban development, which sends rainwater runoff rushing into streams rather than soaking into the ground. As a result, there’s a lot of large-scale ero- sion along the Trinity River. One of the things that was damaged by the erosion and has not seen any kind of repair or mainte- nance work is the Lemmon Lake levee in one area, which has been failing for about the last 10 years. Eventually, this part of the levee just gave out. Some of the first times Sandifer went to Joppa Preserve, he was hesitant to go off the trail because he doesn’t particularly like snakes and some other animals he’d find in the forest. But, he eventually mustered up the courtesy Ben Sandifer the preserve once because she said she’s afraid of snakes, but she’s helped organize many events at the park. The most popular, Fowler said, was Joppa Juneteenth. The club went defunct in the 1960s-70s The person who originally owned the land wanted to turn it into a gravel pit. But, in 1980, a guy named Bill Barrett, a local philanthropist, challenged Dallas County with money to purchase the roughly 250 acres that would eventually become the Joppa Preserve. The deal included Lemmon Lake and Little Lemmon Lake. Barrett wanted to turn it into a southern White Rock Lake. The money didn’t come from the most conventional place. “If you drank Coors beer in the 1970s, you helped pay for this,” Sandifer said. Barrett owned a place called Willow Distribution and was the sole provider of Coors beer back in the ’70s. “That’s somebody’s beer money that paid for Lemmon Lake,” Sandifer said. There was a pitch around 2001-2005 from the Army Corps of Engineers to fix the levee and bisect Lemmon Lake to turn it into two lakes. It would have water control fea- tures to attract the most wildlife possible. The lake was also high on the list of places to build the Trinity River Audubon Center, but those plans didn’t pan out. One of the bad things that happened to Lemmon Lake over the years was that it was cut off from its water supply when the Trinity Trail Phase One was built in 2008- 2009. It forever changed the hydrology of the lake, Sandifer said. The move starved the lake from its water source, which was a small creek called Cob’s Ditch that runs between Little Lemmon Lake and Lem- mon Lake. The lake started to go dry during the summer months and would really only fill up during big flooding events. The other thing that happened with Lemmon Lake is courage to go inside. “It was a super beauti- ful place. I’m a native of Dallas and had never seen anything like it,” Sandifer said. “It looked like I was along the Gulf Coast or in Louisiana or in South America with some of the stuff I saw.” Once he found a way inside and access points for the lake, he started going there ev- ery evening after work. “It was so cool. I would see different things every time. I would see coyotes or bobcats, deer, that kind of thing,” he said. That day this September, big stickers called cockleburs were his enemy. They gripped his clothes as he made his way to the levee breach, balloon vine scattered all around. Opening one of them up, you could see the seeds: black on one end and white on the other, resembling a yin yang. Along his trek to the levee, Sandifer came across an aquifer-fed pond that he often vis- its. On the shore of the pond is an old wood structure that’s fallen apart over the years. It was a pump house built around the time of World War I. The pump house would help supply water to a nearby farm. >> p8 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 OCTOBER 14–20, 2021 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com
