Buchanan Dam Museum organizers seek oral histories, artifacts, and photos

The history of Buchanan Dam meets present-day storytelling technology in a newly founded Buchanan Dam Museum at the Lake Buchanan/Inks Lake Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center. 

A new chamber director and a renowned storyteller are collecting oral histories, photos, and artifacts from families connected to the construction and operation of the world’s longest multi-arch dam. They are also looking for anyone with memories of the area before and after Lake Buchanan was filled. Displays and videos of one-on-one interviews are expected to be ready for viewing sometime in March 2026, but the project will be ongoing. 

“Buchanan Dam will be celebrating its 90th birthday in 2028,” chamber Director Jeri Deveraux said. “By the 100th, we hope the museum will be in its own historic building.” 

Meanwhile, she and professional storyteller Donna Christopher Ingham of Spicewood are collecting stories and research for the first phase of the museum, which will be housed in what is now the chamber boardroom in the Visitors Center at 19611 Texas 29 East in Buchanan Dam. 

“Donna already has a wealth of knowledge about this area, and she is an amazing storyteller,” Deveraux said. “She has experience interviewing people for their oral histories. She certainly shortens my learning curve!” 

Deveraux took over as chamber director on June 24 and immediately kickstarted the museum project, which has been on the books for decades. 

“The board found articles talking about this museum since the 1960s,” she said. “This was an idea just waiting to happen.” 

On Aug. 1, the Buchanan Dam Museum received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. Deveraux is actively recruiting advisors to facilitate writing the bylaws and establishing a board of directors separate from the chamber’s board.

“This is not a sister organization,” she said of the museum. “This is a standalone organization.”

Other entities involved in helping gather history for the museum include the historical commissions of Burnet and Llano counties and the Herman Brown Free Library in Burnet, which has an extensive archive of local history and genealogy.

Three years ago, the Burnet County Historical Commission took over a Lake Buchanan/Inks Lake Chamber of Commerce project to apply for a Texas Historical Marker for the dam. The marker was approved and erected at the old Texas 29 bridge earlier this year. A dedication ceremony is planned for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. 

Money is another important step in developing the museum, said Deveraux, who is submitting grant applications and organizing a chamber fundraiser. 

The Dam ‘Fun’d Bunco fundraiser is 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, at Hill Country Hall, 15675 Texas 29 in Buchanan Dam. The event features a bunco tournament, dinner, silent auction, and prizes. Proceeds will be gifted from the chamber to the museum. Much of the money is expected to fund the oral history project. 

“I have seen this done in other museums,” said Deveraux, citing the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., as a prime example. 

Deveraux is also seeking donations or loans of photos and artifacts for display. 

“The images and artifacts provided will support these stories and really make them resonate,” she said.

The stories told will add personal experiences to the well-known official history of Buchanan Dam, which can be found in books and news articles.

Construction of the 2-mile dam began in 1931, early on in the Great Depression. However, the company building it went bankrupt a year later, and work came to a standstill. 

In 1935, a group of Central Texas leaders, including Roy B. Inks of Llano, went to Washington, D.C., to lobby for support. That trip cost Inks his life. He died 10 days after his return due to complications from an illness he contracted on the trip.

Other lobbyists included attorney Alvin Wirtz and congressional aide Lyndon B. Johnson. Wirtz has another dam in the Highland Lakes chain named after him, and Johnson later became president of the United States. 

The dam’s namesake, U.S. Rep. James P. “Buck” Buchanan, was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which means he had his fingers on the nation’s purse strings. Wirtz and Johnson worked to have Buchanan’s congressional district redrawn to include the dam and name the imposing structure after him. It was originally called Hamilton Dam after the CEO of the failed construction company. 

Wirtz’s law firm, which represented the failed construction company, wrote the legislation that formed the Lower Colorado River Authority to operate the dam. His firm soon represented the LCRA and the new construction company that took over. Wirtz and Johnson worked together to found Brown and Root, which soon became the world’s largest construction company. Johnson embarked on a political path that famously led him to be the 36th president of the United States.

The Buchanan Dam Museum will add to that narrative the stories of the families who worked on the dam, fed or provided services for the laborers, were uprooted by the lake waters, or helped build the community around the lake once it was filled. Anyone with a connection to the dam or who was affected by its construction and the lake it created is welcome to come tell their stories. 

“These people with a connection to the dam are still a part of this community, whether they live here or not,” Deveraux said. “There was a lot of controversy while the dam was being built. A whole town (Old Bluffton) was uprooted, and people lost their pecan groves, their cotton fields. They lost their stability, while other people who didn’t have jobs now had jobs working on the dam. There was a lot of human interest at play and still at play.” 

To learn more about the Buchanan Dam Museum project or to tell your story, visit buchanan-inks.com, call 512-793-2803, or email buchinksoffice@gmail.com. The Lake Buchanan/Inks Lake Chamber and Visitors Center is located at 19611 Texas 29 East in Buchanan. Hours are 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

suzanne@thepicayune.com