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The Medina Dam is a hollow masonry type dam built in 1911 and 1912 by the Medina Irrigation Company in what became Mico, Texas. It is located at the south end of Lake Medina in northeastern Medina County, Texas. It was designed and financed by Dr Fred Stark Pearson, an American engineer with extensive British financial backing. The construction took over 1500 men, mostly Mexicans with experience building other dams for Dr Pearson, two years to build the dam while working 24 hours a day. They received two dollars for a days work. When the dam was completed in 1912, it was the largest hydraulic engineering project west of the Mississippi River.[citation needed] It contains over 292,000 cubic yards (223,000 m³) of concrete and the dam measures 164 feet high by 128 feet (39 m) wide at the base by 1,580 feet (482 m) long. It is 25 feet (8 m) wide at the top and the top is 1084 feet (330 m) above sea level while the spillway is 1,072 feet (327 m) above sea level. The dam provides irrigation to over 34,000 acres (138 km²) to Blackland Prairie farmlands below the Balcones Escarpment around Castroville, Texas. The reservoir behind the dam is called Medina Lake and serves as a major recreation area. It discharges into the Medina River which also contains a diversion dam four miles downstream.
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