Guadalupe River (Texas)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates: 28°24′07″N 96°46′57″W / 28.40194°N 96.78250°W / 28.40194; -96.78250
Guadalupe River
Texas
Country  United States
State  Texas
Region Texas Hill Country, Texas Coastal Bend
Source Kerr County, Texas
 - elevation 676 m (2,218 ft)
 - coordinates 30°05′17″N 99°38′32″W / 30.08806°N 99.64222°W / 30.08806; -99.64222
Mouth San Antonio Bay, Gulf of Mexico
 - elevation 0 m (0 ft)
 - coordinates 28°24′07″N 96°46′57″W / 28.40194°N 96.78250°W / 28.40194; -96.78250
Length 370 km (230 mi)
Basin 3,256 km2 (1,257 sq mi)
Discharge
 - average 34 m3/s (1,201 cu ft/s)
Map of the Guadalupe River watershed
Website: Handbook of Texas: Guadalupe River

The Guadalupe River runs from Kerr County, Texas to San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The river is a popular destination for rafting, fly fishing and canoeing. Larger cities along the river include Kerrville, New Braunfels, Seguin, Gonzales, Cuero, and Victoria. The Guadalupe has several dams along its length, the most notable of which, Canyon Dam, forms Canyon Lake northwest of New Braunfels.

Course

The upper river, in the Texas Hill Country, is a smaller, faster stream with limestone banks and shaded by pecan and bald cypress trees. It is formed by two main tributary forks, the North Fork and South Fork Guadalupe Rivers.[1][2] The upper Guadalupe is popular as a tubing destination where recreational users often float down the river on inflated tire inner tubes during the spring and summer months. East of Boerne, on the border of Kendall County and Comal County, the river flows through Guadalupe River State Park, one of the more popular tubing areas along the river.

The lower river begins at the outlet of Canyon Lake, near New Braunfels. The section between Canyon Dam and New Braunfels is the most heavily used in terms of recreation. It is a popular destination for whitewater rafters, canoeists, kayakers and tubing. When the water is flowing at less than 1,000 cu ft/s (28 m3/s) there could be hundreds if not thousands of tubes on this stretch of the river. At flows greater than 1,000 cu ft/s (28 m3/s), there should be very few tubes on the water. Flows greater than 1,000 cu ft/s (28 m3/s) and less than 2,500 cu ft/s (71 m3/s) are ideal for rafting and paddling. The flow is controlled by Canyon Dam, and by the amount of rainfall the area has received. It is joined by the Comal River in New Braunfels and the San Marcos River about two miles (3 km) west of Gonzales. The Guadalupe below the San Marcos River, as well as the San Marcos River is part of the course for the Texas Water Safari.

The San Antonio River flows into the Guadalupe River just north of Tivoli. Ahead of the entry into the San Antonio Bay estuary, the river forms a delta and splits into two distributaries referred respectively as the North and South Guadalupe Rivers. Each distributary flows into the San Antonio Bay estuary at Guadalupe Bay.[3][4]

History

The river was first called after Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe by Alonso de León in 1689. It was renamed the San Augustin by Domingo Terán de los Ríos who maintained a colony on the river, but the name Guadalupe persisted. Many explorers referred to the current Guadalupe as the San Ybón above its confluence with the Comal, and instead the Comal was called the Guadalupe. Evidence indicates that the river has been home to humans for several thousand years, including the Karankawa, Tonkawa, and Huaco (pronounced like Waco) Indians.

Being led by Prince Solms, 228 pioneer immigrants from Germany traveled overland from Indianola to the site chosen to be the first German settlement in Texas, New Braunfels. Upon reaching the Guadalupe River, the pioneers found the river too high to cross due to the winter rains. Prince Solms, perhaps wishing to impress the others with his bravado, plunged into the raging waters and crossed the swollen river on horseback. Not to be outdone by anyone, Betty Holekamp immediately followed and successfully crossed the river.[5] Thus Betty Holekamp is known as the first white woman to cross the Guadalupe on horseback.

A sudden flash flood on the river on 17 July 1987 near Comfort swept a bus away from a nearby road. Forty-three people were on the bus at the time as it left a church camp. Ten drowned, while the rest were rescued, mostly from treetops.[6] On April 18, 1989, the story of the deaths and rescues and this flood was aired on the pilot episode of Rescue 911 and it was later made into a television movie called Flood: Who Will Save Our Children?.

Fishing

The Guadalupe River is listed as one of the 100 top trout streams in the United States.[citation needed] In addition to fly fishing for rainbow and brown trout on the tail-waters of the Guadalupe River below Canyon Lake, anglers can catch largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, Guadalupe bass, white bass, and the Rio Grande cichlid.

River conditions/flow

Guadalupe River conditions can change rapidly. The Guadalupe River flow is set by the dam at Canyon Lake operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. It is highly regulated and well maintained to ensure safety. The Guadalupe River is, however, prone to severe flooding. During the rainy seasons the water can reach well above the banks of the river and exceed "normal" levels, in which case the Guadalupe river can become life threateningly dangerous due to swift currents. If the flow gauge exceeds 1,000 cubic feet per second at the Sattler Gage, the river is generally considered by local authorities as too dangerous for recreational purposes for all except expert kayakers and/or whitewater rafters. On October 31, 2013, the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels, Texas, rose from 74 cfs to 33,500 cfs in one hour and fifteen minutes due to locally heavy rainfall.

Points of interest

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guadalupe River.

See also

References

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: North Fork Guadalupe River
  2. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: South Fork Guadalupe River
  3. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: North Guadalupe River
  4. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: South Guadalupe River
  5. ↑ Ransleben, Guido E.; A Hundred Years of Comfort in Texas; 1954
  6. ↑ 10 Lives Lost: The 20th Anniversary of the Guadalupe River Disaster | WOAI.COM: San Antonio News

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.