Lakehills, TX
Lakehills, Texas is a beautiful hill country community near Medina Lake in Bandera County. Situated approximately 31 miles northwest of San Antonio, Lakehills is a popular area for gaining access to Medina Lake and the recreational opportunities the lake has to offer.
Lakehills, also known as Upper Medina Lake, is on Park Road 37 eight miles south of Bandera Falls in southeastern Bandera County. County road improvements that began in the late 1930s were delayed by World War II, and as a result, development of the area did not really begin until the 1950s. The community was known as Upper Medina Lake until a post office substation was established there in the early 1960s. The Lakehills station was operated as a contract post office, supervised by the postmaster at Pipe Creek. The population of Lakehills in the mid-1970s was reported as 300. By the early 1990s it had risen to 2,239.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bandera County History Book Committee, History of Bandera County, Texas (Dallas: Curtis, 1986). Vivian Elizabeth Smyrl
The cool, clear waters of the Medina River, flowing out of the beautiful Texas Hill Country were very enticing to early settlers. As early as 1840, Henri Castro, who lent his name to the small Texas town of Castroville, envisioned using the waters of the Medina for irrigating the lands of the Medina Valley. It wasn't until 1910, however, that an engineer, Frederick Stark Pearson, could increase interest in the project and raise the necessary funds.
Construction took a little more than one year, from 1911 - 1912. Overall, the construction of Medina Dam took 1,500 workers working day and night to pour over 290,000 cubic yards of concrete. When complete the dam stood 164 feet above the river bed.
Today, waters flow through a wide-spread system of canals to irrigate farmlands to the south of Medina Dam, just as Henri Castro had envisioned. The dam backs up the Medina River into a reservoir that covers 5,575 acres. It provides a beautiful setting for recreation and relaxation.
Medina Lake is a reservoir on the Medina River in the Texas Hill Country of the United States. It is operated by the Bexar/Medina/Atascosa County Agricultural District and was impounded in 1913 to provide irrigation water for local agricultural use. Lake Medina is in northeastern Medina County, and southeastern Bandera County, about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of San Antonio. It is a crescent-shaped reservoir running west to east. It is 18 miles (29 km) long and 3 miles (5 km) wide at its broadest point. It is contained by the Medina Dam at the lake's south end. The lake is fed by and discharges back into the Medina River, and serves both recreational and irrigation uses. Communities located along the lake are Mico, Lake Medina Shores and Lakehills.
Medina Lake has been stocked with species of fish intended to improve the utility of the reservoir for recreational fishing. Fish present in Medina Lake include largemouth bass, white bass, hybrid striped bass, and catfish.
