Day Trips: Marble Falls
Falls on the Colorado Museum hosts rare Chief Quanah Parker photographs
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Feb. 5, 2016
The Falls on the Colorado Museum in Marble Falls has a secret – there once was a waterfall on the river where the town was built. There is photographic evidence to prove it.
In 2010, the local historical collection moved into the town's 1891 schoolhouse. Built of the same pink granite as the state Capitol, the two-story building served generations of students. It began its second century as a museum and community center. Off in a room to the side is a panoramic photo of the falls at Marble Falls. More a stair step than a waterfall, the granite layers were once a popular landmark on the river.
The town boomed after the state connected the railroad tracks to nearby Granite Mountain to carry stone for the new statehouse building in 1887. By 1951, Max Starcke Dam was built just below town and inundated Lake Marble Falls.
Through the end of February, the museum is hosting the traveling exhibit "Quanah & Cynthia Ann Parker: A Pictorial Exhibit of Their Story." Put together by the Texas Lakes Trail and the Texas Historical Commission, the show is traveling to community museums around the state. The presentation contains 40 rare photos of the Comanche chief and his family, including a portrait taken a year before his death in 1911.
For info on the Falls on the Colorado Museum (2001 W. Broadway, Marble Falls), go to www.fallsmuseum.org. For info on the exceptional traveling exhibit on Quanah Parker, go to www.texaslakestrail.com.
1,280th in a series. Collect them all. Day Trips, a book of "Day Trips," is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 40312, South Austin, TX 78704.
