Law of Geography

Paluxy River

White Bluff Creek

“SIR, SIR” came an urgent shout from some distance behind me.

I was standing near the confluence of White Bluff Creek and the Paluxy River on what is sometimes referred to as Flat Rocks with my back to the road traversing the creek without a bridge. It was an early spring morning after a rainstorm the night before. I stopped my car a few minutes earlier to enjoy hearing nothing except the sound of water rushing over the limestone riverbed.

About 6 miles upstream from Glen Rose, Texas, and less than a mile from the little patch of land made famous in the book Hard Scrabble by John Graves. Flat Rocks is a nickname given to the fairly flat and usually dry rock formation of a few thousand square feet. It may be that the locals called it flat rocks because the city park in Glen Rose is officially named “Big Rocks”. It was popular as an out of the way place for high schoolers to congregate on weekend nights around campfires many years ago, perhaps it still is.

When I turned around, there was an SUV with the logo of the local sheriff’s department on the side. The deputy sitting with his arm hanging out the window began waving me over to his truck.

“With all the rain last night the flood gates at Possom Kingdom have been opened. The water will be rising soon. You need to drive to higher ground.” he said authoritatively.

“Sure I will get moving on down the road,” I replied, not knowing or wanting to find the ramifications of challenging the local rural law enforcement. But my thought was “Barney Fife reincarnate”. I wondered what had been actually communicated by the sheriff’s office given and how much leeway was generally given to deputies to interpret and carry out their orders. He gave a quick goodby salute and proceeded to drive further upstream along the road that follows the river.

The likelihood of my feet getting wet from the release of water from Possom Kingdon was extremely remote. The Paluxy River is not below the Possom Kingdom reservoir (one of several reservoirs on the Brazos River). The Paluxy River drains into the Brazos, but only water backing up from the Brazos would cause a flood in the Paluxy River from a release at the Possom Kingdom. The Paluxy River at the confluence of the Brazos River might rise 5–10 feet, but I was standing more than 10 miles upstream from that point and at least 30 to 40 feet higher in elevation. If George Washington Hayduke (The Monkeywrench Gang) came to Texas and simultaneously destroyed the two dams upstream from the point where the Paluxy emptied into the Brazos (Possom Kingdom and Lake Granbury), I am pretty sure I would not have to tread water. A few towns would be washed away, however.

Geological survey maps later confirmed my curiosity of how far underwater the sheriff’s office would be before my feet got wet. The deputy when arriving back to his office in Glen Rose would need to dive 20 feet below the surface to reach his office. Hope he had scuba gear in the back of the SUV.