Water Supply of
Coleman, Texas
by Ralph Terry
continued
from Pump Station No. 1 on Hords Creek, Reservoir
and Coleman City Lake
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Lake
Scarborough
New Pump Station No. 1
at Lake Scarborough - 1930
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Lake
Scarborough was built in 1928, about 4.3
miles northeast of the Coleman County
Courthouse (not northwest as shown on the
1930 map). The Lake was named for E.
P. Scarborough, who came to Coleman in
1916 as the manager of the Coleman Abstract
Company. He was elected Mayor of
Coleman in 1920, serving until 1933, then
was elected again in 1933, serving until his
death in 1943. The lake had 50 surface
acres of water and served Coleman for many
years as the principal lake for Coleman’s
water supply. The Lake Scarborough
filtration plant was the first to serve the
city of Coleman. It and the pump
station (below left) had been built at the
time of the lake was constructed in 1928.
After the
Lake Scarborough pump station and filtration
plant had been built, it was called Pump
Station No. 1 and the old Pump Station No. 1
was renamed Pump Station No. 2 and was used
only in emergencies. Lake Scarborough
continued to be used, along with Hords Creek
Lake until after Lake Coleman was built.
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1948 map
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Lake
Scarborough Filtration Plant and Pump Station,
1940 |
Lake
Scarborough, 1970s
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The Lake
Scarborough water filter plant by destroyed by
a small tornado in April 1979. There was
also some damage in the Glen Cove area.
This was in the same storm system that did
heavy damage in Wichita Falls, north Texas and
Oklahoma, killing 54 people in Texas.
This event was called Terrible Tuesday.
A number of tornadoes were spawned by three
supercells thunderstorms. A number of
losses also occurred in Coleman County to
barns, grain bins, fencing and houses.
Destruction of the lake’s filtration plant
created problems for the coming summer of the
city of Coleman. The
filtration system and pump station were still
used at times when the new filtration plant in
Coleman was overtaxed. The
filtration system of the city was taxed the
previous summer when demands for water
exceeded the 3 million gallon mark and the
plant at Lake Scarborough was put into
use. The city council was considering
short term and long term plans for the coming
summer. The electrical sub-station was
repaired at the cost of $15,000 in
materials. This was priority work as the
sub-station served Lake Coleman and the pump
station there. |
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For the next chapter in the story of
the Water Supply of Coleman see Hords
Creek Lake
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