Part of the problem: besides the whole downstream thing, is the fact that the Brazos River just isn't the main source of commerce. One the reason why Waco was the bigger city in the turn of the century was that the river was an economic basis and the main source of water, as well as being in the downtown area. That's why having parks, businesses, and neat bridges is viable.

Conversely, the Brazos River is on the edge of town where nothing is.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder:

And another big difference is the soils here and the soils in the Waco area. The river has a much higher sediment load by the time it reaches Brazos County.

The river at Falls Park near Marlin in Falls County is beautiful - the park not so much now that it has been given to the county to run by TPWD.



[This message has been edited by aggiepublius (edited 6/29/2012 4:47p).]

Information regarding numerous sections of the Brazos River and its tributaries

http://southwestpaddler.com/docs/brazos.html

[This message has been edited by Yuccadoo (edited 7/1/2012 12:52a).]

[This message has been edited by Yuccadoo (edited 7/1/2012 12:52a).]

Not sure why we have unrelated pictures of high-fenced animals in a thread about the Brazos River...

Anywho..., with rare exceptions (like the Hildago Falls area), to deem the Brazos "treacherous", "fast moving", or simply dangerous shows a lack of actual time spent on or in the river. The main reason canoers and kayakers don't like the Brazos (at normal levels) is not its semi-muddy waters, it's because it is boring...slow, often shallow.
After severe runoff due to upstream rain, the story changes as the level can rise significantly, but that is an obvious situation, which can easily be monitored from the comfort of home, via the USGS/Brazos River Authority site.
Most drownings could have been easily prevented, but the armchair outdoorsmen decide to deem the Brazos dangerous, just like some stretches of highways are labeled as such...when it's really the users of the river/highway that are the cause of problems.
But due the Brazos County area proximity to lots of flood water with so many upstream feeds, developing anything "on the river" would be a supreme waste of $$, as the forces of nature would prevail.

There are a few places to go tubing on the Brazos River near Glenrose, TX. but the bottom of the river there is rock/gravel. Just like it is in Gruene.

Here it's mud/dirt and just isn't "pretty". As someone who enjoys the hunting/fishing along the Brazos, I do NOT want a bunch of resorts, tubing companies etc going in anywhere near it.

We not not have to develop every square inch of real estate.

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Not sure why we have unrelated pictures of high-fenced animals in a thread about the Brazos River...

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Backdrops were on the Brazos, as in 30-100' away. Removed them to prevent confusion.

Yuccadoo,
I hunt/fish etc just down the road from you on the river. Is the highfenced place yours?

Yes, and on both sides of them.

Yuccadoo - fwiw - I liked the pictures.

Here's one that is 'legal', with the river in the background. You can see the new new baby Addax on the left just inside the high fence....they were probably about 1 or 2 weeks old in this picture:




[This message has been edited by Yuccadoo (edited 7/1/2012 4:28p).]

TLIAC...I posted some shots of the herds over on the outdoor board, FWIW:

http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2108326&forum_id=34

Comfort Ag mentioned the big flood:

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but back around 1993 everything was a huge lake on the other side of the river all the way to the rise just before Snook. It was quite a sight.

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That flood was actually December '90/January '91. Here are some pictures from my front yard. Sorry for the vertical exageration, it was taken by a panarama camera and Ritz Photo digitized it this way, but the river was almost 8 miles wide in front of my place:

That particular flood was actually exacerbated by the dams upstream of our area. Those dams were under intense pressure, due to drought in the prvious years, to not release water. A system parked itself over the Brazos watershed from north to south Texas for about 3 weeks and then, on the last days of its' residence, dropped about 18" of rain near Bryson, TX in 32 hours and then the dams had a dilemna....and were forced to open floodgates wide open. So what was potential storage to prevent flooding became a driver for larger flooding downstream. I could tell stories for hours about incidents related to this flood. HUBE amount of bank erosion just downstream of my place.

edited for horrific spelling errors

[This message has been edited by Yuccadoo (edited 7/1/2012 5:00p).]

One of my first jobs out of college I was a landman for an oil brokerage. I would run title on properties that oil companies were trying to lease. Part of that process was plating the different parcels of land. I ran a lot of property along the Brazos. It was very interesting to see the shape of the property along the Brazos change over the years due to erosion, etc. We would start in 1845 and work forward. It was a history lesson every day.

Yuc....not to derail this thread...but out of curiosity how much are you looking for for that rental house of yours? Assuming its yours...

I just rented it...it is a duplex. Now tied up until July 1, 2013. Give me a buzz May of next year if you are still interested.

TLIAC - googlemap of the floodplain reveals hundreds of meander scars and oxbow lakes. The Brazos used to run on the Snook side of the valley only 100+ years ago and cut across the valley where FM 50 crosses the bridge over that meander scar headed south into Clay. Yes, the Brazos has always been all over the place.

[This message has been edited by Yuccadoo (edited 7/3/2012 7:56a).]