Historic Log Flume
1890 - 1910
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In the early years of Dallas, before
the coming of logging trucks, the Arboretum site provided
a vital service for Dallas Industry.
This was when timber cut in the high
country came crashing down La Creole Creek to an early
sawmill in Dallas. A series of 3 dams along this small
creek held water to boost logs along when sufficient rainfall
flooded the upper creek. |
At a curve in the La Creole, where the Arboretum is now, a diversion
dam propelled the logs into a flume, which carried them into
a Mill Pond, now Dallas City Park. The sawmill was located at
the West entrance to the park and is identified now by a large
cross section of log erected there.
Remaining in the Arboretum is the last
visible trace of this hazardous early logging, the old
Flume. the channel has been a verdant fern and flower path
for years, but now it has been re-identified as the Historic
Log Flume.
Today when rains fill La Creole Creek,
the flood waters still rush into the Arboretum through
the old Flume. |
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Flume: an inclined channel for conveying water usually from
a distance for various uses (as power production, transportation,
or irrigation).
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