Even though the celebration has been going on all year and last year depending if you count the construction start of White Rock Lake in 1910.   The lake was built because the city was growing so fast and suffering from a major drought and Bachman Lake just couldn’t handle the demand anymore.  September 1, 1911 seems to be the generally accepted date of when the dam was finally completed.

September 1, 1911: Daily Dallas Times Herald reports that White Rock Dam is completed (except for upstream guard of the spillway and sluiceway) and that the reservoir already contains 800,000,000 gallons of water.

Did you know in 1944 White Rock Lake Park was home to a World War II POW camp? “During their incarceration at White Rock, they worked nights at Fair Park repairing army equipment. At war’s end, they were repatriated to their “fatherland.” Apparently, they were reasonably well treated. At least one former POW wrote a letter to the Dallas Morning News after the war, asking someone to sponsor him so that he and his family could move to Dallas.”