Remembering swimming in White Rock Lake

Growing Up Twins: Two Sides to Every Story (The photo belongs to Paula Selzer, and was pulled from a Dallas Arts News press release.)

Ah the good ol’ days, when White Rock area residents could beat a Texas summer scorching with a dip in White Rock Lake …

though you wouldn’t think of it now, no matter how sweaty, it’s fun to get all nostalgic about the so-called “people’s playground” as neighborhood swimming hole.

To that end, the Bath House Cultural Center/White Rock Lake Museum present “We Used to Swim Here”, an exhibition of historical photographs dating to the time when swimming was allowed at Dallas’ White Rock Lake (1930s or 40s). The exhibition will be on display at the White Rock Lake Museum inside the Bath House Cultural Center from July 10 to Nov. 20.

A free reception for the public is Saturday, July 10 from 7-9 p.m.

Posted by: Christina Hughes Babb on July 6th, 2010 in All Blog Posts, Arts, White Rock Lake
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Dallasm

Why did they ban swimming?
tordown

Why did they ban swimming at White Rock: Polio.
Christina Hughes Babb

The polio answer is common, but Sally Rodriguez, a local historian who recently penned a book about the lake, told me recently that that is urban myth.

The answer, according to her is that in 1952 the city, following a drought, needed to tap the lake as a water supply (it’s original purpose). Hence, swimming at White Rock Lake was banned.

She said: “I hear a lot of urban myths about integration or polio scares causing the ban, but none of that is true. It’s simply because they needed to reactivate the pumps.”

Maybe other reasons contributed to its staying closed though.
http://www.tomatolady.com Jeanette Crumpler

So true. I moved to Dallas in 1948 and we swam a lot at White Rock until the drouth. But the water tasted yucky so we bought the 5 gallon bottles of water that were placed in a big springy holder.
Loved the sandy beach and then swimming out to the platform where the water was deeper (not much though). White Rock is quite shallow. At night in the summer, it was a delightful place to cool off. The platform was lit at night and there would be lots of baby crappie and minnows drawn to the lights. Also one could also ride on motorboats for a while. Later, friends of mine built a catamaran and we sailed on that, but no more swimming there.
Of course, one no-no was wading across the spillway, but many did that too.
Regards,
Dallasm

So, if we aren’t using it for surface water anymore, why is swimming still banned?
Keri Mitchell

Good question. Find No. 10 in Christina’s July story on WRL for the answer:

http://lakewood.advocatemag.com/2010/06/white-rock-lake-top-10/
Montemalone

Who needs White Rock when we can go white water rafting in the Trinity?
Dcasey615

Is this the same Christine Hughes that did such a good job reporting for the Richardson news several years ago?
http://twitter.com/chughesbabb chughesbabb

No- I’ve had people ask me that before, but I’ve never covered Richardson