BLUFFTON, Texas — Johnny C. Parks died two days before his first birthday more than a century ago. His grave slipped from sight along with the rest of the tiny town of Bluffton when Lake Buchanan was filled 55 years later.
Now, the cracked marble tombstone engraved with the date Oct. 15, 1882, normally covered by 20 to 30 feet of water, has been eerily exposed as a year-long drought shrinks one of Texas’ largest lakes.
Across the state, receding lakes have revealed a prehistoric skull, ancient tools, fossils and a small cemetery that appears to contain the graves of freed slaves. Some of the discoveries have attracted interest from local historians, and looters also have scavenged for pieces of history. More than two dozen looters have been arrested at one site.
“In an odd way, this drought has provided an opportunity to view and document, where appropriate, some of these finds and understand what they consist of,” said Pat Mercado-Allinger, the Texas Historical Commission’s archaeological-division director. “Most people in Texas probably didn’t realize what was under these lakes.”
Texas finished its driest 12 months ever with an average of 8.5 inches of rain through September, nearly 13 inches below normal. Water levels in lakes, most of which are man-made, have dropped by more than a dozen feet in many cases.
The vanishing water has revealed the long-submerged building foundations of Woodville, Okla., which was flooded in 1944 when the Red River was dammed to form Lake Texoma. A century-old church has emerged at Falcon Lake, which straddles the Texas-Mexico border on the Rio Grande.
Steven Standke and his wife, Carol, drove to the old Bluffton site on a sandy, rutted path that GPS devices designate not as a road but the middle of the 22,335-acre lake, normally almost 31 miles long and 5 miles wide.
“If you don’t see it now, you might never see it again,” said Carol Standke of Center Point as she and her husband inspected the ruins a mile from where concrete seawalls ordinarily would keep the lake from waterfront homes.
Old Bluffton has been exposed occasionally during times of drought. The receding waters have revealed concrete foundations of a two-story hotel, scales of an old cotton gin, a rusting tank and concrete slabs from a Texaco station that also served as a general store. The tallest structure is what’s left of the town well, an open- topped concrete cube about 4 feet high. Johnny Parks’ tombstone is among a few burial sites.
Nearly two dozen unmarked graves were discovered in a dried-up section of a reservoir. Some coffin lids are visible just under the dirt. Crews plan to excavate the site about 50 miles south of Dallas and move the remains to a cemetery, said Bruce McManus, chairman of Navarro County’s historical commission. He said the area is on property once owned by a slave owner.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime find . . . and maybe the only silver lining in the ongoing drought,” McManus said.
