ESPANTOSA LAKE. Espantosa Lake, five miles northeast of Carrizo Springs in north central Dimmit County (at 28°35' N, 99°49' W), drains into Soldier Slough. The natural lake was once a campsite on the Old San Antonio Road. Perhaps because of a ghostly fog that frequently obscures the lake after dark, however, it was often avoided by travelers who feared its reputation as a haunted place of evil (espantosa is Spanish for "fearful," "horrid"). Many legends surround the place. Some center on wagonloads of gold and silver rumored to have been lost in the lake; others tell of apparitions of men said to have been murdered on its shores. One story says that the lake was once filled with alligators. In 1917 water from the Nueces River was diverted into the lake, and a dam was built to contain the flow for irrigation purposes. In 1990 the dam, operated by the Zavala-Dimmit County Water Control and Improvement District, impounded a reservoir with a capacity of 1,745 acre-feet. The lake covered 364 acres and was used for boating and fishing as well as irrigation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: John Clements, Flying the Colors: Texas, a Comprehensive Look at Texas Today, County by County (Dallas: Clements Research, 1984). Marker Files, Texas Historical Commission, Austin. Laura Knowlton Tidwell, Dimmit County Mesquite Roots (Austin: Wind River, 1984).