Calaveras Lake is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

on Calaveras Creek, located 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The reservoir was formed in 1969 by the construction of a dam to provide a cooling pond for a series of

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

s, called the

Calaveras Power Station The Calaveras Power Station is a series of power plants located southeast of San Antonio, in Bexar County, Texas near Calaveras Lake. These plants include the J.T. Deely Power Plant, the O.W. Sommers Power Plant, and the J.K. Spruce Power Plant. ...

, to supply additional electricity to the city of San Antonio. The dam and lake are managed by CPS Energy of San Antonio. Together with the smaller Victor Braunig Lake, Calaveras Lake was one of the first projects in the nation to use treated wastewater for power plant cooling. The reservoir is partly filled with wastewater that has undergone both primary and secondary treatment at a San Antonio Water System treatment plant. Calaveras Lake also serves as a venue for recreation, including fishing and boating. Sailboats are prohibited on the lake.

Fish and plant life

Calaveras Lake has been stocked with many species of fish for recreational fishing. Fish present in Calaveras Lake include

red drum The red drum (''Sciaenops ocellatus''), also known as redfish, channel bass, puppy drum, spottail bass, or simply red, is a game fish found in the Atlantic Ocean from Massachusetts to Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to northern Mexi ...

hybrid striped bass A hybrid striped bass, also known as a wiper or whiterock bass, is a hybrid between the striped bass (''Morone saxatilis'') and the white bass (''M. chrysops''). It can be distinguished from the striped bass by broken rather than solid horizont ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...

Recreational uses

Thousand Trails Management Services operates the 147 acre (57 ha) public facility under contract with CPS Energy at the lake. The lake features facilities for camping, picknicking, fishing, boating, and hiking.

In popular culture

Calaveras Lake is the setting of one of the culminating scenes in the 1996 film ''

Courage Under Fire ''Courage Under Fire'' is a 1996 American war film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan. It is the second collaboration between Washington and director Zwick. The film was released in the United States on July ...

'', during which

Matt Damon Matthew Paige Damon (; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among ''Forbes'' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North Ameri ...

's character reveals his knowledge of the truth regarding the death of the character of Captain Karen Walden, the investigation of which constitutes the subject of the film up to that point.

References

External links

Calaveras Lake - Texas Parks & Wildlife

Calaveras Lake power plant complex pollution: monthly, annual, and daily (near real-time) reports
from the

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is the environmental agency for the state of Texas. The commission's headquarters are located at 12100 Park 35 Circle in Austin. The fourth largest environmental agency in the United States (an ...

(

TCEQ The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is the environmental agency for the state of Texas. The commission's headquarters are located at 12100 Park 35 Circle in Austin. The fourth largest environmental agency in the United States ( ...

) {{authority control Calaveras Geography of San Antonio Protected areas of Bexar County, Texas Bodies of water of Bexar County, Texas Cooling ponds CPS Energy

Fish and plant life

Recreational uses

In popular culture

See also

References

External links