Historical flood at Tannehill State Park.

Campground 1 opened on Friday evening May 2nd. It took a while to get the septic system back up and running as all the lines had to be jetted out, then the pumps replaced as the gravel and mud in them permanently ruined them. One benefit is that all of campground 1 was upgraded to 50 amp service.

There is still a lot of work to do - replacing bridges, fences and soil and a little bit of cleanup, but the park is fully operational other than that some of the craft cabins are not usable yet. They have never had a flood like this.

The park lost a lot of trees in the April 27th, 2011 tornadoes and it is a miracle that no one was hurt then.

The new storm shelter not quite operational (no electricity and bathrooms not operational yet) but they had us go in it during the storms last week.

It's a great park, there is a lot to see and do. If you can, schedule your visit during an iron pour and you can make your own to bring home.

Wife and I drove down to Tannehill this morning. We live only 17 miles from park. Campgrounds 2 and 3 are OK. Campground 1 is a disaster. It will be closed for a while. However, they were working with heavy equipment and many workers. We really love this place.....it will be back.

We are at Jennings Ferry COE Campground and about 1/3 of the sites are underwater. Plus more will go under tonight. We had to move from our site to one that was on higher ground this afternoon. The ants are everywhere due to the flooding.

We will head to Foscue COE Campground tomorrow. Hopefully it is OK.

Pardon this intrusion (I have posted about our enjoyment of Tannehill) but to Handbasket: My home town is ORE CITY. So if you ever get to East Texas we can show you around a bit, though I have to tell you that little remains of the historic sites. On the other hand, there is Lone Star Steel Mill, now part of US Steel. There were old iron works around Rusk and Jefferson that I know of. Also Kelley Plow Company in Jefferson.

Now, back to the main topic in which we are all concerned: Tannehill Iron Works.

Handbasket wrote:
I knew that name sounded familiar. I came across it in doing research for an odd personal interest of mine, historic iron works. It's on my current list of trips to get around to, probably this fall.

Glad to see no one was hurt. Looks like the damage is all fixable, tho' it may take a while.

Observations... pretty much all of this kind of ironworks from the 1700's & well into the 1800's were water-powered. Water wheels powered huge bellows blowing engines to create the forced draft needed for the furnace to create the needed temperatures to separate iron from iron ore. So it wasn't rare for the equipment to get damaged or wiped out by spring floods. These furnaces supported pretty large communities, from actual furnace hands to wood cutters or coal miners, stable hands, and freight wagoners.

Streams tend to create flat plains as they wander back and forth over the eons. This makes a great site for a campground, but it's also a flood plain. So this kind of thing happens occasionally.

I hope they're able to get the damage fixed and the CG up and running for the big event have coming up in a few weeks. Best wishes to all involved.

Jim, "Mo' coffee!"

Glad to see another interested in historic tech.

I knew that name sounded familiar. I came across it in doing research for an odd personal interest of mine, historic iron works. It's on my current list of trips to get around to, probably this fall.

Glad to see no one was hurt. Looks like the damage is all fixable, tho' it may take a while.

Observations... pretty much all of this kind of ironworks from the 1700's & well into the 1800's were water-powered. Water wheels powered huge bellows blowing engines to create the forced draft needed for the furnace to create the needed temperatures to separate iron from iron ore. So it wasn't rare for the equipment to get damaged or wiped out by spring floods. These furnaces supported pretty large communities, from actual furnace hands to wood cutters or coal miners, stable hands, and freight wagoners.

Streams tend to create flat plains as they wander back and forth over the eons. This makes a great site for a campground, but it's also a flood plain. So this kind of thing happens occasionally.

I hope they're able to get the damage fixed and the CG up and running for the big event have coming up in a few weeks. Best wishes to all involved.

Jim, "Mo' coffee!"

Ever notice how often CGs are located in flood prone areas? Something to think about when the rain comes bucketing down.

Hope no one was injured.

Sorry to hear that. Stayed there on our very first trip bringing our 5er 'home' to MD from TX. Got our first taste of mountain music there too, a dulcimer festival was on when we pulled in.