Water That Shouldn't Be Here

It’s June 15, and by every rule of a Texas summer, this should be impossible.

I’m standing at the dam on Montgomery Creek, the creek that runs straight through River Rose, half our land on one side and the county’s on the other, and water is still coming over the top. It shouldn’t be. Most years, the flow stops by May; there’s a trickle at the bottom and a pool maybe three or four feet deep, and that’s it. The first summer Lisa and I lived here, a drought had the creek so dry I could drive my Kawasaki Mule right down the riverbed. The Montgomery runs out to the Paluxy River, and the Paluxy was dry to the bone, too.

But not this June. The water is moving, and it is gorgeous.

There’s history under our feet here. The dam was built in the 1930s by the Depression-era federal work crews, and by the 1950s, the pool behind it had become the swimming hole for the whole town. The main house was built in 1910 from petrified wood, rock, and fossil stone. In the 1930s and ’40s, Glen Rose held as many as 250 artesian wells; five of them were on this property. Even now, if you look at the base of the dam, you can see water quietly oozing straight up out of the ground.

The Paluxy and Trinity aquifers feed this place. In a part of the world where water is never promised, that is a kind of wealth, and a kind of trust. We are one of the few properties in town with a working well. 

Here’s what we never get tired of: people come, walk the land, and, almost without exception, tell us the same thing. They feel at peace. It feels like healing. That’s the whole point. Part of why River Rose exists is restoration, and over these months, we’ve had the joy of hosting leader after leader in our guest house, all at no cost, so they could rest and rejuvenate.

None of that happens without you. Lisa and I are grateful beyond easy words, grateful to get to live here, and grateful for the friends who make it possible.

So consider this an invitation. If you ever find your way down to Glen Rose, if the guest house is available, it is yours. We’d love nothing more than to host you and show you our favorite getaway areas.

With gratitude,

Rex and Lisa