Boathouses & Covered Slips
Single-story, three-sides-open structures inside the 2,000-square-foot cap — open-gable cooling, lifts and lighting, with substructures set into hard bottom rather than driven through it.
Lakes We Serve · Brazos River, TX
Boathouses, docks and retaining walls on Possum Kingdom Lake.
Where the Brazos cuts through the Palo Pinto Mountains, the shoreline is stone. Foundations bear on rock rather than mud, and the Brazos River Authority writes the dimensions of every structure before it is designed.
The Permitting Reality
Elevation 1,000 is the line, and BRA owns everything under it.
The Brazos River Authority owns and operates both Possum Kingdom Lake and Morris Sheppard Dam, and controls all area within the lake boundary — defined as the 1,000-foot mean sea level contour on BRA Datum across Young, Palo Pinto, Stephens and Jack Counties. Below that line, nothing gets built without a permit in hand. The Possum Kingdom Lake Office answers at 940-779-2321.
1
Two permits, and most jobs need both
An On-Water Facility Permit covers docks, piers, platforms, boathouses and similar structures over the reservoir bed. An Improvement Permit covers retaining walls, dredging, stump removal and boat-ramp maintenance. BRA also issues residential-use water permits and on-site sewage facility licenses, which come up on new builds.
2
The dimensional rules are strict, and they are published
A residential on-water facility is capped at 2,000 square feet of total area. It may extend 100 feet into the lake or one-third of the distance between shorelines, whichever is less. One story only. Three sides fully open for inspection. No living quarters, kitchens, plumbing or toilet facilities. Floating habitable structures are prohibited outright.
3
Residential review runs on a schedule; commercial does not
A residential application goes through an administrative review of roughly ten business days followed by a technical review. Commercial applications add two public comment periods and public hearings — a materially longer runway that a marina, resort or subdivision project has to be planned around from the beginning.
4
The approval has to come back before a saw is picked up
BRA's instruction is blunt: construction may not begin until the permit has been approved and returned to you. BRA also reserves sole discretion to refuse a facility that would unreasonably impair public use of the lake, so a design that crowds a cove is a design worth revisiting before it is submitted.
1,000
Feet msl on BRA Datum — the lake boundary and the permit trigger
2,000
Square feet — maximum total area of a residential on-water facility
100 ft
Maximum extension into the lake, or one-third the distance between shorelines
10
Business days for the residential administrative review
Who Owns What Now
The uplands changed hands in 2018. The shoreline did not.
This is the wrinkle unique to Possum Kingdom, and it catches out owners who assume a deed settles the question.
For most of the lake's life the land around it was BRA ground held on residential leases. That ended: the land above the 1,000-foot contour was divested by BRA and sold to the Patterson Possum Kingdom Land Partnership, and roughly 1,516 residential leaseholders and 19 businesses were given the option to buy the ground under their improvements. The sale closed in October 2018.
So the uplands are now private fee property — but the shoreline and lakebed below the contour remain BRA's, and BRA still issues every permit. Owning your lot outright does not carry a right to build over the water; what it removes is the biggest historical drag on investing in the structure that goes there.
One sentence from BRA's own permit materials belongs in every planning conversation: Possum Kingdom Lake is a water supply reservoir and water levels will fluctuate, therefore an approved permit does not guarantee access to water for recreation. Conservation pool is 999.0 feet above mean sea level per TWDB and BRA, and TPWD rates fluctuation as moderately high. Watch the datum — BRA's 1,000-foot regulatory contour is stated on BRA Datum, which is not the same reference as the 999.0-foot conservation-pool figure, so the two are not interchangeable when elevations are being set.
Bottom and Bank
A coring lake as much as a pile-driving lake.
Hell's Gate is two limestone bluffs forming a narrow pass between the mainland and Devil's Island. That is the shoreline in one image.
TPWD's own description is that most of the lake shore is made of large to cobble-size rock, and the lower lake is limestone cliffs and bluffs. On those sections there is no driving into mud — dock and boathouse foundations bear on or in rock, which changes the equipment, the sequence and the cost basis of a job compared with an East Texas reservoir. Retaining walls here are rock-anchored rather than conventional driven bulkheads with fill behind them.
The upper reaches are a different lake — shallowing into areas with shoreline vegetation and emergent rushes, standing timber and fallen trees for structure, and submerged plants appearing in late summer and fall. Water is normally clear, which is why a badly detailed structure is visible from a long way off here.
Published figures for the lake's size and depth do not agree, and it is more useful to say so than to pick one. TWDB's 2016 volumetric survey measured 17,914 acres at the 999.0-foot pool holding 538,139 acre-feet, while TPWD publishes 15,588 acres. TPWD gives a maximum depth of 145 feet with an average of 37; other sources give 100. Shoreline is commonly cited at about 310 miles, though not from a BRA or TWDB publication. What matters at a specific lot is the bank in front of it, and that gets measured.
Scope of Work
What Shoretech can build on Possum Kingdom.
Sized inside BRA's published limits, and founded in rock.
Boat Docks & Piers
Fixed and floating docks and cliff-base approaches, sized to the 100-foot extension rule and to a lake that drops away fast a short distance off the bank.
Retaining Walls & Bank Stabilization
Rock-anchored retaining walls and slope work permitted as improvements, matched to limestone rather than to soil that a sheet pile could be driven into.
Dredging & Stump Removal
Slip and access dredging, stump removal and boat-ramp maintenance — all of which fall under BRA's Improvement Permit and are applied for as one package.
Around the Lake
Graford, the gated communities, and the landmarks people navigate by.
Seventy-five miles west of Fort Worth, with a waterfront that runs from resort-gated to working ranch.
Communities and towns
- Graford
- Graham
- Caddo
- Palo Pinto
- Strawn
- Mineral Wells
- The Cliffs
- The Peninsula
- The Harbor
- Gaines Bend
- Sportsman's World
- Bluff Creek
- Scenic Point
- The Ranch
Marinas, parks and landmarks
- Possum Kingdom State Park — about 1,530 acres
- The Cliffs Marina
- Bluff Creek Marina
- Willow Beach RV Park & Marina
- Possum Kingdom Lake RV Park & Marina
- Fox Hollow, Juniper Ridge, Bonitaville and Patterson marina areas
- About seven public boat ramps
- Hell's Gate, Devil's Island and Costello Island
Morris Sheppard Dam, begun in 1936 and completed on March 20, 1941, is 2,700 feet long and 190 feet high, with buttressed arched wings flanking nine spillway gates. The Cliffs sits some 200 feet above the water with its own marina and championship golf course; at Gaines Bend the lots are all lakefront and nearly all already carry docks, mixing cliffline with gentle lake-level ground. Demand across the lake skews to boathouses and covered slips, cliff-base docks, and rock-anchored walls.
Questions We Hear
Possum Kingdom Lake FAQ.
What does the Brazos River Authority actually control at Possum Kingdom?
Everything below the 1,000-foot mean sea level contour on BRA Datum — the line BRA defines as the lake boundary across Young, Palo Pinto, Stephens and Jack Counties. Anything built, placed or altered below it needs a BRA permit first. The Possum Kingdom Lake Office is reachable at 940-779-2321.
Which permit does my project need?
Two matter to a marine contractor. An On-Water Facility Permit covers docks, piers, platforms, boathouses and similar structures over the reservoir bed. An Improvement Permit covers retaining walls, dredging, stump removal and boat-ramp maintenance. Most waterfront jobs of any size involve both.
How big can a residential dock or boathouse be?
BRA's limits for a residential on-water facility are tight: 2,000 square feet maximum total area; extension limited to 100 feet into the lake or one-third of the distance between shorelines, whichever is less; one story only; three sides fully open for inspection; and no living quarters, kitchens, plumbing or toilet facilities. Floating habitable structures are prohibited outright, and BRA reserves sole discretion to refuse a facility that would unreasonably impair public use of the lake.
I bought my lot from the Patterson partnership. Do I still need BRA?
Yes. The land above the 1,000-foot contour was divested by BRA and sold to the Patterson Possum Kingdom Land Partnership, and roughly 1,516 residential leaseholders and 19 businesses were given the option to buy the ground under their improvements — a sale that closed in October 2018. So the uplands are now private fee property. The shoreline and lakebed below the contour are still BRA's, and BRA still issues every permit.
Will Dave travel to Possum Kingdom Lake?
Yes. Shoretech is based in Trinity and Dave travels as far as a project warrants across Texas and western Louisiana. Possum Kingdom is rock-socket country rather than pile-driving country, so call 936-662-5100 and describe the bank — that conversation shapes the whole approach.
Nearby Water
More water down the Brazos.
Start With a Conversation
Planning a project on Possum Kingdom Lake?
Tell Dave how the bank falls away, how far the house sits above the water, and what you want at the bottom of it. The BRA application and the design get worked out together.