Retaining Walls & Seawalls
Steep Bell County ground sheds soil toward the lake. Retaining walls and bulkheads in galvanized steel, vinyl, FRP composite or heavy timber, engineered for the slope and the soil above the easement line.
Lakes We Serve · Bell County, TX
Retaining walls and shoreline work at Stillhouse Hollow.
At Stillhouse the decisive number is 671 feet. Know which side of that line your ground is on and the whole project — scope, permit, cost — falls into place. Get it wrong and nothing else matters.
The Line Before the Design
671 feet, and why your deed may not mention it.
The Government bought the perpetual right to flood privately owned land here — 49 feet above conservation pool.
The Corps of Engineers holds Stillhouse Hollow two different ways. Some of the land it owns outright in fee. Over the rest, it purchased a flowage easement to elevation 671 feet msl — a full 49 feet above the 622-foot conservation pool — meaning the ground is privately owned but the Government has the perpetual right to put water over it.
That easement line is frequently missing from deeds and plats, which is exactly how owners end up planning a structure they cannot build. Anything on or over federal land or water requires USACE Fort Worth District authorization through the Stillhouse Hollow Lake Project Office, 3740 FM 1670 in Belton (254-939-2461). Before Shoretech draws anything, that boundary gets established — not assumed.
It is also why the neighborhoods here read the way they do. South Shore Estates in Salado backs to the shoreline; The Ridge, Valley Ridge Estates, Evergreen Estates and Broken Arrow Estates in Harker Heights are largely lake-view rather than lake-front, with a real federal line standing between the house and the water.
622′
Conservation pool, feet msl
671′
Top of the flowage easement
107′
Maximum depth
58 mi
Shoreline, roughly
Know the Water
Clear, deep, and steeper than it looks.
6,430 acres on the Lampasas River, entirely inside Bell County.
Stillhouse Hollow is unusually clear and deep for Central Texas — 107 feet at its deepest, with steep rocky main-lake shoreline and limited standing timber. Heavy hydrilla beds hold the lower lake; up the Lampasas arm the water stains and the structure turns to laydowns and brush piles. Roughly 58 miles of shoreline in all.
Day to day the pool moves only 3 to 4 feet. The trap is treating that as the design range. The flood easement runs to 671 feet, and the Brazos River Authority has moved Stillhouse and neighboring Belton in and out of drought stages more than once — so the working shoreline in a wet year sits far above where it does in a drought. A retaining wall built to one year's waterline is a wall built to a coincidence.
Worth knowing before you plan around lake services: the marina at Stillhouse Park was destroyed in 2024 — tornado-force winds, then a boat fire that drifted into the main dock — and the Corps ordered it fully removed. The lake currently has ramps and parks, and its access points are named Dana Peak, Union Grove, Cedar Gap and Stillhouse Park.
What Shoretech Can Do Here
Work that belongs on this lake.
Structures on privately held ground, and public and commercial facilities at the water under Corps authorization.
Erosion & Slope Repair
Bank stabilization, drainage correction and slope rebuilding on lake-view lots where the fall toward the water is the whole problem.
Precision Dredging
Ramp approaches and access channels, with material pumped for backfill reuse rather than hauled off by truck.
Public & Commercial Facilities
Park, ramp and access infrastructure at the water — the category of work that a Corps lake with no marina still needs.
Questions We Hear
Stillhouse Hollow FAQ.
How do I find out where the flowage easement runs on my lot?
Start with the Stillhouse Hollow Lake Project Office at 254-939-2461. The 671-foot line is often absent from deeds and plats, so it has to be established against the Corps' records and the ground itself. Shoretech will not design to a boundary nobody has confirmed.
Can I build a private dock or boathouse at Stillhouse Hollow?
That answer belongs to the Corps of Engineers. This is a project where the shoreline is federal — held in fee or under easement — and every structure on or over federal land or water needs Fort Worth District authorization. Confirm with the lake office for your specific frontage; whatever comes back, Shoretech builds to it.
My house is lake-view, not lake-front. Is there anything you can build for me?
Usually yes, and it is the most common job here — retaining walls, bank stabilization, drainage and slope repair on genuinely private upland. Steep clear-lake ground in Harker Heights and Salado moves, and holding it is real marine-construction work.
Nearby Water
More lakes in this region.
Start With a Conversation
Planning work at Stillhouse Hollow?
Tell Dave where your ground sits relative to the line, how the slope is behaving, and what you want the finished bank to do. The design follows from there.