Yegua Creek

Yegua Creek
Yegua Creek Historical Marker
Location
Country	United States
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Texas

Yegua Creek is a river in Central Texas^[1] and is part of the Brazos River drainage basin. (Yegua is the Spanish word for mare.) Yegua Creek forms in Lee County at the confluence of the Middle Yegua Creek and East Yegua Creek about three miles west of Somerville Lake. It is the primary tributary to form Somerville Lake. The Yegua flows east and becomes part of the Burleson County line for about 31 miles and then joins the Brazos River in southeastern Washington County. The Yegua below the Somerville Dam is a slow-moving, gentle river but is nevertheless used for some mild recreational canoeing and kayaking.

The Yegua, or one of its tributaries, is dammed in several places to form a series of small lakes including Wilkins, Ward, Baker, Edwards, Gerland, Draeger, Field, Mueller, C and H, Lamb, Newman, Robbins, and Butler lakes. The Yegua runs through flat terrain and supports water-tolerant hardwoods, conifers and grasses on clay loam and sandy loam soils.^[2] Since the construction of the Somerville Dam in 1967, there has been some concern about the mobility of sediment in the Yegua watershed; however, recent discoveries indicate the river has achieved a degree of equilibrium in sediment dynamics — naturally adjusting to the accumulation of 99.8% of the upper Yegua sediment being trapped by the Somerville dam.^[3]

Yegua Creek has been identified as the stream Alonso de León named the San Francisco in 1690.^[4]