Opinion of the Court
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS ══════════ No. 16-0323 ══════════ JOHN A. LANCE, DEBRA L. LANCE, F.D. FRANKS, AND HELEN FRANKS, PETITIONERS, v. JUDITH AND TERRY ROBINSON, GARY AND BRENDA FEST, VIRGINIA GRAY, BUTCH TOWNSEND AND BEXAR-MEDINA-ATASCOSA COUNTIES WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 1., RESPONDENTS ══════════════════════════════════════════ ON PETITION FOR REVIEW FROM THE COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS ══════════════════════════════════════════ Argued November 7, 2017 JUSTICE BOYD delivered the opinion of the Court. JUSTICE BLACKLOCK did not participate in the decision. So stupendous is the conception, so vast the scale of actual accomplishment in the construction of the Medina Dam Project that thousands of its nearest neighbors have positively no conception of the immensity of this undertaking. Yet, by a strange twist of Fate’s perversity, this everlasting monument to man’s mastery over the greatest forces of nature has achieved a deserved fame in the four corners of the earth, until not only the kings of finance, but royalty itself has leaned forward from its gilded throne and hearkened to the resistless lure of this giant among enterprises.1 1 1920s sightseeing brochure touting a “lovely scenic ride” to Medina Dam, http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/medina.html (last visited March 23, 2018). One hundred years ago, the Medina Valley Irrigation Company (MVICO) embarked on an ambitious plan to create a functional oasis in the Texas Hill Country. The project, which included the Medina Dam, the Diversion Dam a few miles downstream, and a twenty-six-mile canal system, was an engineering marvel at the time. When MVICO completed the Medina Dam in 1912, it became the largest dam in the state and the fourth largest in the country.
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