San Marcos Mercury | Local News from San Marcos and Hays County, Texas

May 29th, 2012
Photos: Massive crane removes Spring Lake submarine

image
Email Email | Print Print --

TEXAS STATE PHOTO by CHANDLER PRUDE

TEXAS STATE PHOTOS by CHANDLER PRUDE

Contractors working for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers on Thursday used an 1,800-ton crane to remove the old submarine theater from Spring Lake.

During its height in the 1950s, as many as 250,000 visitors a year trekked to the Aquarena Springs amusement park where Ralph the Swimming Pig and a school of shapely mermaids performed underwater shows for tourists. Texas State University bought the 90-acre site in 1994 and shut down the amusement park not long after.

In February, an earlier attempt to wrest the sunken structure from the bottom of the lake was called off when two smaller cranes weren’t up to the job. The submarine removal is part of Texas State University’s plan to return the headwaters of the San Marcos River to its pre-amusement park state. A second, smaller submarine has yet to be removed from the lake.

Email Email | Print Print
--

Recommended for you

One thought on “Photos: Massive crane removes Spring Lake submarine”

  1. The article on removing the submarine theater is so sad to see for me. Aquarena Springs with all its attractions was a fun place to visit and brought much delight to those of us who grew up in San Marcos and for tourists who came from everywhere.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Not a MercuryPro client?

Get full access to the San Marcos Mercury, posthaste. Sign up here.

Weather

MERCURY MEDIA ON FACEBOOK

MERCURY MEDIA ON TWITTER

back-to-top
:)