According to WFAA, a drive-by shooting near Bachman Lake on July 23, 2023 left one person dead and three others injured. Less than a year later, on March 9, 2024, a local FOX affiliate reported that a body was recovered from the lake.
These incidents are not isolated. Over the past 25 years, numerous crime-related events and police investigations have been reported in the Bachman Lake area, contributing to its reputation as a high-crime location.
Despite these concerns, Bachman Lake also serves as a regular practice site for the Lions crew team and several other local rowing programs.
When the crew team prepared their boats for practice in the spring of 2024, they were not aware of the body floating near the shore. Originally, the practice went on as normal, and because it was an intense practice, people’s eyes were looking straight ahead.
“If you turn your head, it actually really messes up the boat’s direction,” team captain Hewes Lance said. “And that day was a practice that required a lot of focus, so we weren’t really prying our heads out and looking.”
Their focus was halted abruptly when a coach stopped the team and ushered them back to the dock, cancelling practice entirely. As the team left practice, they realized something was wrong.
“We saw the cop cars, we saw the flashing lights, and we wondered, ‘what’s going on there?” Lance said. “As we passed, we saw the cops pull up something, but we couldn’t really tell what it was.”
In the following days, a news article was sent to the team group chat explaining how a body floating near the shore was found and pulled from the lake. Furthermore, while the team was on spring break, another body was found in the lake.
These hindrances to practice, although concerning, are not surprising. In addition to the bodies, the team has to deal with other natural hurdles from the lake that make the team’s procedure hectic. Along the shore, piles of trash, litter and pollution contaminate the lake.
“There’s a lot of stuff, especially near the dock because the water is pretty still there,” Lance said. “So there’s not only a lot of trash, but also just broken branches and piles of mulch floating on the surface.”
Massive mounds of mud, large sticks and low water levels present dangers for damaging their boats, especially the skegs: the stabalizing fin that runs along the bottom of the boat.
“We lose a lot of skegs,” Lance said. “And when you lose the skeg, it’s really hard.”
That damage can derail a practice almost immediately. Sometimes the boat can still function well enough to finish a piece, but other times the crew has no choice but to head back in. Because a replacement skeg has to be glued back on while the boat is dry, repairs cannot be made on the water. A broken part can mean switching to another shell or cutting practice short altogether.
“Sometimes, when we lose a skeg, it’s fine and it’s manageable,” Lance said. “But other times, when we lose a skeg, we have to go in and either take out a different boat or that’s it for practice.”
Those problems worsen in the more difficult sections of the lake. A narrow waterway that feeds into Bachman Lake is where teams can get extra distance in. On days when the water is high enough, it increases the chances of hitting branches or other submerged objects just below the surface.
“There’s a little river that feeds into it, and you can go pretty far down there on good days, especially after it’s rained,” Lance said. “But sometimes you’ll still hit something.”
Conditions also shift from day to day. Construction near the dam began in 2023, significantly dropping the water level and leaving branches protruding above the surface in spots that were previously clear. The lake is fed by Bachman Branch, a medium sized tributary of the Trinity River which runs north for ten miles collecting runoff and debris from much of central Dallas. Rain can also wash logs, dirt and debris from houses and construction sites along Bachman Branch into the lake, making the water even murkier and harder to navigate.
“They’re also doing construction at the dam, so the water level will be low sometimes,” Lance said. “Then there’ll be branches sticking up.”
That instability adds to the sense that practice on Bachman demands more than normal athletic focus. Rowers are not only trying to maintain timing, technique, and endurance. They are also constantly adjusting to a course that can change with the weather, the water level or whatever has drifted in overnight.