Buchanan Dam is a census-designated place in Llano County, Texas, on the shore of Lake Buchanan in the Texas Hill Country. With about 1,500 residents, it is a small lakeside community whose history and identity are inseparable from the dam that gives it its name. The community began in 1931, when the Emery-Peck and Rockwood Development Company began construction of the dam and established a post office and a settlement for the several hundred workers who built it, supported by commercial, medical, and recreational facilities. Originally planned as Hamilton Dam, the structure was renamed Buchanan Dam in 1934 for U.S. Representative James P. Buchanan. Deliberate impoundment of the reservoir began in 1937, the dam was completed in 1938, and its first generator began operating that January. The result is Lake Buchanan, the uppermost of the Highland Lakes on the Colorado River. Today Buchanan Dam is a quiet, largely residential community where most residents own their homes and recreation centers on the lake. Fishing for white bass and striped bass, boating, and kayaking are popular, and Colorado Bend State Park, Inks Lake State Park, and the Canyon of the Eagles are nearby. Students attend the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District, which serves the surrounding Highland Lakes area. The community's setting is classic Hill Country, with oak-covered hills, ranch land, and the broad expanse of the reservoir shaping the landscape. For homebuyers, Buchanan Dam offers lakeside living and a rural Hill Country pace, with the towns of Llano, Burnet, and Marble Falls within a short drive.