The name refers to its location on a ford used for longhorn cattle drives as a part of the Chisholm Trail in the late 19th century.

The reservoir it created, Lady Bird Lake, was also originally used as a source of drinking water for the city.

In 2007 the power plant was decommissioned and subsequently demolished to make way for a new lakeside urban park;[2] today the reservoir's major uses are recreation and fishing.

[3] In the 2000s and 2010s the aging dam's floodgates experienced a series of malfunctions, causing on some occasions the loss of substantial amounts of water down the river (when gates failed to close properly).

Since 2013, Austin Energy made several maintenance and upkeep projects to the dam such as replacing all major parts and rebuilding both hydraulic bascule systems.