Georgetown, Texas landmark Crockett Gardens Falls collapses

GEORGETOWN, Texas - It's the end of an era for one Central Texas landmark after the Crockett Garden Falls collapsed near Georgetown over the weekend.

In just a two-mile hike toward Lake Georgetown, visitors could have found themselves at Crockett Garden Falls.

"It's a really nice spot. It makes for a great, simple round trip hike on Lake Georgetown," said Brian Maddix, frequent visitor of Crockett Garden Falls.

It was a natural waterfall located right off the lake.

"There's an overhang, there used to be an overhang that was maybe about 30 feet long and wide," said Jim Wigginton, frequent visitor of Crockett Garden Falls. 

Crockett Garden Falls was one of Wigginton's favorite things to capture. He says he often visited, but his most recent visit in the midst of the freeze was shocking.

"What I expected to find was just the falls completely enveloped in ice top to bottom and the space underneath the overhang just completely sealed up, but it turns out the overhang wasn't there anymore. It had fallen off," said Wigginton.

The once flowing structure had collapsed. The reason is unknown, but Maddix says he has a theory, and it ties back to the cold weather.

"The spring is always running, the rock is always wet, and every time we have a freeze, that water inside the rock expands. I think we just got to the point where the weight of the ledge itself was finally too much for the rock that was still intact to hold that together," said Maddix.

Ice had formed on the structure, but it is hard to say if that was the only reason for the collapse.

Visitors say they are sad to see it gone.

"The falls probably took like tens of thousands of years to develop, and now they're gone and so no one else will be able to enjoy that magic. They just thought it would be there forever, I mean, I kind of thought it would be, too," said Wigginton.