SAN MARCOS, Texas — San Marcos is warning river users to avoid the Mill Race because of a collapsed footbridge blocking the channel.

The footbridge connecting the closed Thompson’s Island parkland with the bank of the San Marcos River has collapsed and poses a navigation hazard to kayakers and other river users.

City staff are inspecting the wreckage and determining how best to remove the remains of the footbridge.

According to the city, none of the land on either side of the footbridge is open to the public and both Thompson’s Island and Cape’s Park remain closed.

Major repairs are required in these parks and no date has been set to reopen them.

According to the Save the TMTX River group, Capes Dam was originated in 1866 and originally known as “Thompson McKie and Davis Mill Dam”  It’s original purpose was for milling and grinning cotton. The ditch, or as the people of San Marcos call it, the Mill Race, has an irrigation record that was filed Sept. 9, 1895 by a Dr. William Alexander Thompson that currently forms a nice size island called Thompson Islands. Thompson was one of the first to settle in San Marcos. Both the cape and the mill race are designated Texas Historical Markers.