Runaway Bay

Runaway Bay, on U.S. Highway 380 and State Highway 114 west of Decatur in western Wise County, was developed as a recreational community on the southern side of Lake Bridgeport. Though Runaway Bay was not established until after Lake Bridgeport was formed, settlers had arrived in the area before the Civil War. Col. William H. Hunt and his family arrived about 1855 and built a home called Cactus Hill, the site of which is now in the center of the lake. The Butterfield Overland Mail route ran near what is now the site of Runaway Bay. The recreational activities at Runaway Bay include golfing, fishing, skiing, horseback riding, and tennis. The rapid sale of its lots and condominiums made it for a time one of the fastest-growing communities in Wise County. It incorporated in the early 1980s, when it also had its first official population figures. The population was reported as twenty-nine in the early 1980s and as 700 ten years later. In 2000 the population reached 1,104.