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LAKE
TEXOMA
and the Denison
Dam Photos
courtesy Mike Price |
Impounding
89,000 acres of water, the dam itself is a mere five miles NW of Denison,
Texas. It borders on the Texas counties of Cooke and Grayson and on the Oklahoma
counties of Bryan, Love, Johnson and Bryan.
Shoreline: 1,250 Miles
Capacity: 4,505,000 acre-feet
Discharge Capacity: 750,000 cubic feet
Construction: 1939-1944
Cost: $54,000,000
Registered boats: 10,000
While the lake itself is government property, it is maintained by the Tulsa
District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The recreational facilities are
managed by the National Park Service.
Lake
Texoma Historical Marker |
Lake
Texoma nearing capacity
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, July 2007 |
Texoma
over the spillway for only the third time in it's history
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, July 2007 |
| The
Flood Control Act of 1938 authorized construction of the dam which is a rather
rare type known as a rolled-fill earth embankment. The length of the dam is 165
feet high and over 15,000 feet long. While the primary purpose of the dam is controlling
floods, it also generates electrical power and the lake is an extremely popular
recreational destination. |
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Historical
Marker TextLake
Texoma Completed
1944, Texoma is today the second largest lake in Texas and the eleventh largest
reservoir in capacity in the United States. Its main purposes are flood control,
power generation, and recreation. Lake Texoma was promoted largely through the
efforts of Sam Rayburn
(1882-1961), noted speaker of the house who represented District 4 in Congress
for 49 years. In normal operation, lake shoreline covers 550 miles, with the Red
River arm (45 miles) in Texas and the Washita arm (30 miles) in Oklahoma covering
93,080 acres. The waters are impounded by Denison Dam. When Texoma was created,
it caused the relocation of railroads, highways, utilities, and cemeteries. The
site of Preston, historically the Red River crossing for the Butterfield Stage,
was submerged, as were the sites of Hagerman
and part of Cedar Mills, Texas. In 1966 numerous recreation areas on Texoma drew
8,500,000 tourists, who could also visit Eisenhower State Park at the southeast
end of the lake. The park was named in honor of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth
president of the United States. Texoma is one of more than 200 major inland lakes
and reservoirs in Texas which contribute greatly to the economic and industrial
growth of the state. | |
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