Grand Lake o' the Cherokees
Encyclopedia
Grand Lake o' the Cherokees is situated in Northeast Oklahoma
, nestled in the foothills
of the Ozark Mountain Range
. The "o'" in the name of the lake stands for of not over. Grand Lake Of the Cherokees is the official name. It is often simply called Grand Lake. It is administered by the Grand River Dam Authority
(GRDA).
. Even prior to Oklahoma statehood in 1907, Holderman began building political support for such a project. A feasibility study by the Army Corps of Engineers
attracted favorable attention in the Oklahoma legislature, leading to creation of the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA), a state agency, in 1935. Construction began in 1938 on the Pensacola Dam
on the Grand River
(lower Neosho River
) as a Works Progress Administration
project. The dam was completed in March 1940, creating the lake behind it. Between 1941 and 1946, the U.S. government took control of Pensacola Dam to divert power to the war effort. Control was returned to the GRDA by the Congress and President Truman amid local celebration in August 1946.
in the world, its main span consisting of 51 arches totaling 5145 feet (1,568.2 m) in length, and supporting a walkway and narrow two lane highway. A 120 megawatt, 6-unit powerhouse sits at the west end, with 21 spillways on the east end. The project's chief engineer was W. R. Holway
(who was also responsible for Tulsa's Spavinaw water project), while the architect of record for the PWA
-style Art Deco
design of the dam and powerhouse was Tulsan John Duncan Forsyth
.
Another mile east, through the town of Disney, lie two small sister dams known as "the spillways" with an additional 21 gates, surrounded by public parks and launching ramp. 510,000 cubic yard
s (390,000 m³) of concrete
were used in the construction of Pensacola Dam, poured 24 hours a day in just 20 months with depression-era labor. The lake, and the electric utilities, as well as other projects in the region, along the Grand River are administered by the Grand River Dam Authority, an agency created by the Oklahoma legislature in 1935.
Grand Lake has a surface area of 46500 acres (188.2 km²) of water and 1300 miles (2,092.1 km) of shore
line. Unlike other lakes in Oklahoma, Grand Lake is a deep and mostly rocky lake. Its mean elevation
is 742 ft (226 m) above sea level
. In recent years, low fall elevations of 741 were kept by the GRDA to allow millet seeding for migratory waterfowl, resulting in conflict between property owners, environmentalists, and federal agencies. While not expressly built for flood control, Grand Lake contributes to the flood-prone Arkansas River
watershed. The Army Corps of Engineers controls releases into the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System when lake levels exceed 745 feet (227.1 m), although locking into Grand Lake is not possible. Grand Lake and its sister, Lake Hudson, are the only two major lakes in the state where one can build directly on the waterfront.
fishing
lakes in the United States
, Grand also houses a wide variety of other sport
and non-sport fishing. Due to its NE to SW orientation, it attracts sailboaters
from across the country as well.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, nestled in the foothills
Foothills
Foothills are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills to the adjacent topographically high mountains.-Examples:...
of the Ozark Mountain Range
The Ozarks
The Ozarks are a physiographic and geologic highland region of the central United States. It covers much of the southern half of Missouri and an extensive portion of northwestern and north central Arkansas...
. The "o'" in the name of the lake stands for of not over. Grand Lake Of the Cherokees is the official name. It is often simply called Grand Lake. It is administered by the Grand River Dam Authority
Grand River Dam Authority
The Grand River Dam Authority is an Oklahoma agency created to control, develop, and maintain the Grand River waterway. It was created by the Oklahoma state legislature in 1935, and is headquartered in Vinita, Oklahoma. It operates three hydroelectric facilities and two reservoirs, Grand Lake...
(GRDA).
History
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture credits Henry Holderman, a member of the Cherokee tribe, as first envisioning Grand River as a source for hydroelectric power for the Cherokee NationCherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...
. Even prior to Oklahoma statehood in 1907, Holderman began building political support for such a project. A feasibility study by the Army Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
attracted favorable attention in the Oklahoma legislature, leading to creation of the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA), a state agency, in 1935. Construction began in 1938 on the Pensacola Dam
Pensacola Dam
The Pensacola Dam, also known as the Grand River Dam, is a multiple-arch buttress dam on the Grand River in-between Disney and Langley in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The dam is operated by the Grand River Dam Authority and creates Grand Lake o' the Cherokees...
on the Grand River
Grand River (Oklahoma)
The Grand River is an alternate name for the lower section of the Neosho River, a tributary of the Arkansas River in Oklahoma. "Grand River" refers to the section of river below the confluence of the Neosho and Spring rivers in Ottawa County near Miami...
(lower Neosho River
Neosho River
The Neosho River is a tributary of the Arkansas River in eastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma in the United States. Its tributaries also drain portions of Missouri and Arkansas. The river is about long. Via the Arkansas, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed.- Course :The Neosho's...
) as a Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
project. The dam was completed in March 1940, creating the lake behind it. Between 1941 and 1946, the U.S. government took control of Pensacola Dam to divert power to the war effort. Control was returned to the GRDA by the Congress and President Truman amid local celebration in August 1946.
Pensacola Dam
Pensacola Dam is claimed to be the longest multiple arch damDam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
in the world, its main span consisting of 51 arches totaling 5145 feet (1,568.2 m) in length, and supporting a walkway and narrow two lane highway. A 120 megawatt, 6-unit powerhouse sits at the west end, with 21 spillways on the east end. The project's chief engineer was W. R. Holway
W. R. Holway
William Rea Holway , commonly known as W. R. Holway, was an American civil engineer who became prominent in Oklahoma. He is best known for his work on major water supply projects for the city of Tulsa, and on the Pensacola Dam at Grand Lake o' the Cherokees.Holway came to Tulsa in 1918, where he...
(who was also responsible for Tulsa's Spavinaw water project), while the architect of record for the PWA
Public Works Administration
The Public Works Administration , part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression...
-style Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
design of the dam and powerhouse was Tulsan John Duncan Forsyth
John Duncan Forsyth
John Duncan Forsyth was a Scottish-American architect who became prominent in Oklahoma. Based in Tulsa and working in a variety of styles, he was connected with a number of significant buildings around the state.-Biography:...
.
Another mile east, through the town of Disney, lie two small sister dams known as "the spillways" with an additional 21 gates, surrounded by public parks and launching ramp. 510,000 cubic yard
Cubic yard
A cubic yard is an Imperial / U.S. customary unit of volume, used in the United States, Canada, and the UK. It is defined as the volume of a cube with sides of 1 yard in length.-Symbols:...
s (390,000 m³) of concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
were used in the construction of Pensacola Dam, poured 24 hours a day in just 20 months with depression-era labor. The lake, and the electric utilities, as well as other projects in the region, along the Grand River are administered by the Grand River Dam Authority, an agency created by the Oklahoma legislature in 1935.
Grand Lake has a surface area of 46500 acres (188.2 km²) of water and 1300 miles (2,092.1 km) of shore
Shore
A shore or shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In Physical Oceanography a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past and present, while the beach is at the edge of the shore,...
line. Unlike other lakes in Oklahoma, Grand Lake is a deep and mostly rocky lake. Its mean elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
is 742 ft (226 m) above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
. In recent years, low fall elevations of 741 were kept by the GRDA to allow millet seeding for migratory waterfowl, resulting in conflict between property owners, environmentalists, and federal agencies. While not expressly built for flood control, Grand Lake contributes to the flood-prone Arkansas River
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...
watershed. The Army Corps of Engineers controls releases into the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System when lake levels exceed 745 feet (227.1 m), although locking into Grand Lake is not possible. Grand Lake and its sister, Lake Hudson, are the only two major lakes in the state where one can build directly on the waterfront.
Recreation
The lake is a popular destination for entertainment in the Green Country region. There are a number of shows in the area, as well as resorts, and a tour boat called the Cherokee Queen, which has been in operation since the 1940s. Consistently ranked among the top bassBass (fish)
Bass is a name shared by many different species of popular gamefish. The term encompasses both freshwater and marine species. All belong to the large order Perciformes, or perch-like fishes, and in fact the word bass comes from Middle English bars, meaning "perch."-Types of basses:*The temperate...
fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
lakes in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Grand also houses a wide variety of other sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
and non-sport fishing. Due to its NE to SW orientation, it attracts sailboaters
Sailing ship
The term sailing ship is now used to refer to any large wind-powered vessel. In technical terms, a ship was a sailing vessel with a specific rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them, making the sailing adjective redundant. In popular usage "ship" became associated with all large...
from across the country as well.
In literature
- In the book The Bean TreesThe Bean TreesThe Bean Trees, first published in 1988, is the first book written by Barbara Kingsolver, followed by a sequel Pigs in Heaven. The protagonist of the novel, Taylor Greer, a native of Kentucky, finds herself in Oklahoma near Cherokee territory. The novel begins with a woman leaving an American...
by Barbara KingsolverBarbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the former Republic of Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before...
, Taylor, Turtle, Estevan, and Esperanze visit the lake.
External links
- Grand Lake Radio
- Grand Lake area information, photos and videos on TravelOK.com Official travel and tourism website for the State of Oklahoma
- Grand Lake festivals website
- Grand Lake Links
- Grand Lake Maps
- Grand Lakes Newspaper
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Grand Lake