Coldwater Creek | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | United States |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Cimarron County, Oklahoma |
• coordinates | 36°29′52″N102°53′34″W / 36.4978°N 102.8927°W [1] |
Mouth | |
• location | Beaver River, Oklahoma |
• coordinates | 36°39′35″N101°07′17″W / 36.65974°N 101.12127°W |
Basin size | 1,903 sq mi (4,930 km2) |
Coldwater Creek is an intermittently-flowing stream in northeastern New Mexico, and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas. As far back as 1907, the USGS reported that Coldwater Creek is a dry sand bed most of the year. [2] One source says that Coldwater Creek is also known as Rabbit Ears Creek, because it rises near Rabbit Ears, a pair of mountain peaks in Union County, New Mexico. [3] According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Coldwater Creek drains an area of 1,903 square miles (4,930 km2). [4]
From New Mexico, it enters the south-west corner of Cimarron County, Oklahoma in the Oklahoma Panhandle. It passes easterly through Dallam, Sherman, and Hansford counties in the Texas Panhandle. Returning into the Oklahoma Panhandle, the course passes through the Optima National Wildlife Refuge, before joining the Beaver River in Texas County, Oklahoma 0.2 miles (0.32 km) above Optima Lake Dam. [a]
Optima Lake was built to be a reservoir about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) northeast of Hardesty, Oklahoma or 20 miles (32 km) east of Guymon. The lake is essentially dry most of the time, because of declining water table levels [5] and periodic droughts that have affected the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas. [b] As a result, the lake project (completed in 1978), was largely abandoned in 2010 when picnic tables and other structures were demolished for safety reasons. Public use areas have been left open, but are overgrown by vegetation and without services such as electricity and water. Major improvements have been postponed indefinitely because of budget cuts to the Corps of Engineers. [6]
Texas County is a county located in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its county seat is Guymon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,384. It is the second largest county in Oklahoma, based on land area, and is named for Texas, the state that adjoins the county to its south. Texas County comprises the Guymon, OK Micropolitan Statistical Area. The county economy is largely based on farming and cattle production. It is one of the top-producing counties in the U.S. for wheat, cattle, and hogs. It also lies within the noted Hugoton-Panhandle natural gas field.
Beaver is a town and county seat in Beaver County, Oklahoma, United States. The community is in the Oklahoma Panhandle. As of the 2020 census, the town’s population was 1,280. The city is host to the annual World Cow Chip Throwing Championship. Held in April, "Cow Chip" brings attention from nearby cities with a parade, carnival, and cowchip throwing.
Guymon is a city and county seat of Texas County, in the panhandle of Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 12,965, an increase of 13.3% from 11,442 in 2010, and represents more than half of the population of the county, along with being the largest city in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Cattle feedlots, corporate pork farms, and natural gas production dominate its economy, with wind energy production and transmission recently diversifying landowners' farms. Guymon was the only town or city in Oklahoma in 2010 and 2020 in which the majority of the population was Hispanic.
Hardesty is a town in Texas County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town’s population was 205.
Optima is a town in Texas County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town’s population was 338.
The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South to differentiate it from the Red River in the north of the continent, is a major river in the Southern United States. It was named for its reddish water color from passing through red-bed country in its watershed. It is known as the Red River of the South to distinguish it from the Red River of the North, which flows between Minnesota and North Dakota into the Canadian province of Manitoba. Although once a tributary of the Mississippi River, the Red River is now a tributary of the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi that flows separately into the Gulf of Mexico. This confluence is connected to the Mississippi River by the Old River Control Structure.
The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about 1,026 miles (1,651 km) long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about 47,700 square miles (124,000 km2).
The Oklahoma Panhandle is a salient in the extreme northwestern region of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its constituent counties are, from west to east, Cimarron County, Texas County and Beaver County. As with other salients in the United States, its name comes from the similarity of its shape to the handle of a pan. Its largest city is Guymon in Texas County. Black Mesa State Park, located in Cimarron County, is the highest point in the state. Other points of interest include Beaver Dunes Park, Optima Lake, and the Optima National Wildlife Refuge. Oklahoma Panhandle State University is ten miles away from Guymon.
The Cimarron River extends 698 miles (1,123 km) across New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas. The headwaters flow from Johnson Mesa west of Folsom in northeastern New Mexico. Much of the river's length lies in Oklahoma, where it either borders or passes through eleven counties. There are no major cities along its route. The river enters the Oklahoma Panhandle near Kenton, Oklahoma, crosses the corner of southeastern Colorado into Kansas, reenters the Oklahoma Panhandle, reenters Kansas, and finally returns to Oklahoma where it joins the Arkansas River at Keystone Reservoir west of Tulsa, Oklahoma, its only impoundment. The Cimarron drains a basin that encompasses about 18,927 square miles (49,020 km2).
The North Canadian River is a river, 440 miles (710 km) long, in Oklahoma in the United States. It is a tributary of the Canadian River, draining an area of 17,955 square miles (46,500 km2) in a watershed that includes parts of northeastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle.
The Rio Chama, a major tributary river of the Rio Grande, is located in the U.S. states of Colorado and New Mexico. The river is about 130 miles (210 km) long altogether. From its source to El Vado Dam its length is about 50 miles (80 km), from El Vado Dam to Abiquiu Dam is about 51 miles (82 km), and from Abiquiu Dam to its confluence with the Rio Grande is about 34 miles (55 km).
The Beaver River is an intermittent river, 280 miles (450 km) long, in western Oklahoma and northern Texas in the United States. It is a tributary of the North Canadian River, draining an area of 11,690 square miles (30,300 km2) in a watershed that extends to northeastern New Mexico and includes most of the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Black Bear Creek is a 116-mile-long (187 km) creek in northern Oklahoma. Black Bear Creek drains an area of 538 square miles (1,390 km2) in Garfield County, Noble County and Pawnee County, Oklahoma. It takes on a red color from the red clay of this area. The creek gets its name from the black bear. Though the area is outside of the range of the black bear, sightings have been rumored.
Optima Lake was built to be a reservoir in Texas County, Oklahoma. The site is just north of Hardesty and east of Guymon in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
U.S. Route 412 is a U.S. highway in the south-central portion of the United States, connecting Springer, New Mexico to Columbia, Tennessee. A 504.11-mile (811.29 km) section of the highway crosses the state of Oklahoma, traversing the state from west to east. Entering the state southwest of Boise City, US-412 runs the length of the Oklahoma Panhandle and serves the northern portion of the state's main body, before leaving the state at West Siloam Springs. Along the way, the route serves many notable cities and towns, including Boise City, Guymon, Woodward, Enid, and the state's second-largest city, Tulsa.
Palo Duro Creek is formed in Texas from the junction of North Palo Duro Creek and South Palo Duro Creek north of Morse, Texas. The creek continues generally northeast until it becomes a tributary of the Beaver River in Oklahoma at a point east-northeast of Hardesty, Oklahoma, west of Balko, Oklahoma, and north of U.S. Route 412 near the Texas County/Beaver County line, downstream from the Optima Lake project.
Cache Creek is a small creek in Cotton County, Oklahoma and a tributary of the Red River. Cache Creek has a distance of 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from the Red River to the East Cache Creek and West Cache Creek basin. The East Cache Creek and West Cache Creek confluence is located 6 miles (9.7 km) southwest of Temple, Oklahoma.
Straight is an unincorporated community in Texas County in the Oklahoma Panhandle, United States.
Coldwater Lake is a barrier lake on the border of Cowlitz County and Skamania County, Washington in the United States. The lake was created during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which blocked its natural outlet, Coldwater Creek, with volcanic debris. It is one of several lakes in the area that were created or otherwise enlarged by the eruption.
Corrumpa Creek is a watercourse in New Mexico and Oklahoma. It originates at Weatherly Lake, located 9 miles east-southeast of Des Moines in Union County, New Mexico. It results from the South Branch Corrumpa Creek, which originates south-southwest of Des Moines and travels generally east, and the North Branch Corrumpa Creek, which originates southwest of Des Moines but passes northeast through the town before continuing generally east-southeast, having their confluence at Weatherly Lake. From that location, Corrumpa Creek meanders in every direction but generally east before turning southeast near the Oklahoma border. It continues into Oklahoma where, at the point where it is joined by Seneca Creek about 4.5 miles northwest of Felt, Oklahoma, it officially becomes the Beaver River.