Denison Dam | |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Location | Bryan County, Oklahoma / Grayson County, Texas, US |
Coordinates | 33°49′5″N96°34′20″W / 33.81806°N 96.57222°W |
Status | Operational |
Owner(s) | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers |
Dam and spillways | |
Type of dam | Earth-fill embankment |
Impounds | Red River of the South |
Height | 165 ft (50 m) |
Length | 15,200 ft (4,633 m) (not including levees) |
Reservoir | |
Creates | Lake Texoma |
Total capacity | 2,525,568 acre-feet (3.115242×109 m3) |
Surface area | 89,000 acres (36,000 ha) |
Power Station | |
Commission date | 2021 |
Turbines | 2 x 49.5 MW Francis-type [1] [2] |
Installed capacity | 99 MW |
Denison Dam, also known as Lake Texoma Dam, is a dam located on the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma that impounds Lake Texoma. The purpose of the dam is flood control, water supply, hydroelectric power production, river regulation, navigation and recreation. [3] It was also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1993. [4]
Completed in 1943 primarily as a flood control project, it was at the time the "largest rolled-earth fill dam in the world". [5] Only five times has the lake reached the dam's spillway at a height of 640 feet (200 m) above sea level: 1957, 1990, 2007, and twice in 2015. It takes its name from Denison, Texas, just downriver from the dam face.
Denison Dam contains a total of 18.8 million cubic yards (14,000,000 m³) of rolled-earth fill. It produces roughly 250,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year, while Lake Texoma provides nearly 125,000 acre-feet (154,000,000 m3) of water storage for local communities under five permanent contracts.
In addition to two federally managed wildlife-refuge areas, Denison Dam has made possible 47 recreational areas managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, two state parks -- one in Oklahoma and one in Texas -- as well as 80,000 acres (32,000 ha) of open public land used for hunting.
[...] General Lucius D. Clay was the principal manager of the project. [5]
Oklahoma State Highway 91 and, to a lesser extent, Texas State Highway 91 cross over the dam.
German prisoners of war from Rommel's Afrika Korps were used in the construction of the Denison Dam and Lake Texoma during World War II. They performed non-war-related work such as clearing trees, lining drainage ditches, and building a bathroom facility. They also helped clear more than 7,000 acres for the lake. 4
POWs were housed in camps in Tishomingo and Powell, Oklahoma.
The government paid $1.50 per day per prisoner, and the POWs received 80 cents in canteen coupons. The difference went to the federal treasury to pay for the POW program.
Grayson County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 135,543. The county seat is Sherman. The county was founded in 1846 and is named after Peter Wagener Grayson, an attorney general of the Republic of Texas. Grayson County is included in the Sherman-Denison metropolitan statistical area, which is also included in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, combined statistical area. Located on the state's border with Oklahoma, it is part of the Texoma region, with proximity to Lake Texoma and the Red River.
The Red River 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 also 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 now is 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.
Detroit Dam is a gravity dam on the North Santiam River between Linn County and Marion County, Oregon. It is located in the Cascades, about 5 mi (8.0 km) west of the city of Detroit. It was constructed between 1949 and 1953 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The dam created 400-foot (120 m) deep Detroit Lake, more than 9 miles (14 km) long with 32 miles (51 km) of shoreline.
Garrison Dam is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota, U.S. Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 to 1953, at over two miles (3.2 km) in length, the dam is the fifth-largest earthen dam in the world. The reservoir impounded by the dam is Lake Sakakawea, which extends to Williston and the confluence with the Yellowstone River, near the Montana border. The dam and resulting reservoir inundated approximately one-sixth (16.6%) to one-fourth (25%) of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation's land, resulting in the loss of homes, farmland, and community infrastructure for the Three Affiliated Tribes.
Lake Texoma is one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, the 12th-largest US Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) lake, and the largest in USACE Tulsa District. Lake Texoma is formed by Denison Dam on the Red River in Bryan County, Oklahoma, and Grayson County, Texas, about 726 miles (1,168 km) upstream from the mouth of the river. It is located at the confluence of the Red and Washita Rivers. The project was completed in 1944. The damsite is about 5 miles (8.0 km) northwest of Denison, Texas, and 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Durant, Oklahoma. Lake Texoma is the most developed and most popular lake within the USACE Tulsa District, attracting around 6 million visitors a year. Oklahoma has more of the lake within its boundaries than Texas.
Keystone Lake is a reservoir in northeastern Oklahoma on the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers. It is located upstream about 23 miles (37 km) from Tulsa. It was created in 1968 when the Keystone Dam was completed. The primary purposes are: flood control, hydroelectric power generation, wildlife management and recreation.
The Oahe Dam is a large earthen dam on the Missouri River, just north of Pierre, South Dakota, United States. Begun in 1948 and opened in 1962, the dam creates Lake Oahe, the fourth-largest man-made reservoir in the United States. The reservoir stretches 231 miles (372 km) up the course of the Missouri to Bismarck, North Dakota. The dam's power plant provides electricity for much of the north-central United States. It is named for the Oahe Indian Mission established among the Lakota Sioux in 1874.
Lake Allatoona is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Etowah River in northwestern part of the State of Georgia. This reservoir is mostly in southeastern Bartow County and southwestern Cherokee County. A small portion is located in Cobb County near Acworth.
Carters Dam is an earthen embankment dam located south of Chatsworth in Murray County and west of Ellijay in northwestern Georgia, United States, that creates Carters Lake.
Stockton Lake is a reservoir located in southeastern Cedar County, northeastern Dade County, and southwestern Polk County, Missouri. The lake is V-shaped, and covers 39 square miles (100 km2), with 298 miles (480 km) of shoreline. It has three marinas, and 10 public-use areas. It has a "non-development policy," and is surrounded by unspoiled, tree-covered hills. Its banks are owned and operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
State Highway 91 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Texas that runs 13.6 miles (21.9 km) from Sherman through Denison to the Oklahoma state line at Denison Dam at Lake Texoma. This route was designated in 1994, the northern segment replacing State Highway 75A) and the southern segment designating the old route of U.S. Highway 75 which was rerouted and upgraded to freeway status. The highway is known locally as Texoma Parkway for much of its length, except through some parts of Denison. It is one of the main commercial strips in the Sherman-Denison metropolitan area.
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.
Lake O’ the Pines is a reservoir on Big Cypress Bayou, also known as Big Cypress Creek, chiefly in Marion County, Texas, United States. The reservoir also occupies a small part of Camp, Upshur, and Morris Counties. The dam is located approximately 8.5 miles (13.7 km) west of Jefferson.
Hugo Lake is manmade lake located 7 miles (11 km) east of Hugo, in Choctaw County, Oklahoma, United States. It is formed by Hugo Lake Dam on the Kiamichi River 18 miles (29 km) upstream from the Red River. The dam is visible from U.S. Route 70, which crosses its spillway just west of Sawyer. Lake Hugo features approximately 110 miles (180 km) of shoreline and covers over 13,250 acres (53.6 km2), or 20 square miles (52 km2). Its normal pool elevation is 404.5 feet (123.3 m) above sea level and its normal storage capacity is 157,600 acre-feet (194,400,000 m3). At flood stage its elevation is at 437.5 feet (133.4 m) above sea level and it is capable of storing 966,700 acre-feet (1.1924×109 m3) of flood waters. The lake's primary functions are to provide flood control, water storage, and recreational opportunities.
The Sherman–Denison metropolitan statistical area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of one county—Grayson—in North Texas, anchored by the cities of Sherman and Denison. According to the 2010 U.S. census, the MSA had a population of 120,877; according to 2021 estimates, it had a population of 139,336. The Sherman–Denison MSA is a component of the Dallas-Ft. Worth combined statistical area, which covers a 19-county area and had an estimated population of 8,057,796 as of July 1, 2009. It is also a major part of the Texoma region with proximity to both Lake Texoma and the Red River.
Eufaula Dam is a dam across the Canadian River in Oklahoma. Completed in 1964, it impounds Eufaula Lake, one of the world's largest man-made lakes, covering 102,500 acres. The dam serves to provide flood control, water supply, navigation and hydroelectric power generation. It supports a 90 MW power station; three generators produce 30 MW each.
The Pensacola Dam, also known as the Grand River Dam, is a multiple-arch buttress dam located between the towns of Disney and Langley on the Grand River in Mayes County, Oklahoma. The dam is operated by the Grand River Dam Authority and creates Grand Lake o' the Cherokees. After decades of vision and planning, it was constructed between 1938 and 1940 for the purposes of hydroelectric power generation, flood control and recreation. It is Oklahoma's first hydroelectric power plant and is referred to as the longest multiple-arch dam in the world.
Council Grove Lake is a reservoir on the Neosho River in east-central Kansas. Built and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it is used for flood control, recreation, and water supply.
Abiquiu Dam is a dam on the Rio Chama, located about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Santa Fe in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, USA. Built and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the dam is an earth embankment structure 354 feet (108 m) high and 1,800 feet (550 m) long, containing 11.8 million cubic yards of fill. The dam forms Abiquiu Lake, one of the largest lakes in New Mexico, with a full storage capacity of 1,369,000 acre-feet (1,689,000 dam3) and 5,200 acres (2,100 ha) of water. To date, the reservoir has never filled to capacity, with a record high of 402,258 acre-feet (496,178 dam3), 29.4% of full pool, on June 22, 1987. The dam's primary purpose is flood control, in addition to irrigation and municipal water storage, and hydroelectric generation.