General Site Information

Contained in these (blog) pages is part of the great information related to the Student Conservation Association and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' partnership to conduct Visitor Use Surveys at 30+ lakes located throughout the country. As one of six teams in the field, we will be conducting thousands of interviews with Corps visitors to gain a better understanding of who uses US ACE managed sites and exactly how they are used. Check back here throughout the season for information about the project Team 3 is working on, bios for Team 3 members, and updates about our experiences from the field.

See you at the lakes!

Joshua Kalfas
Project Leader (Team 3 - Tulsa)
Student Conservation Association/
US Army Corps of Engineers Visitor Use Survey Program
Cell: +1.208.484.3870
jkalfas@thesca.org

Eufaula Lake is the largest lake located entirely in the State of Oklahoma. It is located on the Canadian River, 27 miles upstream from its confluence with the Arkansas River. The shoreline ranges from vast expanses of sandy beaches to rocky bluffs. Most of the 600-mile shoreline of Lake Eufaula lies within the boundaries of the old Creek Nation, with part of the southern portion in the old Choctaw Nation. Many of the reminders of the colorful history of this area remain today, and boaters traveling through the Standing Rock area can admire beauty that was admired by Spanish explorers.

Eufaula Lake has long been recognized for its outstanding fishery. Crappie, sand bass, catfish and black bass in the lake reach record size. Below the dam, striped bass reaching over 40 pounds have been caught in the tailwaters. Robber's Cave State Park and two state parks located on Eufaula Lake offer a variety of recreational experiences, including golf courses, swimming pools, and hiking trails.

The Eufaula Lake project was authorized by the 1946 River and Harbor Act. It was designed by the Tulsa District, Army Corps of Engineers, and built under the Corps supervision at a cost of $121,735,000. Construction was started in December 1956 and was completed for flood control operation in February 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated the project on September 25, 1964.

Fort Gibson Lake is located on the Grand (Neosho) River about 5 miles northwest of historic Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, from which it draws its name. It is about 7.7 miles above the confluence of the Grand (Neosho) and Arkansas Rivers. The lake lies in Wagoner, Cherokee, and Mayes Counties and extends upriver to the Markham Ferry Dam (Lake Hudson).

Northeast Oklahoma has long been noted for its outstanding fishing. At Fort Gibson Lake, sportsmen will find black bass, white bass, crappie, and several varieties of catfish and panfish. Three heated fishing docks offer winter fun for crappie fishing. When "game fever" is in the air, hunters will find such species as whitetail deer, bobwhite quail, mourning dove, duck, geese, cottontail rabbit and squirrel.

The Fort Gibson project was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1941 and incorporated in the Arkansas River multiple-purpose plan by the River and Harbor Act of July 1946. Designed and built by the Tulsa District, Army Corps of Engineers, the project was started in 1942, suspended during World War 2, and completed in September 1953, at a cost of $42,535,000.

Nestled in the Cookson Hills of eastern Oklahoma, foothills of the Ozark Mountains, this body of water, known as "Oklahoma's Clear Water Wonderland," is surrounded with dogwood forests, hilly terrain, and beautiful foliage from spring until fall. It also serves as part of a flyway for migratory animals, such as Canada geese, ducks, monarch butterflies, warblers, and bald eagles.

Tenkiller crossing, where the dam is located, is named for a famous Cherokee family and was a main travel route across the Illinois River in frontier times. The Tenkiller Ferry project was authorized by Congress under the Flood Control Act of 1938. Installation of power features was authorized in the River and Harbor Act of 1946, and these features were designed and built by the Tulsa District, Army Corps of Engineers, at a cost of $23,687,000. The project was started in 1947, placed in flood control operation in July 1953, and power was placed online in December 1953.

The lake is well known for water-based activities, and its reputation is well deserved. The State of Oklahoma and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineeers manage ten marinas and fourteen parks with many different facilities around the lake. There are twenty-four boat launching ramps around the lake, three floating restaurants, and many islands to explore, the most famous being “Goat Island”, which is actually inhabited with goats that can sometimes be spotted grazing at the shoreline. Scuba diving, camping, hiking, fishing, golfing, water sports, scenic nature, fishing, and hunting are all surrounded with beautiful rock bluffs and days that end with spectacular sunsets.

Camping is also popular, with 14 campgrounds operated by the Corps, the State of Oklahoma, and concessionaires. Types of camping range from primitive to full hookup and are fairly evenly spread out from one end of the lake to the other. Hiking one of the three nature trails is another outdoor activity easily accessible from the lake. The trails vary in length from 1 1/4 miles to over 2 miles. Spectacular vistas, rock formations, and many species of wildlife are just a few of the things to take in as you hike along. Almost all project lands are open to public hunting except for parks and around the dam and control structures. Principal species hunted are whitetail deer, turkey, rabbit, and squirrel.

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore represents a unique ecological history beginning with the retreat of the last great continental glacier approximately 14,000 years ago. The park currently consists of 15,000 acres spanning 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline representing four major successive stages of historic shorelines. Indiana Dunes is one of the most extensive geologic records of the largest complex of freshwater lakes in the world. In the late 1800s several scientific publications had been published featuring the entomology and botany of the Indiana Dunes and in 1916 the National Dunes Association was formed. Public approval for the formation of a National Park was at an all time high; however, the onset of World War I prevented this plan from becoming a reality until 1966.

The area of the park formerly known as the Great Marsh was formed over 4,000 years ago between the Tolleston dunes on the north and the Calumet dunes on the south. This area was an open body of water fed by a single watershed and emptying into Lake Michigan through Dunes Creek. Over time this body of water changed to include conifer swamp, wet prairie, fen, bog, sedge meadow, and marsh. Today, the remaining 205 acres of the Great Marsh stretch only twelve miles with an average width of one-half mile. These collections of wetlands, including Cowles Bog National Landmark, are now known as Cowles Bog Wetland Complex (CBWC).

The CBWC gained recognition in the early 1900s for its unique biodiversity and landscape. It would take Chicago residents a full day of travel to the north to see the same biological diversity they could find by travelling only ninety minutes east to the area then known as Mineral Springs Quaking Bog and Mineral Springs Tamarack Swamp. Its proximity to Chicago made it a highly visited and studied area. Henry Chandler Cowles published a paper in 1899 entitled, “Ecological Relations of the Vegetation on Sand Dunes of Lake Michigan.” For this seminal work, he was later recognized as one of the fathers of plant ecology. The area was first referenced as Cowles Bog in 1923 by Herman Kurz, a student of Henry Cowles at the University of Chicago.