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.
