Pertinent Data

Authorization: Flood Control Act approved June 28, 1938, and Project Document HD 569, 75th Congress, 3d Session (flood control); Flood Control Act approved July 24, 1946 (irrigation storage); Flood Control Act approved June 30, 1948, and the Water Resources Development Act of 1990 (water supply storage).

Location: On the North Canadian River at river mile 394.3, about 2 miles north of Canton in Blaine County, Oklahoma, and about 75 miles northwest of Oklahoma City in Canadian County, Oklahoma. 

Status: Complete.

Purpose: Flood control, water supply, irrigation, recreation, and fish and wildlife.

History of Construction: Construction began in December 1940 and was completed in May 1948. Embankment closure began in July 1947 and was completed in January 1948. Impoundment of the conservation pool started in April 1948 and was completed in July 1948. Additional recreational facilities and the lake intake and filter plant were completed in 1972. Four dikes, denoted as 1, 2, 3, and 4 are 964’, 40’, 310’, and 105’ long respectively. They have maximum heights of 18’, 3’, 3’, and 3’—in order—and a design crest height of 648.  

Type of Structure: The dam is a 15,140-foot-long, rolled, earth-filled structure with a 640-foot gated, concrete spillway which rises to a maximum height of 68 feet above the streambed. State Highway 58-A extends across the embankment and spillway. 

Spillway & Outlet Works: The spillway is a gate-controlled, concrete, gravity, chute located in the right abutment. Spillway capacity at maximum pool (elevation 1641.7) is 339,200 cubic feet per second (cfs) and at the top of the gates (elevation 1638.0) is 276,800 cfs. Spillway discharges are controlled by sixteen 40- by 25-foot tainter gates. The outlet works consist of two 7- by 12-foot sluices that pass through the spillway. The dam was constructed with three sluice gates, but one has been filled with concrete and permanently removed from service. 0utlet capacity of the sluices varies from 2,038 cfs at pool elevation 1596.5 to 7,746 cfs at pool elevation 1638.0, the top of the gates.  An irrigation outlet with access shaft and gate chamber is located in the right spillway approach wall.  Two 24-inch butterfly valve-controlled bypasses provide control of low-flow discharges.  An auxiliary labyrinth spillway was constructed consisting of nine 53- by 32- foot fuse gates. The auxiliary spillway begins to flow at an elevation of 1640.50 with a maximum capacity at elevation 1649.9 of 255,000 cfs. Bank-full capacity below the dam is about 1,000 cfs.

Hydrologic Data: Estimated peak discharge for the October 1923 flood (pre-construction) was 87,800 cfs. Estimated runoff for Oct. 7 to Oct. 19, 1923, was 300,450 acre-feet, which is equivalent to 0.74 inch from the drainage area above the dam site.