Grayson County TXGenWeb
 





Two major floods in 1848 & 1908 created a need for a way to control flooding on the Red River.  George Moulton, father of the Denison Dam and a Denison businessman, lobbied the United States Congress for a dam on the river as early as 1925.  Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House and second in power to the President, used his influence to get funding for and the construction of the Denison Dam.  The Flood Control Act of 1938, passed by Congress, authorized the construction of the dam for flood control, hydro-power and as a water supply.
Source : Impact : A Look at the Historic Impact of Lake Texoma's Flooding, Jocelyn Lockwood, KTEN News, viewed May 25, 2015

Denison Dam is a dam located on the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma.  It impounds Lake Texoma and is also referred to as Lake Texoma Dam. Today the Denison Dam's purpose is to serve as flood control, water supply, hydroelectric power production, river regulation, navigation and recreation. Denison Dam has provided two federally managed wildlife-refuge areas managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; two state parks - one in Texas and one in Oklahoma; 80,000 acres of open public land used for hunting.





SOME FACTS
  • Completed in 1943, primarily as a flood control project
  • At that time, it was the "largest rolled-earth fill dam in the world"
  • Takes its name from Denison, just downriver from the damface
  • Three times has Lake Texoma reached the dam's spillway - 1957, 1990, 2007

LOCATION
  • Bryan County, Oklahoma/Grayson County, Texas
  • Coordinates: 3349′5″N 9634′20″W
  • Status: Operational
  • Owners: U.S.Army Corps of Engineers
  • Type of dam: Earth-filled embankment
  • Height: 165 ft (50 m)
  • Length: 15,200 ft (4,633 m) (not including levees)
  • Impounds: Red River of the South
  • Reservoir: Lake Texoma
  • Capacity: 2,525,568 acre feet (3.115242109 m3)
  • Surface Area: 89,000 acres (36,000 ha)
  • Commission Date: 1945/1949
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Denison Dam
Susan Hawkins
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