Broken Bow Lake Water Level
Broken Bow Lake is at 591.29 ft today (Oct 18), 11.21 ft below its 602.5 ft full pool, down 0.93 ft this week.
Oklahoma · Mountain Fork River
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Water level history
About Broken Bow Lake
Broken Bow Lake is a reservoir on the Mountain Fork River in Oklahoma, operated by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It's the centerpiece of Beavers Bend State Park and the Hochatown resort area. Its full summer pool sits at 602.5 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Broken Bow Lake's water level
Broken Bow Lake sits on the Mountain Fork River in the Ouachita Mountains of far southeastern Oklahoma, about nine miles north of the town of Broken Bow. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Tulsa District built the dam under authorization from the Flood Control Acts of 1958 and 1967. Construction began in October 1961, the river was closed off in October 1968, and the conservation pool filled in April 1970. The earthen dam rises 225 feet above the old streambed and carries eight spillway gates. Behind it the lake covers roughly 14,200 acres and runs about 22 miles up the Mountain Fork, backing up a watershed of about 754 square miles across Polk County, Arkansas, and LeFlore and McCurtain Counties, Oklahoma. The project serves flood control, hydropower, water supply, recreation, and fish and wildlife management. Two generators rated at 50 megawatts each, installed with the dam, had produced more than 6.4 billion kilowatt hours by the time the Corps marked the dam's 50th anniversary in September 2020.
Conservation pool, the level the Corps tries to hold under normal conditions, tops out at 602.5 feet in the Corps' current water control data, and that same elevation doubles as the floor of the flood pool that runs up to 627.5 feet; the inactive pool bottoms out at 559 feet. The lake formed over the original Hochatown, a Choctaw community dating to the 1830s that grew into a lumber and coal town by the 1880s. Its post office closed in 1963 and its last residents left in 1966 as the water rose, and more than 200 feet of lake now covers the old townsite. A second Hochatown grew up about a mile west on U.S. 259, and its residents voted to incorporate on November 8, 2022; McCurtain County commissioners approved it on November 28, and the first town trustees met on January 10, 2023.
Below the dam, water drawn from deep in the reservoir rather than off the warm surface feeds a trout fishery that runs 12 miles down the Lower Mountain Fork, regulated through a reregulation dam a few miles downstream that the U.S. Geological Survey gauges on its own. Oklahoma's Wildlife Department has stocked rainbow and brown trout there since 1989, but the setup has limits: in 2005 the sluice releases warmed past what trout could tolerate once the reservoir stratified, and the department had to suspend stocking until conditions cooled. The lake itself carries largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, and white bass, hybrid striped bass, walleye, black and white crappie, and channel and flathead catfish in clear water low in nutrients, with visibility averaging around nine and a half feet by Secchi disk. Level swings leave marks too: floods in May and December 2015 tore up the trout stream's channel and wiped out years of habitat work, and the pool has ranged from a peak of 629 feet in February 2016 down to well under conservation top during the drought of 2022.
Broken Bow Lake — frequently asked
What is Broken Bow Lake's full pool level?
The Corps' current water control data list conservation pool, the top of the normal operating range, at 602.5 feet, which also serves as the bottom of the flood pool running up to 627.5 feet. Above that, 25 feet of flood storage lets the Corps hold back a major storm and release it gradually through the dam's eight gates. The inactive pool, the practical bottom of the lake, sits at 559 feet.
What is Broken Bow Lake's record high level?
In February 2016 the lake rose 10 feet in a day and reached 629 feet on February 11, topping the prior high of 628.66 feet, per news reports on the Corps' gauge readings at the time. The Corps opened all eight spillway gates, releasing water at 16,800 cubic feet per second as the lake kept climbing. The recent high shown in this page's gauge panel, 620.77 feet in 2021, is lower because the gauge feed only covers the last several years.
What is Broken Bow Lake's record low level?
This site's gauge feed lists 587.73 feet in 2022 as the record low. That is broadly consistent with news reports from August 2022 describing the lake roughly 10 feet below its normal elevation during what the Corps called the worst drought since the late 1990s, though an independent Corps document naming that exact low figure was not found in this research.
Why does Broken Bow Lake's level change so much?
Flood control comes first in how the Corps runs the lake. Broken Bow catches runoff from its 754 square mile watershed and holds it between conservation pool at 602.5 feet and the flood pool top at 627.5 feet, then releases it gradually through the dam's eight gates and two 50 megawatt generators. Big rain years push the pool toward flood pool, as in February 2016, while long droughts, like 2022, can drop it well below conservation top since water supply and power releases continue in dry stretches too.
Why is the water below Broken Bow Dam cold enough for trout?
Releases are drawn from deep in the reservoir rather than off the warm surface, which keeps the 12 mile stretch of the Lower Mountain Fork below the dam and its downstream reregulation structure cold enough for a trout fishery stocked with rainbow and brown trout since 1989. It is not foolproof: in 2005 summer stratification pushed release temperatures above what trout could survive, and Oklahoma's Wildlife Department had to halt stocking until the water cooled back down.
What happened to the original town of Hochatown?
The first Hochatown, a Choctaw community that grew into a lumber and coal town by the 1880s, sat in what is now the lakebed. Its post office closed in 1963, the last residents left in 1966, and by 1970 more than 200 feet of water covered the site. A second Hochatown formed about a mile west on U.S. 259 and voted to incorporate on November 8, 2022, becoming official when McCurtain County commissioners approved it later that month.
What fish live in Broken Bow Lake?
The lake holds largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, and white bass, hybrid striped bass, walleye, black and white crappie, and channel and flathead catfish, according to Oklahoma Wildlife Department surveys, in clear, low nutrient water with visibility averaging roughly nine and a half feet. Below the dam, the cold tailwater is managed separately as a stocked trout fishery rather than a warmwater one.
Other lakes near Broken Bow Lake
- Canton LakeOK
- Arcadia LakeOK
- Lake EufaulaOK
- Lake Altus-LugertOK
- Fort Cobb ReservoirOK
- Lake TexomaTX/OK
See current levels for all 17 Oklahoma lakes and reservoirs →
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