The History of the Ouachita Valley and Lake Ouachita

The Indians were the first to inhabit the Ouachita Valley. Major Indian tribes living along the banks of the Ouachita included the Washita, Caddo, Osage, Tensas, Chickasaw, and Choctaw.

Many Indian Mounds were excavated in the area of the proposed lake.  The University of Arkansas carried out two major excavations in the river valley in 1939. Their were several smaller projects which took place up to the time the lake filled.  The larger projects were WPA projects that local men were hired to participate in.

The artifacts from the two major projects, The Poole Site and The Adair Site are still in the possession of the University Museum at Fayetteville.

Indians of the Valley

Exploration of the Valley

The Spanish were the first Europeans to actually explore the Ouachita River Valley. Hernando DeSoto, credited for discovering the Mississippi River, was recorded as having walked the entire length of the Ouachita River from Hot Springs , Arkansas to Jonesville, Louisiana. In his travels.

The Indians were the first to inhabit the Ouachita Valley.

The word "Washita", today known as OUACHITA, is an Indian word meaning..."River of good hunting grounds...and sparkling silver water".

Starting in the 1930's government appraisers started buying land, paying an average of $30 per acre.

Land owners were allowed to cut their timber.  Buildings of any substance, the owners allowed to relocate.  The Buckville Baptist Church  was moved 1/2 mile to higher ground.

The Blakely Mountain Dam Construction began in 1948 and ended in 1953 when the gates where closed.   Power production began in August of 1955. 

Before and during construction Towns and Cemeteries were relocated before being inundated by the rising waters.

Old Buckville, Cedar Glades (Harold), Flea Bend (Aultville), Oakwood (Chalybeate Spring), White Plains area are under the waters of Lake Ouachita.

 Blakely Dam itself is composed of rolled earth, almost four million cubic yards of earth. It is 231 feet high and 1100 feet wide. The optimum lake level is 578' above sea level. If the level reaches 592' the water would flow through an emergency 200 feet wide spillway located one mile west of the dam and then into Lake Hamilton.

This has never happened since the gates where closed in 1953 however in December 1982 - January 1983, the lake did reach 591.2 feet, just .8 of a foot short of going through the spillway.

The COE area covers 82,000 acres.  At 578 feet, 40,100 acres of the project is covered by the lake.

 At 592 ft above sea level it would be 975 miles around the shoreline and the flood control pool would be 48,300 acres.

Drainage area is 1105 sq. miles. Total storage capacity 2,768,000 acre feet. (One acre foot equals one acre of water one foot deep).
The hills that surround the lake range up to 1,350'.