Comments on: Optima Lake State Park

By: jacqueline

jacqueline — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:09:08 +0000

You tell them Ranger B!

By: jacqueline

jacqueline — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:03:51 +0000

Its still a very beautiful place:)

By: jacqueline

jacqueline — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:01:27 +0000

during this year it has rained alot and the lake is way more filled then how it looks in all those pictures (they cut out alot out of the lake even in those pics[no afince ,or however you spell that word])i live in hardesty and the lake is way more beatiful then it looks like in those pics.:)

By: Brent Shoulders

Brent Shoulders — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:41:05 +0000

Ranger B,
i, too, am not excited about the outcome of the lake project. However, you have to admit that the area is a great place and a great asset to the panhandle. We are currently fighting a good fight with the politicians that are threatening to de-authorize the project, tear everything down, and breach the dam. The are also wanting to sell it to the highest bidder! I would like your input on a few things if you would!
Anyone else interested in helping us preserve this land for public use, please go to the following facebook link:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Hardesty-OK/Optima-Public-Lands-Coalition/159165144858
You can find good information of what’s happening and you can help us Keep Public Lands in Public hands!”

By: commandercody

commandercody — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:06:33 +0000

I grew up in Hardesty and on the last day of school in the late 70’s we had about a ten inch rain in Texas county. Some kids couldn’t even get to their homes when we returned from Amarillo. We were all excited because we thought this would fill up the lake, then learned that the gates were opened up because of a couple construction vehicles left near the water. Bet they wish they would have just left them there! I know I do.

By: Kit

Kit — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:43:39 +0000

A work friend and I were sent out near that area on a job. We looked at the (current) State Atlas and saw an actual (blue) lake represented with a dam in place. We thought, “Go fishing.”

We told the folks at the job that we were planning after the job to go to Lake Optima and go “fish off the dam”. One guy said he wanted to go because always wanted to see a guy cast a line three-quarters of a mile!

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:45:01 +0000

Hey Ranger B,
What happened to the guy here lately that wanted to use the Optima area for Hunting Dog training? He claimed he could bring in tons of Revenue for the local areas.
I was outof town when they had the hooker city meeting over that. Never heard what happened one way or the other.
It is very sad to watch all thise tax dollars gone to waste. Corpof Engineers needs to turn it back to land owners if they won’t allow anyone to use it to bring in revenue to the local communities. Oh, Wait! That is what is was designed to do.

By: Ranger B

Ranger B — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:06:14 +0000

Just thought I’d clarify a few things. I was a Park Ranger @ Optima Lake from 1979 through 1994. Number 1: There never was a “State Park” @ Optima Lake. The State of Oklahoma declined this option in the planning stages (most likely due to cost). All of the recreational facilities were managed by the Corps Of Engineers. Number 2: The Coldwater Creek “arm” of the “lake” is a National Wildlife Refuge administered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service while the North Canadian (locally called the Beaver) River “arm” is run by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. Number 3: the dam itself is 3 1/2 miles long, and actually at it’s highest level (in the mid-80’s) had a max depth of about 10 feet of water! The damage to the facilities is a combination of vandalism, lack of any maintenance for about 15 years and slow destruction and removal by the Corps. Number 4: There was no tornado damage. There was some range fire damage (particularly to the infamous guardrail) but this was relatively minor in the recreation areas. I’d be glad to answer any questions I can regarding this site. Having spent 15 years of my life working there, count me as one of the most disappointed in it’s outcome!

By: Derry Gilmore

Derry Gilmore — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:19:39 +0000

Great pictures!
I’m always amazed how people comment about the run down facilities, obvious lack of water and complete project failure of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Why not think of the family’s that had their land forcibly taken through innment domain action by the U.S. Government. Then watched for the next 43 years (1966 – 2009). I would lay odds the land supported more more wild life on the ranch land before the U.S. Government got near the land. Texas County, The U.S. Corp of Engineers and the State should just give the land back to the original land owners with a huge apology!

By: M

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:02:24 +0000

Wildfires burnt the support posts.

By: Jessie

Jessie — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:51:21 +0000

I grew up in this area and spent quite a bit of my early years camping at this place. I loved it. Then, while in high school, it was a popular place for my friends and I to party and camp on weekends because there was really no law enforcement patrolling the lake area.

It’s really sad to see it in the state that it’s in now.

By: Kari Hosar

Kari Hosar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:50:09 +0000

I was wondering the same thing. You think if it was a tornado things would be more strewn about instead of, er, tipped.

By: kent

kent — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:32:52 +0000

well I was close actually it is ten miles east of Hooker, Oklahoma on hiway 64.

http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4SUNA_enUS306US306&q=baker,+oklahoma&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Baker,+Oklahoma&gl=us&ei=Yc6-SrXIOYH2sgOEpJQl&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1

By: scout80

scout80 — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:31:17 +0000

I went through this area in 1979 on a trip to Colorado. There were campsites, picnic areas, restrooms and playgrounds. It was all brand new, but there was no water in the lake. I walked the whole Hardesty area on a hot August afternoon with a cold beer in my hand. I was 18 at the time and left my camera in the car. Dummy.
I also stopped here with my family in about 1988. The roads were starting to show grass in the cracks then. There were a group of RV campers there and one of the campers there told me they came to this site regularly because it was cheap and private. The water in the basin was less than your pics show now.
I have driven by since but have never stopped.
Thanks for the pics.

By: AbandonedOK Team

AbandonedOK Team — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:00:55 +0000

Oh man! I wish we would have known that! Send me a link to the google map of the school and we can always make another trip!

By: kent

kent — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:17:46 +0000

Oh and by the way you were just thirty miles away from the old Baker school…. You would have loved checking it out. Its north about twenty miles then west for about ten miles. The school sytem was abandoned back in the sixties.

By: kent

kent — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:13:02 +0000

the part of the story that has not been told recently is that this hoped for lake had been authorized to be built for forty years before it actually got built.

By: AbandonedOK Team

AbandonedOK Team — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:21:51 +0000

My thought was strong winds. There was an area that was surrounded by trees and they were still intact. Also, on the backside of the dam at Anglers Point, the ground is so far below the dam, that the winds wouldn’t be to strong there either and they were mostly standing. Possibly a tornado, I couldn’t find anything in the archives about it.

By: psychosaw13

psychosaw13 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:13:32 +0000

Oh guys! Amazing pics! what do you thing whould make thos shelter structures all crumble in the same direction? wind? any thoughts?

By: AbandonedOK Team

AbandonedOK Team — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:08:01 +0000

hardy har…. good one….

By: Billy

Billy — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:30:26 +0000

This place looks pretty dam cool.

By: Fiend

Fiend — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:12:06 +0000

Awesome! I’ve heard about this place for some time now, but never wanted to drive all the way out there. Thanks for the pics!So is that an actual dam in pic #24 or what? I cant tell… Oh and I spotted your car again, pic #31, its trying to hide haha.