- City:
- Medicine Park, OK
- Site Type:
- Dams, Infrastructure and Utilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Started:
- 1938
- Completed:
- 1939
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) raised the height of Lake Lawtonka Dam by ten feet between March 1938 and July 1939. It would take WPA workers additional time to clean up the site and construct “break-water structures at the boat landings.” The substantial project cost about $535,000, of which $90,000 was provided by the city. (The WPA supplied the rest of the funding.)
Upon completion of the project the dam measured 704 feet long, between 60 and 70 feet high, and ten feet wide at the top.
Source notes
"LAKE LAWTONKA DAM TO BE RAISED," The Caddo Herald, Jan. 14, 1938 (page 8): https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/788600705/
"Now Let It Rain—All Concrete Is Poured In New Lake Lawtonka Dam," The Lawton Constitution, Jul. 2, 1939 (page 6): https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/873363977/
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on July 8, 2024.
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