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Lake Overholser
Lake Overholser is a reservoir within the city limits of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Lake Overholser is formed by Overholser Dam on the North Canadian River in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. The lake is 2.9 miles (4.7 km) west of Bethany and 4.4 mi (7.1 km) from Yukon. Lake Overholser is named after Ed Overholser who was the 16th Mayor of the City of Oklahoma City.
The lake was originally intended to assure an adequate supply of municipal water, since the city depended primarily on the North Canadian River as a source, supplemented by private wells. The need for flood control capability became obvious when the river flooded in 1923. It breached the Lake Overholser Dam and inundated much of the city.
The lake covers approximately 1,500 acres (6 km2) and was constructed in 1919 to provide water to a treatment plant. According to USGS, its capacity is 17,100 acre-feet (21,100,000 m3) The average depth is 6 feet (1.8 m) and the maximum depth is only 13 feet (4.0 m).
"The Mother Road" was situated along the North shore of Lake Overholser from 1926 to 1958. A 1958 Route 66 improvement project created a new alignment for the highway that relocated the roadbed about 1/4 mile North of the lake. The original 1926 section of Route 66 still exists and was renamed North Overholser Drive. This includes the picturesque Lake Overholser Bridge. The alignment runs south of the Stonebridge Lake Estates and Ramsey Lake and is considered one of the most scenic sections of the original Route 66.
The Lake Overholser Dam, designed by Niels Ambursen and built by the Ambursen Construction Company of New York, is 68 feet (21 m) high and 1,258 feet (383 m)long. Oklahoma City residents voted a $1.5 million bond issue in 1916 to pay for the project. The dam is built of reinforced poured concrete.
The dam has four distinct sections of buttressed spillways and a solid spillway. A concrete walkway extends across the dam over the buttresses until it comes to the larger spillway, where it is carried by a Pratt through truss.
A concrete wing wall anchors the dam into the eastern riverbank. The first span of the dam, between the eastern wing wall and the pump house, is wide. The brick-walled pump house has a gabled tile roof, a small chimney, and two round ventilators. It sits above four arched sluiceway openings.
On October 16, 1923, operators at the central telephone exchange of Oklahoma City began calling to notify subscribers living south of Grand Avenue (now Sheridan Avenue) of an impending flood caused by levee breakage at the recently built City Reservoir (now known as Lake Overholser). The daily newspaper, The Oklahoman, reported that 300 national guardsmen and American Legion volunteers had been sent to organize evacuation of a 117-block area of the city that was expected to be severely impacted by the 25-foot wall of water already heading in that direction.
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Lake Overholser
Lake Overholser is a reservoir within the city limits of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Lake Overholser is formed by Overholser Dam on the North Canadian River in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. The lake is 2.9 miles (4.7 km) west of Bethany and 4.4 mi (7.1 km) from Yukon. Lake Overholser is named after Ed Overholser who was the 16th Mayor of the City of Oklahoma City.
The lake was originally intended to assure an adequate supply of municipal water, since the city depended primarily on the North Canadian River as a source, supplemented by private wells. The need for flood control capability became obvious when the river flooded in 1923. It breached the Lake Overholser Dam and inundated much of the city.
The lake covers approximately 1,500 acres (6 km2) and was constructed in 1919 to provide water to a treatment plant. According to USGS, its capacity is 17,100 acre-feet (21,100,000 m3) The average depth is 6 feet (1.8 m) and the maximum depth is only 13 feet (4.0 m).
"The Mother Road" was situated along the North shore of Lake Overholser from 1926 to 1958. A 1958 Route 66 improvement project created a new alignment for the highway that relocated the roadbed about 1/4 mile North of the lake. The original 1926 section of Route 66 still exists and was renamed North Overholser Drive. This includes the picturesque Lake Overholser Bridge. The alignment runs south of the Stonebridge Lake Estates and Ramsey Lake and is considered one of the most scenic sections of the original Route 66.
The Lake Overholser Dam, designed by Niels Ambursen and built by the Ambursen Construction Company of New York, is 68 feet (21 m) high and 1,258 feet (383 m)long. Oklahoma City residents voted a $1.5 million bond issue in 1916 to pay for the project. The dam is built of reinforced poured concrete.
The dam has four distinct sections of buttressed spillways and a solid spillway. A concrete walkway extends across the dam over the buttresses until it comes to the larger spillway, where it is carried by a Pratt through truss.
A concrete wing wall anchors the dam into the eastern riverbank. The first span of the dam, between the eastern wing wall and the pump house, is wide. The brick-walled pump house has a gabled tile roof, a small chimney, and two round ventilators. It sits above four arched sluiceway openings.
On October 16, 1923, operators at the central telephone exchange of Oklahoma City began calling to notify subscribers living south of Grand Avenue (now Sheridan Avenue) of an impending flood caused by levee breakage at the recently built City Reservoir (now known as Lake Overholser). The daily newspaper, The Oklahoman, reported that 300 national guardsmen and American Legion volunteers had been sent to organize evacuation of a 117-block area of the city that was expected to be severely impacted by the 25-foot wall of water already heading in that direction.