Lake Tawakoni ( ) is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

located in

Northeast Texas Northeast Texas is a cultural and geographic region in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Texas. Geographically centered on two metropolitan areas strung along Interstate 20— Tyler in the west and Longview/ Marshall to the east, the area ...

, about east of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. It lies within three Texas counties,

Hunt Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, e ...

, Rains, and Van Zandt. It is used for water supply and recreation. It is under the Sabine River Authority of Texas and the original headwaters of the

Sabine The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divide ...

are converged under the lake surface.

Etymology

The lake was named for the

Tawakoni The Tawakoni (also Tahuacano and Tehuacana) are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita a ...

Native American peoples, who were a larger part of the

Caddo Nation The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, wh ...

. The Caddos inhabited a large swath of North and East Texas, including where the lake is located.

History

The reservoir was constructed in 1960 with the Iron Bridge Dam. The area was chosen due to its location to the growing Dallas area and the growth east of the city and its respective suburbs. The South Fork, Cowleech Fork, and Caddo Forks that all formed the Sabine River headwaters are now submerged under the lake and the lake now serves as the headwaters of the Sabine. It covers and has a storage capacity of at conservation pool level. It is owned by the Sabine River Authority of Texas.

Flora and fauna

The lake has a diverse array of wildlife. It features

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

feral hogs The feral pig is a domestic pig which has gone feral, meaning it lives in the wild. They are found mostly in the Americas and Australia. Razorback and wild hog are Americanisms applied to feral pigs or boar-pig hybrids. Definition A feral p ...

snakes Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joi ...

raccoons The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of . ...

bobcats The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

, and over 200 species of birds. Sightings of the

American alligator The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the gen ...

in certain areas of the lake have not been uncommon. The lake mainly has

post oak ''Quercus stellata'', the post oak or iron oak, is a North American species of oak in the white oak section. It is a slow-growing oak that lives in dry areas on the edges of fields, tops of ridges also grows in poor soils, and is resistant to r ...

hardwood timber and plants native to the Texas Blackland Prairies. In the summer of 2007, Lake Tawakoni State Park was the site of a large, rare

spider web A spider web, spiderweb, spider's web, or cobweb (from the archaic word '' coppe'', meaning "spider") is a structure created by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets, generally meant to catch its prey. Spid ...

. The web stretched over a 200-yard path and attracted considerable attention from

entomologists Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Gallery

File:Lake Tawakoni September 2015 1.jpg, As viewed from West Tawakoni City Park in West Tawakoni, Texas File:Lake Tawakoni September 2015 2.jpg, As viewed from East Tawakoni, Texas File:Tawakoni spider-web 2622.jpg, The spider web found in Lake Tawakoni State Park File:Lake Tawakoni Iron Bridge Dam in East Texas.jpg, Lake Tawakoni Iron Bridge Dam in East Texas

References

External links

Texas Parks and Wildlife page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tawakoni, Lake 1960 establishments in Texas Bodies of water of Hunt County, Texas Bodies of water of Rains County, Texas Bodies of water of Van Zandt County, Texas Dams completed in 1960 Dams in Texas Protected areas of Hunt County, Texas Protected areas of Rains County, Texas Protected areas of Van Zandt County, Texas Reservoirs in Texas United States state-owned dams