Okmulgee Park is a

city park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

in Okmulgee, Oklahoma in the United States. The park contains and sits at an elevation of . The park is adjacent to Dripping Springs Park and is located on Okmulgee Lake. Okmulgee Park, a municipal park established in 1963, is open for year-round recreation including camping, fishing, swimming and hiking.

History

Okmulgee Park is on land that was at the bottom of a vast inland sea 200 to 350 million years ago. The rocks at the park date back to the

Pennsylvanian Period The Pennsylvanian ( , also known as Upper Carboniferous or Late Carboniferous) is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the younger of two subperiods (or upper of two subsystems) of the Carboniferous Period. It lasted from roughly . As with most o ...

. Okmulgee and neighboring Dripping Springs Park are two of the very few places in the world where the rare

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

, '' Gymnophyllum wardi'' also known as "button coral", can be found. The facilities of Okmulgee and Dripping Springs Parks were constructed by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

and

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

. The WPA and CCC were work relief programs for men from unemployed families, established during the Great Depression. As part of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's New Deal legislation, they were designed to combat unemployment during the Great Depression. The WPA and CCC operated in every

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

. The men of the WPA and CCC replaced an earthen dam at Okmulgee Lake which was built in 1927. They also built a

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure th ...

and many of the park facilities that are still in use today. Both Dripping Springs and Okmulgee Parks became Oklahoma state parks when management of the park was transferred from the city of Okmulgee to the state. The latter became Oklahoma State Park in 1963. Dripping Springs was leased to the state by the city in 1988. In 2015, the parks were removed from the state park system and are again managed by the City of Okmulgee.

Recreation

Okmulgee Park is open for year-round recreation. Okmulgee Lake has a surface area of , is open to fishing, boating and swimming."Okmulgee & Dripping Springs Lake & Recreation Area." TravelOK. Undated.
Accessed August 1, 2018. Built in 1927 to provide water for the city of Okmulgee, it is considered to be an "old fishing lake." The lake bottom features large boulders and thick oak tree trunks. Common game fish found in the lake are crappie,

white bass The white bass, silver bass, or sand bass (''Morone chrysops'') is a freshwater fish of the temperate bass family Moronidae. commonly around 12-15 inches long. The species' main color is silver-white to pale green. Its back is dark, with white ...

, sunfish,

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

, and channel catfish. Okmulgee Lake has been designated as an Oklahoma "Trophy Bass Lake." In addition to fishing the lake is open to boating, kayaking, swimming, and water-skiing. There are 75 RV camping sites and 50 tent camping sites at the park. The boat ramps are lit. Okmulgee Park also features a hiking trail and extensive picnic facilities. Hunting is not permitted within the park, but a public hunting area is located on the north and west side of the lake.

Lake Okmulgee Dam Spillway Cascade

The end of Okmulgee Lake features the Lake Okmulgee Dam Spillway Cascade, listed in the

National Register of Historic Places in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Okmulgee County, O ...

, which on occasions of heavy rains and high lake levels creates an intense man-made waterfall.

References

{{Protected areas of Oklahoma Protected areas established in 1963 Protected areas of Okmulgee County, Oklahoma 1963 establishments in Oklahoma