Sevier County Lakes

Sevier County is home to De Queen, Gillham and Dierks lakes. These three lakes make up the TRI Lakes Country. De Queen Lake is located on the Rolling Fork River in Sevier County about four miles northwest of the city of De Queen. De Queen Lake was authorized for construction by the Flood Control Act approved July 3, 1958. The project was designed by the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and built under the Corp's supervision. Construction on the project was started in April 1966 and the lake went into operation August 31, 1977.

The authorized purposes of the De Queen lake are to provide flood control, water supply, water quality, recreation and fish and wildlife enhancement.

The Flood control storage or "top zone" portion of the lake has a capacity of 101,200 acre-feet. This portion of the lake is reserved to catch flood waters from a drainage area of 169 square miles above the dam and remains empty except during times of flood control operation. An acre-foot is 325,850 gallons-enought water to cover one acre one foot deep.

The conservation storage or "middle zone" provides 25,500 acre-feet of storage for supply and water quality control. This portion of the lake is the normal operating pool and has surface area of 1, 680 acres with a shoreline length of 32 miles.

The bottom zone or "inactive storage" provides 9,400 acre-feet to conain sediment.

The dam is a rolled earthfill embankment 2,360 feet long and rises 160 feet above the streambed. The top of the dam is 32 feet wide and has a 24 foot wide surfaced roadway. The spillway is located through the left abutment about 1,400 feet east of the main enbankment. It is 650 feet long with a 200 foot wide crest and 1-on-1 side slopes. Discharge through the spillway at maxiumn pool elevation 513.8 is 17,500 cfs.

The outlet works consists of a gate tower with two 5'8" by 12' hydraulic operated slide gates, on 36 inch low flow pipe, a 42 inch water supply pipe, a 12-foot diameter conduit and a stilling basin.

It has been estimated that De Queen Lake will prevent average of $242,900 in flood damages annually.