Five Years Ago Today Saturday May 23, 2015

[Fenwick]

Forgive me if I have my dates mixed up. I'm thinking it was more than five years ago but maybe not. My photo date and time stamp shows it as 4:19 PM on May 23, 2015 so I'm going by that. And so this story...

Five years ago today Saturday May 23, 2015 Brad Bessett and I went up together and were first ones on the water that morning as was often the case. The flow, higher than the usual norm had already been up for a few weeks. An extended period of regional rains had raised the reservoir level to capacity much as happened to other reservoirs in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The power generation station gates were typically opened at such times to siphon off the reservoir excess down through Zone 2 but due to ongoing turbine maintenance they could not be used in such fashion at this time. Instead a Tainter Gate on the main dam was opened a degree to relieve the excess which made for new and interesting fishing conditions from the top of the Spillway all the way down throughout. There was much chatter in these boards about the effects of the higher flow. What was the Army Corps of Engineers doing? How long would it last before returning to normal? The higher levels created new areas to try, places otherwise too shallow or non-existent under normal conditions. The higher flow may have also inundated some of your usual favorite spots. The current was certainly a little more pushy while wading. It inundated the footpath along the Evening Hole such that you found yourself wading in shin deep/knee deep water where the path was and the frog pond slackwater there along the trees was now part of the main river flow. Under normal conditions what with the river being a tailwater and the Corps rarely if ever fiddling with the Tainter Gates the flow really didn't greatly fluctuate very much at all in Zone 1 even during rains. Not like free flowing rivers could elsewhere. Nor would it muddy up like coffee with cream during rains, minor cloudy discoloration was all. Always fishable. And so it was that Saturday May 23, 2015. Brad and I finished up for the day at the Evening Hole around 6 PM or so and trekked back through the Lost Creek area to our car parked up at the top of the path at Lost Creek. We encountered the infamous tame spike buck grazing without any cares as we moved through the Lost Creek area. Little could we know it would be the last time we or anyone else would be leaving the river in its former state or the last time anyone would see the tame spike buck. In just a few hours later the whole river environment and some livelihoods would be changed in the most shocking unimaginable way.  I've attached what might possibly be the last photo taken of anyone fishing the LMF just hours before the flood. It is of Brad Bessett sight fishing a brown he's targeted in the Evening Hole. You can see the water level up a bit due to the Tainter Gate runoff. Who knew what was to come? Sunday morning May 24 the place had a whole new look and it wasn't pretty.

[johnmac541]

Sure miss the good old days. And the old river.  Does anyone have pictures from right after the "flood"?

[jonbo]

I was there for the Flood. My wife and I had rented one of the Park's cabins for the holiday weekend. At that time I had a kind of badly broken foot and couldn't fly-fish. I'm not sure why we went to Beaver's Bend that weekend. I know we needed to get away, but I would have thought that I'd have wanted to go somewhere else to avoid being that close to the fishing and unable to partake. In any case, beside it having rained all the time in May, it was rainy off and on that weekend, too. I remember visiting with Eddie at the Fly Shop and he telling me that he had been warned by the park service that the tainter gates may have to be opened very soon. It must have been Saturday, because it was on Sunday that they opened them. I drove from the main cabin area, which was slightly elevated, down approaching the stop sign at the Swim Beach. A few hundred yards from it the Park Rangers trucks parked there prevented me from getting closer. From there I could see the very large river flowing past. They didn't ask us to leave the cabins. At their elevation it was safe, and safe all the way past the main office and out of the Park that way. I think we left on Monday.

I don't think I knew you then, Grant, or Brad or any of the other guys and gals. I think several of us actually started meeting each other at the first Trout Camp organized by Hankinsfly (wherefore art thou?). But, I can't remember everything exactly, or much else for that matter.

I do remember that many of us were pretty upset with the Corps for having scheduled the maintenance repair on the generation facility for the middle of the rainy season. This prevented them using the generators to manage the water level in the Lake as, I guess, they normally would. The normal methods might have spared the main recreational part of the river in the Park from the inundation that occurred. On the other hand, I also recall that Beaver Lake and several other lakes whose waters eventually flow into the Red River drainage were having problems with severe over-filling. They just couldn't open up the flows the way they really needed to because the Red as well as the tributary streams were already experiencing flooding. So, I don't know. Whatever was to become of our beloved fly-fishing stream wasn't high on the Corps' priority list, for good reason, probably. When they decided it was time to let it go, it was time to let it go. Anywhoo, thanks for posting that, Grant!

[Fenwick]

A number of reservoirs / tailwaters in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma also suffered the same fate that weekend. There are dams in Missouri and Arkansas that absolutely dwarf the one at Broken Bow Reservoir and they too had all their gates opened wide washing away any and everything downriver. Why did the Corps wait until the reservoirs were filled to the brim and then essentially "let 'er rip"? We are all Monday morning armchair quarterbacks on that. And recall the Corps repeated the favor seven months later.

I suppose if you click way back into these boards or those of the Lower Mountain Fork River Foundation or Google around enough you'd hit upon photos and drone footage of the wreckage and ruin. The Foundation website does feature photos of the repairs that were conducted. Just keep scrolling back in time enough here and you'll see.  lmfrfoundation.org/latest-news-and-updates/

There are plenty of websites featuring plenty of photos of the river in its original state. I have a ton I took on my phone as well. Doesn't make much sense posting what was and will never be again here.