Cooper Lake State Park is a Texas State Park in

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

and Hopkins counties, about three miles (5 km) south of Cooper, Texas. The park is situated on Jim Chapman Lake, formerly known as Cooper Lake. There are actually two geographically separate units; the Doctors Creek unit is located on the north side of the lake, in Delta County, while the South Sulphur unit is located on the south side of the lake, in Hopkins County.

History

The park's land was inhabited by

Caddo 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, who ...

people until the 1800s, when settlers brought the agriculture (including cotton and dairy) and livestock industries to the area. Cooper Lake itself was built between 1986 and 1991, by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

Nature

The park lies at the intersection of the

Tallgrass Prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and Historical ecology#Anthropogenic fire, anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to th ...

and Post Oak Savannah ecoregions. There is a diverse variety of mammals (including the

gray fox The gray fox (''Urocyon cinereoargenteus''), or grey fox, is an omnivorous mammal of the family Canidae, widespread throughout North America and Central America. This species and its only congener (biology), congener, the diminutive island fox ...

and

nine-banded armadillo The nine-banded armadillo (''Dasypus novemcinctus''), also called the nine-banded long-nosed armadillo or common long-nosed armadillo, is a species of armadillo native to North America, North, Central America, Central, and South America, making ...

) and birds in the park, and multiple species of catfish, crappie, and bass in the lake.

References

External links

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
Lakes of Texas State parks of Texas Protected areas of Delta County, Texas Protected areas of Hopkins County, Texas Bodies of water of Delta County, Texas Bodies of water of Hopkins County, Texas {{Texas-protected-area-stub