El Dorado Lake is a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

on the

Walnut River The Walnut River is a tributary of the Arkansas River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 29, 2011 in the Flint Hills region of Kansas in the United States. V ...

northeast of

El Dorado El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...

in the

Flint Hills The Flint Hills, historically known as Bluestem Pastures or Blue Stem Hills, are a region of hills and prairies that lie mostly in eastern Kansas. It is named for the abundant residual flint eroded from the bedrock that lies near or at the surfa ...

region of

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

. Built and managed 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 ...

, it is used for flood control, recreation, and water supply. El Dorado State Park is located on its shore.

History

The

Flood Control Act of 1965 The Flood Control Act of 1965, Title II of , was enacted on October 27, 1965, by the 89th Congress and authorized the United States Army Corps of Engineers to design and construct numerous flood control projects including the Lake Pontchartrain ...

authorized construction of El Dorado Lake. The

held groundbreaking ceremonies in September 1973, and construction began the following month. The reservoir became fully operational for flood control June 29, 1981. Construction of El Dorado Lake incorporated two pre-existing smaller reservoirs: Bluestem Lake and the original El Dorado Lake. The original El Dorado Lake was built on Satchel Creek in 1927 as a water supply for the community of

. Bluestem Lake was built on Bemis Creek in the 1950s. The dams of both reservoirs were breached during the building of the larger El Dorado Lake and their waters subsequently inundated. The remnants of Bluestem Lake's dam are still visible in the Shady Creek arm of the present-day reservoir.

Geography

El Dorado Lake is located at (37.8472402, -96.8230838) at an elevation of . It lies in the

in south-central

. The entirety of the reservoir lies within Butler County. The reservoir is impounded at its southwestern end by El Dorado Lake Dam. The

is both the reservoir's primary inflow from the north and outflow to the southwest. Smaller tributaries include: Gilmore Branch and Cole Creek from the north, Durechen Creek from the northeast, and Satchel Creek, Bemis Creek, and Shady Creek from the east. The

Kansas Turnpike The Kansas Turnpike is a controlled-access toll road that lies entirely within the US state of Kansas. It runs in a general southwest–northeast direction from the Oklahoma border to Kansas City. It passes through several major Kansas citie ...

(

Interstate 35 Interstate 35 (I-35) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route. It stretches from Laredo, Texas, near the Mexican bo ...

) runs northeast-southwest across the northern end of the lake and then parallel to its northwestern shore.

U.S. Route 77 U.S. Route 77 (US 77) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway which extends for in the central United States. As of 2005, Its southern terminus is in Brownsville, Texas, at Veteran's International Bridge on the U.S.-Mexico borde ...

runs north-south west of the reservoir, and

U.S. Route 54 U.S. Route 54 (US 54) is an east–west United States Highway that runs northeast–southwest for from El Paso, Texas, to Griggsville, Illinois. The Union Pacific Railroad's Tucumcari Line (former Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific an ...

runs east-west south of the reservoir. Kansas Highway 177 runs north-south across the lake's eastern arms. Boulder Bluff Road, a paved county road, runs around the dam to the south, connecting with Shady Creek Access Road, another paved county road, which runs east-west immediately south of the reservoir. The reservoir's namesake, the city of

, is located just southwest of the dam.

Hydrography

The surface area, surface elevation, and water volume of the reservoir fluctuate based on inflow and local climatic conditions. In terms of capacity, the Corps of Engineers vertically divides the reservoir into a set of pools based on volume and water level, and the reservoir is considered full when filled to the capacity of its conservation pool. When full, El Dorado Lake has a surface area of , a surface elevation of , and a volume of . When filled to maximum capacity, it has a surface area of , a surface elevation of , and a volume of . The streambed underlying the reservoir has an elevation of .

Infrastructure

El Dorado Lake Dam is a rolled earth-fill

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface ...

that stands above the streambed and long. At its crest, the dam has an elevation of . An uncontrolled,

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 tha ...

is located near the northwest end of the dam. Additional outlet works include an by oval conduit. The estimated peak discharge capacity is .

Management

The Tulsa District of the

manages the dam and reservoir. The Corps has licensed the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWP) to develop and manage approximately of land around the reservoir as El Dorado State Park and another of land as the El Dorado Wildlife Area. The KDWP also manages boating on the reservoir surface and local fisheries.

Parks and recreation

El Dorado State Park is divided into four areas spread around the shore of the southern portion of the reservoir: the Bluestem Point Area is located between the reservoir's two eastern arms; the Boulder Bluff Area lies along the western shore; the Shady Creek Area is located on the south shore of the reservoir's southeastern arm; the Walnut River Area lies immediately southwest of the dam. All four areas include boat ramps, camping facilities, and hiking trails. In addition, the Bluestem Point Area hosts a bait shop and a swimming beach, a marina operates in the Shady Creek Area, and the Walnut River Area includes an amphitheater and swimming pond. El Dorado Lake is open for sport fishing. Hunting is permitted in the El Dorado Wildlife Area as well as on of land in El Dorado State Park.

Wildlife

Fish species resident in El Dorado Lake include

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

and

channel catfish The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus''), known informally as the "channel cat", is a species of catfish native to North America. They are North America's most abundant catfish species, and the official state fish of Kansas, Missouri, Nebra ...

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...

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 whit ...

white crappie The white crappie (''Pomoxis annularis'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two species of crappies. Alternate common names for the species include goldring, silver perch, white perch and sac-a-lait. is named for the fish ...

, and wiper. Two invasive species, the

white perch The white perch (''Morone americana'') is not a true Percidae, perch but is a fish of the temperate bass family, Moronidae, notable as a food and game fish in eastern North America. In some places it is referred to as "Silver Bass". The common ...

and the

zebra mussel The zebra mussel (''Dreissena polymorpha'') is a small freshwater mussel, an Aquatic animal, aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Dreissenidae. The species originates from the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, but has been accidentally Intro ...

, live in the lake as well. Game animals living on land around the reservoir include

beaver Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

dove Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera's native range is restricted to Eura ...

prairie chicken ''Tympanuchus'' is a small genus of birds in the grouse family. They are commonly referred to as prairie-chickens. Taxonomy The genus ''Tympanuchus'' was introduced in 1841 by the German zoologist Constantin Wilhelm Lambert Gloger for the gre ...

quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae (), a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrel ...

s, and

turkeys The turkey is a large bird in the genus ''Meleagris'', native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') of eastern and central North America and the ocellated turkey (''Meleagris ocell ...

References

External links

;Official
El Dorado Lake
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
El Dorado Lake Recreation Areas
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
El Dorado State Park
Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism
El Dorado Wildlife Area
Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism ;Maps * Butler County Maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT ` {{authority control Reservoirs in Kansas Protected areas of Butler County, Kansas Bodies of water of Butler County, Kansas El Dorado, Kansas