Lake W. R. Holway is a reservoir in Mayes County, Oklahoma

Mayes County, Oklahoma

Mayes County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It was named for Samuel Houston Mayes, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1895 to 1899. According to the 2010 census the population was 41,259, a 7.5 percent increase from 2000, when the population was 38,369...

 on the Saline Creek arm of Lake Hudson (Oklahoma)

Lake Hudson (Oklahoma)

Note: The Robert S. Kerr Dam described in this article should not be confused with the Robert S. Kerr Lock and Dam on the Arkansas River ....

. It was created in 1968 by the Grand River Dam Authority

Grand River Dam Authority

The Grand River Dam Authority is an Oklahoma agency created to control, develop, and maintain the Grand River waterway. It was created by the Oklahoma state legislature in 1935, and is headquartered in Vinita, Oklahoma. It operates three hydroelectric facilities and two reservoirs, Grand Lake...

 (GRDA) as an integral part of the Salina Pumped Storage Project

Salina Pumped Storage Project

By the mid-1960s, projected power demands by customers of the Grand River Dam Authority were expected to exceed the Authority's generating capacity. All of the acceptable hydroelectric dam sites along the Grand River had been used. GRDA decided to employ pumped storage hydroelectricity...

. It is northeast of Locust Grove

Locust Grove, Oklahoma

Locust Grove is a town in Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,423 at the 2010 census compared to 1,366 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Locust Grove is located at ....

 and southeast of Salina, Oklahoma

Salina, Oklahoma

Salina is a town in Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,396 at the 2010 census, a slight decline from 1,422 at the 2000 census.-History:...

. Originally named Chimney Rock Lake, it was renamed in 1981 to honor W. R. Holway

W. R. Holway

William Rea Holway , commonly known as W. R. Holway, was an American civil engineer who became prominent in Oklahoma. He is best known for his work on major water supply projects for the city of Tulsa, and on the Pensacola Dam at Grand Lake o' the Cherokees.Holway came to Tulsa in 1918, where he...

, the consulting engineer who was responsible for constructing the Spavinaw Dam and pipeline, Pensacola Dam

Pensacola Dam

The Pensacola Dam, also known as the Grand River Dam, is a multiple-arch buttress dam on the Grand River in-between Disney and Langley in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The dam is operated by the Grand River Dam Authority and creates Grand Lake o' the Cherokees...

, and other important projects. Its primary purpose is peak power generation.

The lake covers 712 acres and has a shoreline of 21 miles.

A hydrographic survey of the lake in 2009 resulted in the following dimensions for the normal lake at an elevation of 865 ft:

• Area 762 acres
• Volume 50,372 acre-ft
• Mean depth 66.1 ft
• Maximum depth 182 ft.

Public usage

This lake is also a popular location for fishing, especially for bass

Bass (fish)

Bass is a name shared by many different species of popular gamefish. The term encompasses both freshwater and marine species. All belong to the large order Perciformes, or perch-like fishes, and in fact the word bass comes from Middle English bars, meaning "perch."-Types of basses:*The temperate...

, crappie

Crappie

Crappie is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. The type species is P. annularis, the white crappie...

 and catfish

Catfish

Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...

. GRDA prohibits swimming and the use of internal combustion engines on the reservoir.

External links

• Survey of W. R. Holway Reservoir". Oklahoma Water Resources Board. August 12, 2009.