Beavers Bend State Park
2012.12.19
The Mountain Fork River begins in the Ouachita Mountains in Le Flore County, Oklahoma. Wandering into Arkansas and then back into Oklahoma, it connects with the Little River in southeastern McCurtain County, which then flows southeast into Arkansas and joins the Red River. The Red River eventually meets the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers in Louisiana.
In the middle of McCurtain County, the Mountain Fork River makes a horseshoe bend. The Choctaw called it bokfolota, “winding around river”, but eventually it became known as Beavers Bend. According to a 1938 interview with Choctaw native Levina R. Beavers, in 1900 she married Calvin C. Howell, another Choctaw, and they started two farms and ranches near the bend. Calvin died a few years later, and Levina remarried to John T. Beavers.
Daniel H. Howell (apparently the son of Calvin and Levina) sold the property in 1926 to the Choctaw Lumber Company. Levina attributed the white man’s name for the bend to the abundant animals, not her second husband’s family, yet noted the property had been known as Howells Ranch, then Beavers Ranch. So the etymology is not entirely clear.
The Choctaw Lumber Company sold the land to the state in the 1930’s, and the Civilian Conservation Corps completed roads, trails, and cabins for Beavers Bend State Park in 1937.
Like most rivers in Oklahoma, the Mountain Fork can rise dramatically during flash floods; perhaps even more than most, given the steep terrain. So in 1961, construction commenced on an earth dam above the bend for flood control and hydroelectric power. By 1970, the dam and separate concrete spillway were completed and the reservoir, named Broken Bow Lake, had filled the river valley to as much as 180 feet.
At the time we visited, severe drought conditions had dropped the lake about ten to twelve feet below normal.
Heavener Deer