Broken Bow Lake is clear water with pine around it, but not quiet in any simple way. The reservoir runs back into Ouachita Mountain country on the Mountain Fork River, forested enough that the official page still talks first about scenery, trails, birds, and pine-covered hills. Hot-summer Oklahoma surface water. Cold tailwater below the dam. A southern trout trick, pulled off by release water. The louder change is on land. Hochatown has turned the lake edge into cabin math: a few hundred rentals before the pandemic, thousands now, dirt roads and modern mansions, weekday small town and weekend flood. The coves can still hold their forest feeling. The corridor does not. A resort boom trying to fit itself onto two-lane roads.
curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
The facts
- Surface area 57.4 km² usgs-3dhp · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Nearest town Stephens Gap · 6.2 km osm-overpass · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird species (within 25 mi) 119 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird diversity index 0.86 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Median home value $146,100 census-acs-2024-b25077 · block-group-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Water clarity Clear sentinel-2-l2a · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Night sky Dark skies curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Surroundings Resort — a shoreline built for visitors curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Water origin Reservoir curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
In more detail
- Climate
- strongly four-season; mild winters (~43°F mean), hot summers (~80°F); ~52 in precip/yr noaa-normals-1991-2020-descriptor · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Public access
- Broken Bow Lake is a USACE (Tulsa District) reservoir with public access co-managed with Oklahoma State Parks via Beavers Bend State Park and Hochatown State Park, both offering lighted boat ramps and a free public swim beach, plus Beavers Bend Marina. A USACE moratorium on new marina/shoreline-dock development has been in place since the December 2023 Master Plan update, pending a boater-capacity survey, because lake use is at or above safe capacity. Sources: wildlifedepartment.com (fetched 2026-07-12); brokenbow.com (search-extraction 2026-07-12); stateparks.com (search-extraction 2026-07-12); dvidshub.net (fetched 2026-07-12). curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Dogs and pets
- medium — 0 dog parks within 25 mi (OSM); state rule: Oklahoma law requires dogs to be leashed (or otherwise confined) to enter a state park or recreation area under the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Commission's jurisdiction; dogs running at large may be impounded, and vicious dogs posing an imminent threat may be destroyed by department employees. The statute does not itself specify a leash length, but multiple state-park visitor pages consistently cite a 10-foot maximum leash as the practical standard. (74 O.S. § 2217 (Public access and use of state parks — Prohibitions); the prior administrative pet rule, OAC 725:30-4-9, has been revoked, leaving the statute as the primary controlling provision as of this harvest., fetched 2026-07-12); Leashed pets (max 10 ft leash) are welcome throughout Beavers Bend/Hochatown State Park, including pet-friendly cabins for a nightly fee; pets must never be left unattended. (beaversbendcabincountry.com, fetched 2026-07-12) curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Property tax
- 0.37% ACS effective-rate proxy (2024 ACS 5-year; McCurtain County anchor: $528 median real-estate taxes paid ÷ $144,500 median owner-occupied home value; Oklahoma proxy 0.80%, -0.43 percentage points). census-acs-2024-property-tax · county-level · as of Dec 31, 2024
Where it’s heading
Rising hand-rated for v0.1 · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
Rising: the Hochatown resort boom is documented — cabins from a few hundred to thousands, a USACE February-2024 moratorium freezing new marina/shoreline docks because boating hit capacity, and an Airbnb-driven tourism build-out. Subdivision/development velocity, not merely a price level.