In northwest Arkansas, some lake descriptions begin at the faucet. Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville: turn the tap, and Beaver Lake is already inside the room, filtered and chlorinated and mostly invisible until algae or taste-and-odor chemistry briefly reminds the city where it drinks from. The water district serves more than 400,000 people. About one in six Arkansans. A lake as glass of water, and a lake as weekend playground, and both claims true before breakfast. The lake itself keeps a gradient. Turbid upper White River and War Eagle arms. Clearer lower water near the dam, where divers and tourism pages argue for the clearest water in Arkansas. Limestone bluffs. Rock bottom. Marinas and beaches that crowd on weekends. Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area holding a 12,000-acre Ozark flank of oak, hickory, shortleaf pine, redcedar, ravines, and sinking streams. Dam sirens below the wall before releases. War Eagle Mill turning on the feeder creek. Beaver is not a pure resort lake. It is an Ozark reservoir with a municipal pulse, and when the wind moves over it there is a whole drinking city hiding in the shine.
curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
The facts
- Surface area 113.4 km² usgs-3dhp · lake-level · as of Jul 11, 2026
- Nearest town War Eagle · 3.6 km osm-overpass · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird species (within 25 mi) 205 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird diversity index 0.89 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Median home value $265,267 census-acs-2024-b25077 · block-group-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Water clarity Moderate sentinel-2-l2a · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Night sky Dark skies viirs-black-marble-vnp46a4 · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Surroundings Near-metro — a city within easy reach 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; cool winters (~39°F mean), hot summers (~77°F); ~50 in precip/yr curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Public access
- Beaver Lake's shoreline is primarily managed by the USACE Little Rock District, which operates numerous developed parks with boat launch ramps, campgrounds, and day-use/swim areas around the lake. The south shore is additionally bordered by Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area (Arkansas' largest state park), which offers lake-access campsites, a 54-mile trail system, and guided kayak tours but few formal boat ramps of its own. Public access is broad and well-established, though an exact primary-source list of ramp/beach names and current fees could not be fetched directly (USACE pages are a known-blocked domain). Fees/permits: Search snippets indicate a day-use fee (~$5/vehicle) at some USACE day-use sites/boat ramps with an annual pass option, but this could not be confirmed on a fetchable primary page. Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area day use appears fee-free (no fee mentioned in fetched content).. Sources: swl.usace.army.mil (search-extraction 2026-07-12); arkansas.com (fetched 2026-07-12). curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Dogs and pets
- high — 30 dog parks within 25 mi (OSM); state rule: Arkansas state parks require pets to be leashed, caged, or otherwise physically restrained under direct physical control at all times; no specific leash length is codified. Pets (other than service animals) are prohibited in public buildings and at swimming beaches/pools. (22 CAR § 50-126 (Arkansas Administrative Code, Dept. of Parks, Heritage and Tourism — Pets and animals), fetched 2026-07-12); Beaver Lake is federally managed by USACE (Little Rock District); per 36 CFR §327.11 (fetched from law.cornell.edu), pets must be leashed under 6 ft or otherwise physically restrained in developed recreation areas, and are prohibited at swimming beaches, playgrounds, and sanitary facilities (service animals exempted). The Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area shoreline additionally falls under the Arkansas state-park pet rule (22 CAR §50-126: leashed at all times, no pets at swim beaches). No lake-specific off-leash provision was found. curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Property tax
- 0.52% ACS effective-rate proxy (2024 ACS 5-year; Washington County anchor: $1,564 median real-estate taxes paid ÷ $298,400 median owner-occupied home value; Arkansas proxy 0.55%, -0.03 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
Beaver Lake adjoins the fast-growing Bentonville-Rogers-Fayetteville metropolitan area of northwest Arkansas, where Census ACS (2024) records a block-group median home value of roughly $265,000. The lake supplies drinking water to more than 400,000 people through the Beaver Water District, and source-water protection versus continued regional growth is the area's lived tension. Recurring summer algae can cause taste-and-odor issues, but the water district reports the treated water remains safe to drink.