Above the dam: an Ozark reservoir whose shoreline does not hold still. Conservation pool around 654 feet. Flood pool around 695. Record crest 696.51 in May 2011. That is not a statistic so much as a moving edge: swim beach underwater, campground loops abandoned or coned off, docks and roads relearning where the lake is. More than 48,000 surface acres, more than 820 miles of shoreline. In clear water the old ground still shines upward. Dive operators talk about 20 to 40 feet of visibility, 200-foot rock walls, caverns, flooded oak and hickory forests, wrecks, the "Caribbean of the Midwest" line that sounds silly until the water answers. Below the dam is a different creature: cold White River trout water, state-park campsites, guide boats, bait, tackle, generation schedules. The lake side and the river side need to be held apart in the description: one is the broad, warm, rising-and-falling reservoir; the other is the cold tailwater that made Bull Shoals-White River State Park famous for trout.
curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
The facts
- Surface area 182 km² usgs-3dhp · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Nearest town Boone · 5.3 km osm-overpass · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird species (within 25 mi) 171 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 $192,900 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 Darkest skies viirs-black-marble-vnp46a4 · 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; cool winters (~36°F mean), hot summers (~76°F); ~47 in precip/yr noaa-normals-1991-2020-descriptor · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Public access
- Bull Shoals Lake access is shared among USACE Little Rock District (federal shoreline with many boat ramps around the lake), the City of Bull Shoals (Dam Site Park, Brown's Beach swim area, a public boat dock, and Point Return Public Use Area for bank fishing), and Bull Shoals-White River State Park (riverside marina with boat/canoe/kayak rentals, 109 campsites, and the Lakeside Trail). Public boating and swimming access is confirmed at multiple named, primary-sourced sites, with fee-based camping at city and state facilities. Fees/permits: City of Bull Shoals: Dam Site Park RV camping $39.29-$50.51/night (30/50-amp hookups); Point Return Campground (primitive) $15/night, self-pay lock box; both operate April 15-October 15. Search snippets suggest a mix of free and fee-based ($3/day, $30/year) USACE boat ramps around the lake, but exact ramp-by-ramp fees could not be confirmed on a fetchable primary page.. Sources: cityofbullshoals.gov (fetched 2026-07-12); arkansas.com (fetched 2026-07-12); swl.usace.army.mil (search-extraction 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: 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); Bull Shoals Lake is federally managed by USACE (Little Rock District); per 36 CFR §327.11, pets must be leashed under 6 ft or otherwise physically restrained and are prohibited at swimming beaches (e.g., Brown's Beach) absent a District Commander designation otherwise. The Bull Shoals-White River State Park section additionally falls under the Arkansas state-park pet rule (22 CAR §50-126: leashed, no pets at swim beaches). A non-primary camping-directory source (thedyrt.com) suggested leashed pets are tolerated at lakeside sites near Oakland Park, but this was not corroborated by an official source and is omitted as a fact. curated-web-harvest · lake-level · as of Jul 12, 2026
- Property tax
- 0.49% ACS effective-rate proxy (2024 ACS 5-year; Boone County anchor: $927 median real-estate taxes paid ÷ $188,900 median owner-occupied home value; Arkansas proxy 0.55%, -0.06 percentage points). census-acs-2024-property-tax · county-level · as of Dec 31, 2024
Where it’s heading
Stable hand-rated for v0.1 · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
The only market signal on the sheet is a block-group median home value of $192,900 (census ACS 2024), a price level rather than a trajectory, with no prior-year figure to compare against. Bull Shoals is an established USACE flood-control reservoir; the Encyclopedia of Arkansas records overnight-accommodation businesses growing from thirteen in 1940 to about 300 by 1970 after the dam, but the sheet shows no recent visitation or construction trend. Recurring flooding appears in the record — Campendium reviews describe flood-prone campground sites being abandoned and the narrative notes a record pool crest of 696.51 ft in May 2011 — but this reflects normal reservoir pool management rather than directional decline.