The dam at HorseThief Reservoir in western Kansas is now completed, and state officials will inspect it next month, the Hutchinson News reported. Once the dam receives the final OK, creek runoff will begin filling the 440-acre lake, which is located about 20 miles north of Dodge City. Officials say that the new reservoir, which is surrounded by an 1,100-acre park, should be open to motorboats on Memorial Day weekend 2010. The new lake will help with flood control in the area and be a great addition to our state’s recreational options.
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17 Comments
Water in. Evaporation into the hot summer winds and settlement into the sandy soil below … out.
Most likely on Memorial Day, 2010, motorboats will be sitting on the dry lake bed of Horse Thief Canyon near Jetmore.
Perhaps horse thiefs will settle for stranded yachts in Kansas’ newest tourist destination, the Horse Thief reservoir located somewhere between Larned and Dodge City.
Nice to see this done. Years ago I met the wonderful visonary who thought of it in the first place. He also had constructed a number of wind machines out of old combine reels. He used the elctricity to break well water into hydrogen and oxygen, which he stored in an old oil field tank.
“They don’t mix,” he said.
Horse Thief reservoir.
If nothing else, a great name.
The soon-to-be-open, Boot Hill Casino, needed a place to drop off gamblers who didn’t pay off their gambling debts.
The new lake will help with flood control in the area
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The key to a flood is rain….so, uh…..
What is the base bottom there? I see mentioned sand it that it? As a diver in of all states Kansas we need a good clear lake. But I hold little hope for any lake in Kansas ever being one.
writerdog
Posted August 12, 2009 at 9:42 am | Permalink
What is the base bottom there?
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Limestone and silty soil.
As a diver in of all states Kansas we need a good clear lake.
==========================
Go to Wilson.
Anti: Good comment, “The key to flood is rain …”
Friends in Dodge City tell me there has not been a drop of water flowing in the Arkansas River channel there in many years. The Arkansas River snow melt water from the Rocky Mountains is stopped by the State of Colorado in the John Martin Reservoir perhaps 50 miles west of the Kansas/Colorado border. This water is used to raise cantalopes, peaches and other produce out in the Rocky Ford area of Colorado.
The attorney-generals of Kansas and Colorado have played this little water diversion argument for many years. The current attorney generals of both states publicly express antagonism of the other. They bombastically agree to meet in a saloon out near the Kansas/Colorado border to argue it out and agree to reparations from Colorado to Kansas for strangling this priceless water flow. An amount in the range of $500 plus grand buffalo steak dinners in sizzling double tin frying pans western Kansas style plus a plentiful supply of cold Colorado Coors beer is agreed on.
The Attorney Generals of each state and their sidekicks on the case then settle back and enjoy a long evening of photographs, toasts and gambling, in that order. After which the state AG’s reluctantly take the next train back to Denver and Topeka respectively to loud hosannas from their respective newspapers, the Denver Post and the Topeka Daily Capital.
Participants from both states agree … they can’t wait for the annual Arkansas River diversion fight to break out again in a year or so.
440 acre lake out in the middle of nowhere? Oh, that’s going to be a lot of fun. I’ll bet it’s like Wilson used to be…no trees.
I hope Horse Thief doesn’t turn out like the Jetmore City Lake.
It was a fantastic little lake to fish….until it completely dried up.
If I remember correctly it was fed by the same creek as Horse Thief.
I have hear both good and bad about Wilson lake.
That is a problem for a diver, there is a difference in the term clear. Ask a fisherman and he think clear is if he can see two feet into the water.
You ask a diver and they say clear is fifteen feet or better underwater.
Well writerdog,
Wilson is as clear as it gets in Kansas.
Maybe you should drive over to Table Rock, I’ve heard they host some interesting dives.
I believe there are several large sunken boats to explore at Table Rock.
Writerdog, this may interest you:
http://www.cei.net/~dvines/tablrock.html
ANTI
Posted August 12, 2009 at 1:36 pm | Permalink
I believe there are several large sunken boats to explore at Table Rock.
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Or come east just two more states. There are real sunken U boats to dive on in North Carolina’s southern outer banks. Sharks included, I imagine.
http://www.crystalcoastnc.org/activities/bysea/scubadiving/
My local newspaper, The Virginian Pilot, just published a ripping series of stories, over 8 days, of U-boat activity along the East coast during the early days of WWII. Great photos, many of which were taken from this newspaper’s awesome archives. For example, there was a great Pilot photo of Virginians lined up on the beach to watch a US cargo ship burn just offshore.
There were a handful of U boats sunk in this area.
Unfortunately, they have (finally) wised up about their printed content and this long and fascinating series isn’t available online. Which is a shame because it is great, let’s-pop-the-corn-now stuff.
Here’s another article that is available:
http://www.uboat.net/forums/read.php?20,63593,63593,quote=1