Good lake conversation starts here
Quick lake stories. Big numbers. Short reads—with a source and a little context on every card.
Grand in a glance
Estimates keep their dates. A permit is not a boat slip, and an old visitor figure is not a new head count.
1 million+
GRDA’s 2021 socioeconomic study repeats a 2017 estimate of over one million visitors annually. Useful scale—not a verified 2026 total or a count of unique people.
Estimate: GRDA 2017, repeated in 2021 • §1.4, p.8 [1]
Still checking
Every floating structure needs a GRDA permit, but we have not verified a dated, Grand Lake-only total. No made-up “current estimate”—and no mixing docks with slips or Lake Hudson permits.
Research gap • no numeric claim cleared [2]
About 1,300 miles
Oklahoma Tourism quotes this traditional shoreline estimate. Its page does not state the estimate year or survey method; it is not a fresh 2026 measurement.
Undated tourism estimate • checked November 10, 2026 [3]
45,056 acres
GRDA’s revised July 2024 technical plan gives this surface area at 745 feet PD, versus 41,581 acres at 742. Tourism pages commonly round the lake to 46,500 acres; do not treat unlike estimates as identical surveys.
Grand in a glance
The short version of a massive project. For dates and deeper context, read the dam chapter.
About 3,000
GRDA estimates that roughly 3,000 men and women helped build Pensacola Dam. This is a construction-workforce estimate, not a claim they all worked one shift.
GRDA historical account • August 24, 2026 [6]
51 arches
Pensacola’s multiple arches made it an engineering landmark. OHS calls it the longest multiple-arch dam in the United States; we avoid an unqualified world-record claim.
510,000–535,000 yd³
GRDA’s 2020 column gives 510,000 cubic yards; its brochure cataloged in 2024 gives 535,000. The totals differ, so both are attributed—not blended into false precision.
$27 million
GRDA’s historic-dam brochure lists $27 million as total cost. This is the source’s historical figure, not an inflation-adjusted price or a separately verified dam-only contract amount.
Brochure fact panel • historical dollars [8]
1938 → 1940
GRDA dates its main construction interval December 30, 1938–March 21, 1940. Preparatory work, lake filling and later project work are different milestones.
Main construction interval • GRDA [9]
6 units
GRDA lists about 120 megawatts of combined generating capacity at Pensacola. Capacity is not the same thing as energy produced in a year.
GRDA facility profile [9]
Grand in a glance
A familiar crossing has more than one generation of engineering behind it.
1938–1939
Built with the Pensacola project, the original Grove Highway Bridge carried U.S. 59. OHS gives its length as 2,548 feet.
OHS bridge history [11]
About 40 feet
The original deck curved upward about 40 feet at its center relative to its ends. That is not a fixed water-clearance promise. OHS says sailboat passage may explain the nickname.
Original design • name origin qualified [11]
2001
The replacement crossing opened in 2001. One of its two new bridges reused 16 piers from the original—a physical piece of the old crossing in the new one.
OHS bridge history [11]
Grand in a glance
Flow is cfs; height is feet. The detailed chapter explains the difference.
236,165 cfs
Highest observed hourly total discharge in GRDA’s 2015–2022 dataset, on December 29, 2015. Not asserted as the all-time maximum across every measurement method.
Observed hourly total • Appendix B-8, Table 2.3.1-1 [12]
About 190,000 cfs
NWS’s USACE-supplied event summary gives the maximum release on May 23, 2019. We keep its “approximately” wording.
2019 event maximum • not a live reading [13]
755.27 feet
USGS’s 2005 report lists May 25, 1957 as the reservoir maximum. This is the report’s lake-gauge/Pensacola scale, not silently relabeled NGVD 1929.
Historical record through 2005 • station 07190000 [14]
713.41 feet
USGS lists September 28, 1954 as the low after the power pool first filled. It is not the lake during initial filling, and no repair-related cause is inferred.
Historical record through 2005 • datum caveat above [14]
Grand in a glance
Winning totals below are pounds and ounces unless marked decimal pounds. They are tournament catches—not lake-record single fish.
2013 • 54 lb 12 oz
Pace won the Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake with a three-day total of 54 pounds, 12 ounces.
B.A.S.S. result • February 2013 [15]
2016 • 60 lb 7 oz
Evers’ winning Classic total included a final-day bag of 29 pounds, 3 ounces. The comeback is part of Grand’s tournament lore—with official numbers behind it.
B.A.S.S. result • March 2016 [16]
2024 • 58 lb 3 oz
Hamner led all three days to win Grand Lake’s third Bassmaster Classic. Fishing was on Grand; the large arena events were in Tulsa.
B.A.S.S. result • March 24, 2024 [17]
Not 2010
The 2010 Classic was on Lay Lake, Alabama, won by Kevin VanDam—not on Grand Lake. Grand’s Classic years are 2013, 2016 and 2024.
106,850
B.A.S.S. reported this total across Classic venues, including Tulsa weigh-ins and the expo. It does not mean 106,850 unique visitors all stood on Grand Lake’s shore.
Organizer-reported event attendance • 2013 [19]
2015 • 65 lb 15 oz
Hallman won the Grand Lake Rayovac FLW Series Central Division event with a three-day, 15-bass total.
FLW result, archived by MLF • April 18, 2015 [20]
2021 • 50 lb 2 oz
LeBrun won the Grand Lake Central Open and earned a Classic berth after fishing all three events in the division.
B.A.S.S. season report • October 27, 2021 [21]
2026 • 68 lb 11 oz
Three straight limits over 20 pounds carried Burkhalter to the Grand Lake Bassmaster Open title.
B.A.S.S. tournament recap • April 27, 2026 [22]
6.29 lb • $100,000
Alex Torkleson won the June 1–2, 2024 Grand Lake Big Bass Bash grand prize. The weight is decimal pounds, not 6 pounds 29 ounces.
Organizer’s results • June 5, 2024 [23]
2020 • 145.83 lb
Catfish Now reports Trey Franklin, Asa May and Banaszak won the December 11–12 event. Their two-day total is decimal pounds; the report names 69 competing teams.
Contemporaneous specialist report • not a lake record [24]
2023 • 118 lb 3 oz
ODWC’s 2023–2024 regulations list Bryan Lee Baker’s bighead carp from Grand Lake, caught May 10, 2023. This is a historical rod-and-reel listing—not a claim it still holds the current record.
ODWC record table • invasive species, not a tournament catch [25]
We have not cleared a Grand Lake, Oklahoma crappie winner/date from a reliable original result. Grand Lake St. Marys in Ohio appears in many searches; those wins do not belong on this lake’s timeline. No winner or weight is invented here.
Every estimate and record keeps its source date and measurement scope. No commercial tournament photographs have been copied into these cards.
Checked November 10, 2026. Historical summaries are written in our own words; source photographs are not reused unless specifically credited.
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