Broken Bow Lake
McCurtain County, Oklahoma20,500 acresView mapDirections
Oklahoma DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Broken Bow Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- 90 ft max depth
- Public access
- Limited data
Broken Bow Lake in McCurtain County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 8.5 ft visibility. Surface area: 20500 acres.
Broken Bow Lake is a 20,500-acre lake in McCurtain County, Oklahoma with an estimated average depth of about 90 feet. Limited fish-species data available. Public access is available with 7 public boat landings.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, ODEQ, last sampled 2023-10-03. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
What Broken Bow Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Boat launch7 documented ramps
- Big water20,500 acres
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Broken Bow Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Broken Bow Lake
These are the measurements Oklahoma DEQ publishes for Broken Bow Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Moderate clarity, visible to about 8.5 ft. TSI 46.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 8.5ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | No reading The nutrient that most limits algae growth in freshwater. More phosphorus, more algae potential. | |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | No reading The green pigment in algae — a direct measure of how much algae is in the water. | |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 46 | Mesotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Moderate nutrients, good water quality
Ask about Broken Bow Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~90 ft est.
Surface area
20,500 acres
Public access
Yes
Listed by Oklahoma DEQ
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Oklahoma has not published bathymetry for Broken Bow Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
766 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
117.3 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
620 ft
Size, shoreline, and watershed area from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS). Mean depth here is modelled, not surveyed — HydroLAKES v1.0 estimates lake depth from surrounding terrain rather than from soundings. Treat it as an approximation, and prefer a state bathymetric survey where one exists.
Recreation & Access
- Carson Creek 1Public
- Carson Creek 2Public
- Beavers Bend 1Public
- Beavers Bend 2Public
- Coyote DrivePublic
- Broken Bow LakePublic
Showing 6 of 7 documented landings from the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory.
Named access points in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory, within about 3 miles. More lakes with boat ramps
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Broken Bow Lake
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Fishing Broken Bow Lake
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Broken Bow Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Broken Bow Dam - Reregulation Dam (completed 1968), built primarily for flood risk reduction on the Mountain Fork River; gravity-type dam, 225 ft tall and 4,026 ft long.
- Surface area
- 20,500 ac
- Normal storage
- 918,070 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 1,598,950 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 754 sq mi
- Hazard class
- Low
- Owner
- USACE - Tulsa District
All listed purposes: Flood Risk Reduction;Other;Recreation;Hydroelectric;Water Supply.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID OK10307 · Operator website
Nearby Lakes in McCurtain County
Frequently asked questions about Broken Bow Lake
Where is Broken Bow Lake?
- Broken Bow Lake is a lake in McCurtain County, Oklahoma. Its water-quality measurements are published by Oklahoma DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Broken Bow Lake?
- Broken Bow Lake in McCurtain County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 8.5 ft visibility. Surface area: 20500 acres.
Is Broken Bow Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Broken Bow Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Broken Bow Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 90 feet, but that is a modelled estimate derived from surrounding terrain rather than a measurement on the water, so treat it as approximate. The lake covers 20500 acres.
Are there boat ramps on Broken Bow Lake?
- Broken Bow Lake has 7 documented boat landings in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Named access points include Carson Creek 1, Carson Creek 2, Beavers Bend 1, Beavers Bend 2, among others. Public access is listed as yes.
Can I fish at Broken Bow Lake?
- Broken Bow Lake has 7 documented boat landings in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Seasons, size and bag limits, and whether you need a license are set by Oklahoma's fish and wildlife agency, so check its current regulations before you go.
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Where this data comes from
106 measurements from 8 monitoring stations, 2016–2023. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- OWRB Lakes Monitoring
OKWRB-LAKES_WQX106 samples · 2016–2023
Analytical methods
- OWRB Lakes Field Data Collection
- Determination of Turbidity
Monitoring station identifiers (8)
EPA condition classes from the National Lakes Assessment (EPA 841-R-24-006, Table 6-3), applied by ecoregion. See where the data comes from and data sources.
Other records on this page
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)
Named boat-access points from the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory