Stilwell City Lake
Adair County, Oklahoma365 acresView mapDirections
Oklahoma DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Stilwell City Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- 38 ft max depth
- Limited data
Stilwell City Lake in Adair County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 3 ft visibility. Surface area: 365 acres.
Stilwell City Lake is a 365-acre lake in Adair County, Oklahoma with an estimated average depth of about 38 feet. Overall water quality is declining over recent sampling years.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, ODEQ, last sampled 2024-07-16. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Stilwell City 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 Stilwell City Lake
These are the measurements Oklahoma DEQ publishes for Stilwell City Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Very murky, less than 3 ft of visibility. TSI 61.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 3ft | 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. | 61 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Stilwell City Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~38 ft est.
Surface area
365 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Oklahoma has not published bathymetry for Stilwell City Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
6 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
3 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
958 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.
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Fishing Stilwell City Lake
Water quality readings over time
3 seasons of samples on record (2021–2024). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Water clarity
Worsening3 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Stilwell City Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the SCS-Sallisaw Creek Site-18 (completed 1965), built primarily for flood risk reduction on the Tributary of Sallisaw Creek, 72 ft tall and 2,300 ft long.
- Surface area
- 365 ac
- Normal storage
- 3,218 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 8,000 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 7.34 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- CITY OF STILWELL
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID OK00081 · Operator website · Matched by proximity (0.61 km)
Nearby Lakes in Adair County
Frequently asked questions about Stilwell City Lake
Where is Stilwell City Lake?
- Stilwell City Lake is a lake in Adair County, Oklahoma. Its water-quality measurements are published by Oklahoma DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Stilwell City Lake?
- Stilwell City Lake in Adair County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 3 ft visibility. Surface area: 365 acres.
Is Stilwell City Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Stilwell City Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Stilwell City Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 38 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 365 acres.
Explore Stilwell City Lake across LakeQuality
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Where this data comes from
31 measurements from 3 monitoring stations, 2016–2024. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- OWRB Lakes Monitoring
OKWRB-LAKES_WQX31 samples · 2016–2024
Analytical methods
- OWRB Lakes Field Data Collection
- Determination of Turbidity
Monitoring station identifiers (3)
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)