Taming the Raging Red - Denison Dam Documentary

While fishing, boating or swimming in Lake Texoma, consider the tremendous engineering feat that was accomplished when the Denison dam was dedicated on July 1, 1944. At the time, the dam was the largest rolled earth fill dam in the world.

This is a documentary produced by Gene Lenore Productions.

Watch the construction footage of the dam as it was being built, showing 20-foot diameter pipes which water from the lake flows through the intake structure to the powerhouse and the Denison Dam floodgates. Colored corrected 16mm film from the 1940s and 1950s was transferred to high definition. Included in this footage are speedboat races on the lake and the 1957 flood that sent water roaring over the lake's spillway for the first time. This flood also shows the Burns Run area under water.

Former residents of Hagerman, Texas, and Woodville, Oklahoma, — before the towns were abandoned because of the Denison Dam project—are featured in the film. This also includes footage of Woodville’s empty buildings after it was abandoned.

Gene Lenore is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. A native of Farmersville in Collin County, he has worked as a reporter and editor for Texas newspapers prior to entering the field of television news as a writer/ photographer at WFAA-TV in Dallas. He also has worked as a news writer for Voice of America, National Public Radio in Washington, D. C., Denison Herald, and KXII–TV.

#OnStageAPL #AllenTexas #Documentary

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[JAH-igld]

Gotta be the best, most accurate history of Lake Texoma. I’ve been blessed enough to make a 26yr career (and counting)on the reservoir, and for that I’ll be eternally grateful 🙏🏼

[Hopeless_and_Forlorn]

In 1967 I lived in Dallas and once asked my girl friend to accompany me on a day trip to Texhoma. Although I was studying electronics at the time, I had no particular destination in mind other than seeing the lake and dam. Upon seeing the hydropower installation, I decided to drop in on the station and ask for a tour. After knocking on the office door for a time, a worker answered and informed me that the installation was not open to public tours, but since I was interested, he would show us around himself. I learned a lot about the practices of power generation that day. Particularly I remember a standby power supply room which contained enough series-connected, open top, glass battery cells to provide 190 dc volts of current for exciting and controlling the generators and breakers in the event of loss of generator and grid power at the same time. As I remember, each glass cell was big enough to hold about 15 to twenty gallons of liquid. Quite a jump starter, I would say. I wonder if any of that original equipment remains today.

[jamesowen]

My dad went across the dam on the dirt road, while it was being built. He was a teenager at the time. He remembered the water going over the spillway in 57. My parents both talked about the fishing barge.

[jeffgraham]

This is the best footage of old Woodville I've seen.

[nevachristian]

Thank you for sharing this! My grandparents and my father has past on, so I get the history of my hometown from amazing people like you. Thanks again

[BillCareyStriperGuide]

Great documentary! Thank you Mr. Lanore. I'm proud to say you used the footage I filmed of 3 of our Striper Express guides.

[jeffgraham]

There needs to be more documentaries on southern Oklahoma areas. Alot is already gone with past generations.

[pocu]

The newspaper story that was shown for a few seconds in this video said that the Army Corps of Engineers had a file on every body that was to be moved. I'm looking for the burial of my friend's great grandfather but he doesn't seem to be anywhere recorded. I wonder if the Corps would still have these files.

[turnertruckandtractor]

Grandparents had TX land that is now underwater. They moved down river to the OK side at the Carpenter's Bluff bridge. I have seen water go over the spillway on two different occasions.

[jamesaustin]

My G Grandfather and his youngest daughter were buried in the Woodville cemetery, then reinterred to the Mead cemetery using German war soldiers.

[odellnull]

Please get to the point of Denison please babbling on and get to the point of the Denison Dam history down