The 'olden days' Belle Isle?

[bucktalk]

I've been enjoying some old pics from the Belle Isle days in OKC. I'm wondering what water source filled up Belle Isle Lake? Seems like I saw/read that Deep Fork Creek was the water source?? If that's true - where is Deep Fork Creek today?

[Martin]

deep fork creek is still there... take a look at any aerial photograph just north of penn square mall. -M

[bucktalk]

So I take it that Deep Fork was simply damned up for Belle Isle but now runs freely? Runs where? Oklahoma River?

[ctchandler]

bucktalk,
Deep Fork runs near my home by the Turner Turnpike gate and is a major (if not only) source of water for Arcadia lake. It is also one of the few North flowing waterways. Use google maps and you will see how it follows I-44, then North I-35 into Arcadia and the dam for flood control is located on the Northeast side of the lake. I need help to tell me the source of Deep Fork and why google doesn't show it continuing out of lake Arcadia. Probably a limitation of google maps.
C. T.

So I take it that Deep Fork was simply damned up for Belle Isle but now runs freely? Runs where? Oklahoma River?

[Snowman]

bucktalk,
Deep Fork runs near my home by the Turner Turnpike gate and is a major (if not only) source of water for Arcadia lake. It is also one of the few North flowing waterways. Use google maps and you will see how it follows I-44, then North I-35 into Arcadia and the dam for flood control is located on the Northeast side of the lake. I need help to tell me the source of Deep Fork and why google doesn't show it continuing out of lake Arcadia. Probably a limitation of google maps.
C. T.

It took almost eight years for them to show the changes of normal water held at in the Oklahoma River(lakes), it would not surprise me if they are using government sources that are not updated frequently.

[Jim Kyle]

I need help to tell me the source of Deep Fork and why google doesn't show it continuing out of lake Arcadia. Probably a limitation of google maps.C. T.

There used to be a sign on Ann Arbor, between NW 36 and NW 39, claiming that the tiny drainage ditch there was the headwater of Lake Eufaula since it was the start of Deep Fork Creek. At one time in the 70s, I attempted to do a photo story about Deep Fork and followed the trail from that point all the way to Penn, just north of I44. It went from the area of the sign, mostly south but drifting slowly to the east, down to about NW 30. In that area it made a sharp bend to the east, and ran to Will Rogers Park. There are unmarked bridges on Meridian and Portland that cross it.

In Will Rogers Park there's a huge catch basin to help prevent flooding. The creek continues to the east and crosses May just south of NW 36. At around NW 36 and Venice it makes another sharp turn to the north, up to around NW 38 where it turns back to the east and runs to NW 43 and Chicago. Both the Venice area and the Chicago area tended to flood rather seriously prior to 1970. The catch basin previously mentioned made such severe flooding mostly history.

After crossing under Penn and I44 at about NW 44, the creek runs north and did feed Belle Isle. The dam at Belle Isle had a floodgate that permitted most of the flow to continue to the northeast. The current route of I44 east of Western is very close to the original path of the creek; the bridge on Western just north of I44 crosses it. From there, it continues to the east, and feeds into the North Canadian (which regains its original name when it leaves OKC) between Nicoma Park and Arcadia.

If I can find the negatives to those 1970s photos (and if they're still usable at all) I'll make them available -- but don't count on this happening. Most of my negatives from that time and before were stored in plastic sleeves in a very hot attic, which rendered them unusable!

[ctchandler]

Jim,
Maybe I'm confused but Deep Fork crosses Sooner between Hefner and N. E. 122nd and there is a four lane bridge over it at 122nd about 1/2 mile East of Sooner, directly into Arcadia. Your comment about Nicoma Park is what's confusing me. Also, "feeds into to the North Canadian" confuses me as well. Help me out sir.
Thanks,
C. T.

[Jim Kyle]

Maybe I'm confused but Deep Fork crosses Sooner between Hefner and N. E. 122nd and there is a four lane bridge over it at 122nd about 1/2 mile East of Sooner, directly into Arcadia. Your comment about Nicoma Park is what's confusing me.

I'm really not at all certain of the route once it's gone east of Western. I've never paid much attention to it downstream of that point. In the late 40s and early 50s, the area around the creek between Western and Kelly was known as "Motorcycle Hills" and there was a lot of hill-climb competition going on there. I was never a biker (only tried it once and that was a short run around the block on a 350 owned by one of my sons, nearly 40 years ago) but liked to explore the area.

If it does feed directly into Arcadia, then it's probably the same situation as was Belle Isle, with a floodgate on the dam letting enough water pass through to maintain the lake's desired depth, but with a flow great enough to let the stream continue on to the north and east. It might even flow into the Cimarron rather than the North Canadian; most north-flowing streams in this area end up in the Cimarron...

[Prunepicker]

There used to be a sign on Ann Arbor, between NW 36 and NW 39,
claiming that the tiny drainage ditch there was the headwater of Lake
Eufaula since it was the start of Deep Fork Creek.

The sign is still there. Just before you get to the high wires with the
tennis shoes hanging from them.

You did quite an undertaking of the Deep Fork.

Isn't there a creek, river, water system that also has the Deep Fork
name in it? Maybe South Deep Fork? Muddy Deep Fork (not Muddy
Boggy)?

[Jim Kyle]

The sign is still there. Just before you get to the high wires with the
tennis shoes hanging from them.

You did quite an undertaking of the Deep Fork.

At the time I was living on NW24 in the 2600 block, and one of my young sons had close friends who lived near NW 35 and Venice. The last major flood of Deep Fork put the friends' house under some three feet of water and kept the intersection closed for several days. As a result of that flood, the city rebuilt the channel and installed the concrete linings that are now there; that's why it was the last major one. Not long after that event I decided it would be fun to document "The Monster" and set out to trace its route.

Back in the mid-50s, when I was on the Oklahoman staff, the area near NW 43 and Alameda used to flood every time there was more than a tenth of an inch of rain!

[Snowman]

Edit - Never mind, I totally miss understood what I was quoting

[OKCisOK4me]

I've followed the Deep Fork on Google Maps before. After exiting Lake Arcadia, it meanders south and east (you cross it on the Turner Turnpike just east of Wellston) where it eventually empties into the northwestern most part of Lake Eufala north of I-40.

[Tritone]

Right. Before Lake Eufala was there the Deep Fork joined the North Canadian just upstream from the US 69 bridge. The North Canadian then joined the main Canadian River about three or four miles east of the town of Eufala.

[bucktalk]

Thanks so much for all the informative info you've provided so far! It sort of feels like we've all been on a creek journey as we're exploring the creek!! Thanks again....

[OKCisOK4me]

I am the Louis & Clark of Google Maps and my mouse is Sacajawea!

[BB37]

As someone else pointed out, the sign is still there, at a small park on the west side of Ann Arbor between NW 36th and 39th.

[Jim Kyle]

Yep, he's the youngest. He's now in Knoxville, TN, doing software development.

[yukong]

Oh my goodness. We were great friends. Went through Cleveland and Taft together. I was around your house a lot back then. We moved to Surrey Hills after we finished Taft. Tell Tony that Gary Henry said hello. Wow what memories that brings back. We also hung out with the girl that lived on the corner of 24th and Linn in the house that had the big screened in porch. Her name escapes me. I have often wondered what happened to Tony and her. Great to hear he is doing well.

[OKCisOK4me]

All this time I thought the screenname yukong was a gangster from Yukon ... SMH.

[yukong]

A long time ago...I was in need of a screen name. Since our mailing address is Yukon, and I graduated from Yukon, I went with Yukon and my first initial. Not too original. But I couldn't come up with anything else original. Strange too since we really live in OKC. But have a mailing address of Yukon. Piedmont phone. Canadian County. OKC limits and services. Oh, well.

[OKCisOK4me]

hahaha...I was SMH'ing due to my own thoughts. It's all good ;-)

[Boomer3791]

My grandparents lived in the Belle Isle neighborhood off of Penn, just north of Penn Square Mall. Their house was on the far eastern end of the housing addition, and backed up to the Belle Isle Power Plant. In the 80's, me and my brother and some of our more adventurous friends snuck into the power plant several times. At that point all of the 1st and 2nd floor windows had been sealed shut and covered with steel plates. To get in, you had to scale down a former water intake on the south side of the building at a point that would have been underwater when the original lake there was full. The grate over the intake was bent back from the top and you could lower yourself down to ground level. From there you could walk into the plant from below and up a flight of stairs. All the original machinery inside had long since been stripped out by that point, and many of the upper "floors" were just steel grating, so the whole place felt like a huge industrial cathederal. I remember climbing up flights of very rickety steel staircases and avoiding spots where the grating had fallen away, up to the roof and that great, green smokestack. There was grafitti everywhere and one hack of a view of the surrounding area. It was quite an adventure for a 13 year old kid at the time!

[OKCisOK4me]

At least you weren't one of the teens that died.

[PennyQuilts]

I lived out by NE 63rd and Coltrane and the Deep Fork crossed NE 63rd right by the little airport that was just east of I35. I once saw a big bobcat race across the road coming up out of the creek at dawn one morning - still get a thrill at the memory. When I moved out there it had been there forever and that was more than forty years ago.

Did anyone else watch them blow up the belle Isle building? That was one dang cold day.

[OKCisOK4me]

I saw it on TV and of course I remember the picture of it tumbling over on the Daily Oklahoman the next day.