Sandstone Creek Area

The project the plaque counts first began with floods downstream. The Washita River flood of spring 1934 killed seventeen people, and the Flood Control Act of 1944 started small dams on eleven watersheds nationwide; the first dam finished under it stood on Cloud Creek, another Washita tributary. Oklahoma went on to complete the first entire watershed project, Sandstone Creek, and by 1977 the Washita and its sixty-four subwatersheds held more than 1,200 dams. By the century's end the state had 2,094 small watershed structures, and in 2000 Congress authorized $90 million over five years to rehabilitate aging dams.

What the plaque says

Sandstone Creek Area World's first Upper Stream Flood Prevention Project completed 1953, Roger Mills Co. 68,770 acres drainage. Oklahoma Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Washita Battlefield National Historic Site — 10 mi
  The bend of the Washita where the 7th Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Cheyenne village at dawn on November 27, 1868, kept by the Park Service with a trail to the village site.
• Beckham County Courthouse — 12 mi
  Sayre's domed 1911 courthouse, built to impress people stepping off the train and filmed by John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath once Route 66 came through the square.
• Elk City Museum Complex — 13 mi
  Elk City's museums on old 66: the National Route 66 and Transportation Museum's drive through all eight states, a pioneer Old Town, a farm and ranch hall and a blacksmith shop.

More markers nearby

• Battle of the Washita — 10 mi
• Canute — 22 mi
• California Road — 23 mi