The History of Toledo Bend

Toledo Bend was a bargain between two states. Texas created its river authority in 1949 and Louisiana in 1950, and their legislatures approved a compact in 1953 and 1954. By 1959 the states had allocated 30 million dollars and the authorities had sold 30 million in revenue bonds; no federal money. Land buying began in 1963, work on the dam started May 11, 1964, water began backing up in October 1966, and the power plant came on in early 1969. The lake covers about 185,000 acres, with roughly 1,200 miles of shore, and the dam can generate 92 megawatts.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• North Toledo Bend State Park — 5.8 mi
  A 900-acre park on the Louisiana shore of the 186,000-acre Toledo Bend Reservoir, with trails, disc golf and cabins, near the flooded sites of Pine Flat and other Sabine Parish communities.
• Red Hills Lake Recreation Area — 7.4 mi
  A 19-acre Sabine National Forest lake completed by the CCC in 1940 near Milam, a short drive from Toledo Bend Reservoir, with a swimming beach, fishing and camping from May through October.
• Fort Jesup State Historic Site — 20 mi
  The 1822 army post Zachary Taylor built to hold the Neutral Ground between Louisiana and Spanish Texas, with the one surviving kitchen, a reconstructed officers' quarters and a museum open Friday to Sunday.
• Mission Dolores State Historic Site — 24 mi
  A Texas Historical Commission site in San Augustine, with a museum and a diorama of the Spanish mission among the Ais, where no above-ground remains survive, on El Camino Real de los Tejas.

More markers nearby

• Pendleton Crossing — steps away
• James Taylor Gaines — 3.2 mi
• Gaines Memorial Bridge — 3.2 mi
• Sabine Town Cemetery — 5.8 mi