Eisenhower State Park

Eisenhower State Park sits on bluffs above Lake Texoma, the Red River reservoir behind Denison Dam, which the Army Corps of Engineers finished in 1943. Texas leased 463.1 acres from the Corps in 1954, and the park opened in 1958 under the name of the president born in nearby Denison.

People crossed this country long before the lake. Texas Parks and Wildlife's park history lists Fort Johnson, established in 1840, and Colbert's Crossing on the Red River, in use from 1853 until 1931. The Handbook of Texas says the ferry was run by Benjamin Franklin Colbert, a Chickasaw, that the Butterfield Overland Mail used it from 1858 to 1861, and that a free bridge over the river opened on July 25, 1931.

The park has more than four miles of walking and biking trails along high bluffs, the self-guided Armadillo Hill Nature Trail, a sandy swimming cove, and a boat ramp. Two fishing piers, one lit for night fishing, reach water where anglers go for striped bass, crappie and catfish. The park lists fossils from an ancient ocean among its features, and there are campsites, screened shelters and Ike's Cabin. It often reaches capacity in spring, summer and fall, and reservations are recommended.