Staff writer
Marion Reservoir originally was promoted as necessary for flood control on the Cottonwood River, with recreation as a minor benefit.
However, the years have proven recreation to be a high profile, highly used, and highly defended benefit of the lake.
Completed 40 years ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the dam created a beautiful lake which soon was filled with fish and surrounded by parks.
Created not without controversy, especially from farmers who lost whole farms and many acres of rich bottomland, the reservoir attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
The idea of establishing federal reservoirs throughout the country first surfaced in 1935, as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal.”
According to a May 1970 issue of “Marion Reservoir News,” a supplement published jointly by the Hillsboro Star Journal and Marion County Record, surveyors from the Army Corps of Engineers visited the Bruderthal area northwest of Marion that year.
Farmers were told the government was planning to build dams on tributaries of the Neosho River basin, including the Cottonwood River, to control floods and prevent soil erosion.
The plan lay idle for 15 years, postponed by the onset of World War II. Meanwhile, local landowners and their sympathizers organized the Cottonwood Valley Farmers’ Association to protest the proposed project.
Representatives of the organization — Irvin Kreutziger of Canada and Arnold Funk, pastor of the Bruderthal Church — appeared before a Congressional committee, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
Construction of Marion Reservoir was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1950. The dam was projected to control flooding along the 69 river miles downstream of the dam.
At least 17 floods had been documented in the town of Marion since its founding in 1860. After the disastrous widespread flood of 1951, a federal reservoir became more acceptable to area residents, although the towns of Marion and Florence later built their own dikes to keep flood water at bay.
The years between authorization and actual construction were painful for the people affected by the project.
Landowners “voluntarily” sold land to the government or it was condemned. Entire farmsteads were abandoned.
Farm buildings, cemeteries, and landmarks were moved to other locations. Oil wells were plugged.
Dobb’s Country School, a native-stone building located just south and west of the present Corps of Engineers office, was donated to Emporia State University, where it still stands.
Construction on Marion dam began in June 1964 and became fully operational in February 1968. The earthen dam was completed at a cost of $13,600,000 and is more than one and one-half miles long.
The resulting lake covers 6,160 acres, creating a 60-mile-long shoreline. It is approximately six miles long and one mile wide.
The water is 50 feet deep directly in front of the floodgates. A 30-foot depth is considered deep in the remainder of the lake. It is a popular fishing lake and is also used for skiing, boating, and swimming.
At least 171 campsites managed by the corps are located in four campgrounds — Hillsboro Cove, Marion Cove, Cottonwood Point, and French Creek Cove.
The parks provide camping, picnicking, hiking, and sightseeing, including a nature trail surrounded by a variety of native trees, wildflowers, and flowering shrubs and inhabited by many species of birds native to the area.
Another 4,100 acres in a large part of the watershed are managed by Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks for wildlife management and public hunting of game and water fowl.
Lehigh, Durham, and Canton are within the watershed, which lies 90 percent in Marion County and 10 percent in McPherson County.
The water in Marion Reservoir belongs to the state. Marion, Hillsboro, and Peabody have contracts with the state to purchase water from the reservoir.
The Corps of Engineers estimates the reservoir has produced direct sales to tourism-related firms of $4.42 million, 97 direct-supported jobs, and $1.5 million in direct personal income.