The Privatization of Lake Texoma State Park & Federal Wildlands

Lake Texoma State Park is in the process of being taken by a powerful group of Oklahoma businessmen, including Chesapeake Energy’s CEO, Aubrey K. McClendon, and Chaparral Energy’s CEO, Mark Fischer,(co-owners of Pointe Vista Development), with the bipartisan assistance of former Governor Frank Keating, U.S. Senator James Inhofe, State Senator Jay Paul Gumm, and Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry.

This taking involves the gross abuse of eminent domain after a decade of successful bipartisan efforts to “break” both federal and state laws. The original purpose of those statutes has been carefully undone, thereby ultimately serving the private corporate interests of Pointe Vista Development, at the expense of the Oklahoma School Land Trust, as well as Corp of Engineers’ lakeshore property, a part of our commonwealth.

EMINENT DOMAIN: Indian Lands - Taken by Federal Government

Following tribal removal from Mississippi along the Trail of Tears in the 1830’s, the U.S. Government transferred these Oklahoma lands, which were then part of Indian Territory, to the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes to be theirs in perpetuity.

One hundred years later, after years of resistance by local Chickasaw and Choctaw farmers and ranchers, U.S House Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas succeeded in passing the Flood Control Act of 1938, to construct the dam at Denison, Texas.

By August, 1941, the federal government had purchased 9,187 acres from Texas, and 23, 289 acres from Oklahoma. The average price paid for Oklahoma lands was $23.12 per acre, and for Texas lands, $36.85 per acre. In October of 1942, they owned 60,490 acres in Oklahoma and 22,881 acres in Texas, for which they had paid $2,209,444.78.

PRIVATIZATION: Federal Lands – Taken by Politicians & Cronies

In 1996, Lake Texoma State Park was Oklahoma's most popular & profitable state park.

In 1999, Governor Keating’s massive budget cuts laid the groundwork for selling off ten golf courses and four state parks operated by the Tourism & Recreation Department.

The federal Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA) of 1999 authorized the Corp to sell valuable lakefront land at both Lake Texoma State Park and at Hugo Lake, Oklahoma. T he questionable Hugo Lake land sales are under investigation by the FBI.

The state and federal lands comprising Lake Texoma State Park have also been quietly undervalued and hastily sold to Pointe Vista Development by members of the Oklahoma School Lands Trust - Commissioners of the Land Office, working in collaboration with the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department (OTRD) Director Hardy Watkins.

See: http://www.FriendsOfLakeTexomaStatePark.org/Alert.htm

These land sales are not complete! There is still time to save Lake Texoma State ark.