Overview

Lake Millwood Focus Group, was organized in 2004 by local citizens who were concerned about the declined of Millwood Lake. Supported by COE Millwood/Tri-Lakes, this Committee meets every 3rd Monday of each month. Everyone is welcome to come. This is also a non-profit organization.

Lake Millwood is mainly recognized for its beauty and fishing. There are 15 recreational parks around the lake to provide campers with picnic areas, boat ramps, swimming areas, showers, and restrooms. Millwood is a superb place to fish, mainly due to its 35,000 acres (14,000 ha) of submerged timber that make excellent homes for the many varieties of fish in the lake. Millwood has also been known as one of the best bass fishing lakes in the United States. Every year it is home of many bass fishing tournaments and fishing derbies, all in search of Millwood's lunker largemouth bass. Other species of fauna around the lake include white-tailed deer, bobwhite quail, squirrel, dove, rabbit, raccoon, armadillo, opossum, fox, mink, and beaver. Boating is also popular in Millwood Lake, but only a little part of the whole surface area of the lake can be used as boating due to the submerged timber that takes up 30,000 acres (12,000 ha) of the pond. Lake Millwood also has remarkable flora life such as gum, oak, birch, pine, juniper, flowering shrubs, and wildflowers.

The Millwood Lake project was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1946, and modified by the Flood Control Act of 1958. The dam and lake was designed and built by the Tulsa District of the Army Corps of Engineers, which still maintains the lake's Beard's Bluff recreation center. The projects construction work began in 1961, and was finished for flood control operations in 1966 at a cost of $44,000,000. The lake and dam was dedicated on December 8, 1966. The lake is the key in the general flood reduction system for the Red River below Lake Texoma.

Benefits of the lake have been restoring wildlife, providing water to nearby areas, and preventing an estimate of $9,715,000 in flood damage. In Ashdown, Arkansas, the lake supplies there Domtar's (formerly Georgia Pacific) Communications Paper Division with 50 million gallons of water each day for its operations. The lake also provides drinking water to the city of Texarkana, Arkansas through a water treatment plant located at Ashdown.