Toledo Bend Lake is located on the Sabine River.
Beginning in May 1963, land acquisitions for Toledo Bend Reservoir started as a joint management project of Texas and Louisiana River Authorities. The construction of the dam, spillway and power plant was initiated in April 1964. The closure section of the earthen embankment and impoundment of water was begun in October 1966. The power plant was completed and began operating in the early part of 1969.
Toledo Bend Reservoir is the largest man made body of water in the south and the fifth largest in surface acres in the United States, with water normally covering an area of about 200,000 acres and having a controlled storage capacity of 4,477,000 acre-feet (1,458,934,927,000 gallons). It is the nation’s only public water conservation and hydroelectric power project to be undertaken without federal participation in its permanent financing.
The Toledo Bend Project was constructed by the Sabine River Authority of Texas, and the Sabine River Authority of Louisiana, primarily for the purposes of water supply, hydroelectric power generation, and recreation.
Toledo Bend, with its 1,200 miles of shoreline, offers tremendous opportunities recreation, hunting, fishing or just a place to call home for generations to come.