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Hopkins County Judge Robert Newsom speaks at the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of Cooper Lake State Friday morning. Staff photo by Todd Kleiboer
State Parks Director visits complex
Cooper Lake State Park marked 25 years Friday with a formal ceremony at Doctors Creek attended by local officials as well as the Texas State Park Division Director, Rodney Franklin.
“Over the time here at Cooper Lake, during my time, we’ve had very good times,” said Franklin, who was the com plex superintendent years back. “But we also had some challenges. There were some times that were tough to get through.”
Current complex superintendent Steve Killian thanked the park rangers and volunteers who maintain the state park, saying they keep the park at a “high, professional standard.”
Lake manager Matt Seavey with the Army Corps of Engineers also spoke about his experience at Cooper Lake, which spanned back the end of its construction when he was a park ranger. Cooper Lake, now Jim Chapman Lake, was the last Texas lake built by the Army Corp of Engineers.
“It’s always near and dear to our hearts,” Seavey said. “It took a long time. I don’t think people realize Cooper Lake was au thorized by Congress at the same time as Lake o’ The Pines and Wright Patman. It was caught up in lawsuits and other things.”
Cooper Lake was authorized in 1955, and after stumbling block after stumbling block, all was set and done, the lake itself was finished in 1991. The park was opened five years later. An editorial written by then-editor and publisher Clarke Keys drew comparisons between the project’s completion and the biggest world events of the 20th century such as the Cold War or the US space program.
City of Cooper Mayor Darren Braddy commented on the economic importance of the state park to the region that draws in thousands of visitors from around the region. Every sale made in Cooper, or Sulphur Springs for that matter, goes back to the city through sales tax, meaning more and better services can be offered.
“The way we budget [in Cooper], the sales tax dollars that we receive here in town go directly into our street fund,” Braddy said. “If ya’ll have driven around in Cooper, we desperately need help with our streets, and we’re working diligently on that.”
Hopkins County Judge Robert Newsom noted the Cooper Lake helped to control local flooding events that had devastated some low-lying areas in the county, and he also pointed to the reservoir aspect of the lake as well.
“I was talking to the Irving city manager the other day, and he said, yes, that lake impacts us big time. We wouldn’t be anywhere without Cooper Lake,” Newsom said.