Jim Chapman Lake

Cooper Lake is on the South Sulphur River on the border of Delta and Hopkins counties approximately three miles south of Cooper and twelve miles northwest of Sulphur Springs. Area residents, led by local landowners Grover Pickering and Quentin Miller, first proposed the construction of a reservoir for the purposes of flood control and water storage in the late 1930s. In 1948 Congressman Wright Patman requested a feasibility study for a dam and reservoir on the South Sulphur River, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers published a favorable report in 1950. In the early 1950s the cities of Sulphur Springs and Commerce, along with Delta County, signed on with the project, and the Cooper Dam bill was passed and signed in 1955.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.