The Two RV Gypsies: Full-Time RVers
Arkabutla Lake and Dam plus Sardis Lake and Dam
in Mississippi
October 18, 2022

Below: Arkabutla Lake is located at 3905 Arkabutla Dam Road, Coldwater, MS 38618. It is a reservoir on the Coldwater River in the U.S. state of Mississippi and was created following the construction of the Arkabutla Dam in 1940 on the Coldwater River.

Below: The Arkabutla Lake project includes 57,250 acres of land and water. The Lake accommodates a wide variety of recreational interest and activities throughout the entire year, but is renowned for some of the best fishing in the southeast and boasting an abundance of largemouth and white bass, while ranked as one of the Top 5 Crappie Fishing Lakes in America. Since the two RV Gypsies are not fishermen but love scenery, they stopped at a picnic area along the waterfront of Lake Arkabutla.

Below: The dam is located on Arkabutla Dam Road (Mississippi Highway 301/Mississippi Highway 304 Scenic) approximately 4 miles north of the small community of Arkabutla. It is one of four Flood Damage Reduction reservoirs in northern Mississippi, with the others being Sardis, Enid and Grenada lakes.

The Arkabutla Dam is 11,500 feet long with an average height of 67 feet.

The two RV Gypsies drove over the dam, then went to the parking area shown below.

SARDIS LAKE

Leaving Coldwater, the two RV Gypsies drove about 41 miles to Sardis Lake, a 98,520-acre reservoir on the Tallahatchie River in Lafayette, Panola, and Marshall counties, Mississippi. Sardis Lake is impounded by Sardis Dam, located nine miles southeast of the town of Sardis.

Below: A view of Sardis Lake from the top of Sardis Dam. The lake has a maximum storage capacity of 1,512,000 acre-feet of water. The lake is gradually drawn down during the fall and winter months to a "conservation pool" of 9,800 acres. This permits spring rains across the lake's 1,545 square mile watershed to fill the reservoir without flooding downstream. Since the dam became operational, the dam's emergency spillway has been overtopped only three times by high water - in 1973, 1983 and 1991. The lake's typical "recreation pool" is 32,500 acres. The main fish that live in the lake are Largemouth bass, Spotted bass, Blue catfish, Channel catfish, Flathead catfish, Black crappie, White crappie, Bluegill, Redear sunfish and White bass.

Below: Sardis Dam is 15,300 feet long, has an average height of 97 feet and a maximum height of 117 feet.

This is not a linear site, so there are always choices of where to go next: Below are 2 choices.

Continue on to Senatobia, Mississippi and Halloween decor

OR

Return to the 2022 Mississippi menu to explore sites in the order of your choice.

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