AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Chouteau Bend South Public Use Area is a quiet, low-key waterfront park on the Chouteau Creek arm of Fort Gibson Lake in Mayes County, Oklahoma. Run as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recreation system on this large reservoir, it gives visitors a boat ramp, a stretch of wooded shoreline and primitive (dry) camping—no resorts, no crowds, just a working waterfront in this lake's less-traveled corner.↗↗↗
It suits anglers, boaters and anyone who wants an unpretentious place to put a boat in the water or pitch a tent by a creek bend. Set expectations honestly: this is a simple public use area rather than a developed campground, and the appeal is its backwoods accessibility to Fort Gibson Lake, not on-site comfort.↗↗
What it is
Chouteau Bend South sits right beside Chouteau Creek, one of the long wooded arms that make up Fort Gibson Lake, a reservoir the Army Corps of Engineers created in 1953 by damming the Grand (Neosho) River. At its normal pool the lake spreads over roughly 19,900 acres across Wagoner, Cherokee and Mayes counties, and the Corps operates it as a recreation area with a handful of campgrounds, boat ramps and primitive-use spots scattered along the shoreline.
