One of Louisiana's Most Beautiful Lakes Is Just Minutes Away From Shreveport's Abandoned Slums

I often visit the northern Louisiana city of Shreveport on business and I thought that I knew the area pretty well. Imagine my surprise when I learned that there was an enormous and beautiful man-made lake just minutes from the city's old abandoned downtown district. 

Shreveport is one of the few places in the nation where you can leave your office or home in minutes later be casing in placid green waters for large mouth black bass or skimming across broad expanses of open water in a sail boat or motor boat.

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Making it all possible is beautiful Cross Lake, source of Shreveport’s water supply, with its 8,960 acres located within the city limits. Its 14 square miles and 56.4 miles of shore line dotted with lovely homes offer to residents one of the finest recreational facilities to be found anywhere.
Cross Lake was created as Shreveport’s water supply in 1926 by construction of a concrete dam on the right of way of the Kansas City Southern Railway Company, providing a spillway 225 feet long for lake overflow. Eight thousand feet of the railroad’s embankment on the lake side were made impervious with clay from the lake bed and used as an earthen dam. Large stone was also placed along this earth embankment for protection against wind and wave erosion. Upon completion, the lake had an average depth of 8 feet over 9,000 acres, with a maximum depth of 27 feet in the channel, a width of from 1 to 3 miles by 8 miles in length, and has approximately 56.4 miles of shoreline, and covering nearly 14 square miles of water surface. In 1926, Cross Lake, with its capacity of about 25 billion gallons provided Shreveport with an excellent source of raw water and was a welcome substitute for Red River, the prior source of water supply. - READ MORE

Indeed Cross Lake is a primary source for fresh water for the city of Shreveport and I found out the hard way that despite it's huge size the lake is really hard to access due to all the water treatment facilities and private property that surround it. On the day that I took these photos I literally drove around the lake for thirty minutes before I found a small park and boat ramp where I could actually get an unobstructed view of the water. I have visited many a lake in my time and I can honestly say that I had never experienced a more frustrating experience like my quest to simply get a good view of Cross Lake. 

These photos prove without a doubt that this cowboy is no quitter!

That being said, my mind boggling trip around about half of Cross Lake did eventually pay off and I found myself in the presence of one of the most beautiful places that I have discovered here in Louisiana. 

As the article from the city of Shreveport states, Cross Lake is literally a short drive from just about any point within the city, yet on the day I paid it a visit I was actually the only person around enjoying the lake's splendor. 

To save you all the frustration that I experienced trying to find access to Cross Lake here is a map to a place where you can enjoy it:

 Here are my photos:

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