groundbreaking for spavinaw dam, near the town of spavinaw, oklahoma and about 55 miles northeast of tulsa, occurred october 19, 1922. it created lake spavinaw, which was fed by spavinaw creek, a perennial stream that drained 400 square miles of ozark mountain foothills and a tributary of grand river (oklahoma). the lake has a normal surface area of 2.5 square miles and a capacity of 72,400 acre-feet. the normal storage volume is 38,000 acre-feet. in 1922, a pipeline was begun to bring this water to lake yahola, located in tulsa's mohawk park. the project cost $7.5 million ($ in 2020). this has been the principal source of tulsa's domestic water since then.