By Jessica Gorman

Throughout his life, Minden businessman Joe R. Miller spent much time hunting and fishing on Lake Bistineau. He was all too familiar with the unfavorable conditions created by the low water levels experienced during the dry season. And so, he began to imagine the possibility of raising and maintaining the water level of the lake to improve recreational opportunities. This dream evolved into a plan for the creation of the Lake Bistineau Fish and Game Preserve.

For over a year, Mr. Miller invested his own time and money into developing the plan. In 1930, he brought this plan before the Webster Parish Police Jury who endorsed it, as did the police juries of both Bossier and Bienville Parishes. From there, the plan was introduced to the Louisiana legislature by representatives of Bossier, Bienville, and Webster Parishes. In May, Mr. Miller and M.H. Sandlin traveled to Baton Rouge to attend the legislative session. The bill passed both houses of the Louisiana Legislature and was signed into law by Governor Huey Long. $35,000 was appropriated for the project.

Joe Miller was appointed to the committee to oversee the project along with V. V. Whittington, representing Bossier Parish, and Lorris Wimberly, representing Bienville Parish. Surveying of the lake began almost immediately. Dewitt Pyburn, engineer for Webster Parish, studied the lake and settled on a one-and-a-half-mile wide site between the last hills before the Red River as the location for the dam.

In the fall of 1934, J. L. Ham began work on an 800-foot long section of the dam. The following year, a second section was constructed. When completed, the dam was one-half mile long and 20 feet high with a 150-foot base, creating a 20,000-acre lake. However, this dam did not fully close the channel of the lake and proved to be inadequate. Erosion became an issue.

Several years passed with concerns being raised about the need to complete the dam project. In 1940, Governor Sam Jones included it as one of his campaign promises and the following year, work began. In November 1942, the project was completed resulting in a twenty-foot-high earthen dam one and a half miles in length. The 1600-foot spillway included a 600-foot concrete gate at the center with each end covered in large stones to protect against erosion.

In December 1942, a dedication ceremony was held celebrating completion of the Lake Bistineau dam. At the ceremony, Mr. Joe Miller, who began with a dream and inspired others to action, was recognized as the “daddy of the Lake Bistineau dam project.”

It was said that, “the Lake Bistineau project is not merely construction of an oversized fishing hole, nor is it merely a start toward a sportsman’s paradise. Such phrases are to some extent a literal material description, but projects of this nature actually are part of adding legitimate and earned comfort to the life of citizens and of building up the general welfare of an area as a whole.”

(Jessica Gorman is the Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, and an avid genealogist.)