[3] The lake was originally intended to assure an adequate supply of municipal water, since the city depended primarily on the North Canadian River as a source, supplemented by private wells.

A 1958 Route 66 improvement project created a new alignment for the highway that relocated the roadbed about 1/4 mile North of the lake.

A concrete walkway extends across the dam over the buttresses until it comes to the larger spillway, where it is carried by a Pratt through truss.

The brick-walled pump house has a gabled tile roof, a small chimney, and two round ventilators.

[7] On October 16, 1923, operators at the central telephone exchange of Oklahoma City began calling to notify subscribers living south of Grand Avenue (now Sheridan Avenue) of an impending flood caused by levee breakage at the recently built City Reservoir (now known as Lake Overholser).

The daily newspaper, The Oklahoman, reported that 300 national guardsmen and American Legion volunteers had been sent to organize evacuation of a 117-block area of the city that was expected to be severely impacted by the 25-foot wall of water already heading in that direction.

Within thirty minutes, the initial rush of water had raised the downstream river level by 7 feet (2.1 m).