Chickasaws Plan a Hotel-Casino at Lake Texoma After Failed Attempt to Privatize State Resort

• Logan Layden
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  Logan Layden is a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma. He is a native of McAlester, Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. Logan spent three years as a state capitol reporter and local host of All Things Considered for NPR member station KGOU in Norman and six years as a reporter with StateImpact from 2011 to 2017. Most recently, he was news director for McAlester Radio before returning to public radio in 2020.

Logan Layden / StateImpact Oklahoma

The crumbling remnants of Texoma State Park buildings that haven't been in use for years.

A decade after the government-owned Texoma Lodge and Resort was sold to a private company that never fulfilled its promise to develop a multi-million dollar resort on the former state park land, Gov. Mary Fallin and the Chickasaw Nation on Thursday announced the tribe’s plans to build a resort hotel and casino instead.

Earlier this year, the Oklahoma Commissioners of the Land Office bought back 50 acres of the 750 acres it sold to Pointe Vista in 2006 for $4 million, with the idea of having a third party develop the land. That third party will be the Chickasaw Nation, if the federal government allows the land to be put into tribal trust status, according to a joint press release from governor’s office and the Chickasaw Nation.

From the press release:

The initial plans call for the Chickasaw Nation to construct a three-story hotel, a restaurant and gift shop, a casino featuring up to 300 electronic games and as many as 10 lakefront fishing/boating cottages, Chickasaw Governor Bill Anoatubby said. The project covers 50 acres of lakefront property, overlooking Lake Texoma and the historic Roosevelt Bridge. It also involves about 11.5 acres of land acquired by the Commissioner of the Land Office (CLO) from the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation.

The hotel will include a lounge and meeting rooms, and outdoor pool and recreation area, a fitness center, gift shop, restaurant and a business center, he said.

This will come as welcome news to many in the nearby town of Kingston, where the local economy was badly damaged after Pointe Vista closed and demolished the former Lake Texoma Lodge and Resort.

The Oklahoman‘s Brianna Bailey talked to Kingston Town Council member Art Hackler:

Kingston is a short drive from Dallas, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and the area has missed out on millions of dollars in tourism money since the state lodge and resort closed its doors at Texoma State park a decade ago.

“We have the most beautiful spot in the world and we are within 100 miles of probably 4 million people,” Hackler said.

Meanwhile, Pointe Vista still owns 700 acres of former state park land in the area, and has no specific plans for what to do with it.