| Coldwater Creek | |
| Source1 Location: | Cimarron County, Oklahoma |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 36.4978°N -102.8927°W |
| Mouth Location: | Beaver River, Oklahoma |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 36.6597°N -101.1213°W |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | United States |
| Basin Size: | 1903sqmi |
Coldwater Creek is an intermittently-flowing stream in northeastern New Mexico, and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas. As far back as 1907, the USGS reported that Coldwater Creek is a dry sand bed most of the year.[1] One source says that Coldwater Creek is also known as Rabbit Ears Creek, because it rises near Rabbit Ears, a pair of mountain peaks in Union County, New Mexico.[2] According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Coldwater Creek drains an area of 1903sqmi.[3]
From New Mexico, it enters the south-west corner of Cimarron County, Oklahoma in the Oklahoma Panhandle. It passes easterly through Dallam, Sherman, and Hansford counties in the Texas Panhandle. Returning into the Oklahoma Panhandle, the course passes through the Optima National Wildlife Refuge, before joining the Beaver River in Texas County, Oklahoma 0.2miles above Optima Lake Dam.
Optima Lake was built to be a reservoir about 4.5miles northeast of Hardesty, Oklahoma or 20miles east of Guymon. The lake is essentially dry most of the time, because of declining water table levels [4] and periodic droughts that have affected the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas. As a result, the lake project (completed in 1978), was largely abandoned in 2010 when picnic tables and other structures were demolished for safety reasons. Public use areas have been left open, but are overgrown by vegetation and without services such as electricity and water. Major improvements have been postponed indefinitely because of budget cuts to the Corps of Engineers.[5]