Cloud Creek Dam No. 1, located 11 miles southeast of Cordell in the Washita River Basin, was dedicated on July 8, 1948, and rededicated on July 3, 1998. It was the first of 1,140 dams in the Washita River Basin and the first of more than 10,000 nationwide. Built in partnership with the local community, the Washita County Conservation District, and the USDA Soil Conservation Service, these dams provide flood control, water supply, recreation, wildlife habitat, and improved water quality to many communities. On July 8, 1948, Hugh Hammond Bennett, chief of the USDA Soil Conservation Service, praised the Washita flood control program as a monument to the understanding and energy of the people in Oklahoma, who were among the first to take up soil conservation and were leading the way in upstream watershed treatment for flood control.