During the late 1940s, rapid industrial development and the changing demands of an evolving economy led people in the Sabine River area of Texas and Louisiana to see a need to prepare for the region’s future. In 1949, the Texas State Legislature created the Sabine River Authority of Texas, and the Louisiana State Legislature followed by creating the Sabine River Authority, State of Louisiana. These two bodies were charged with conserving and developing the waters of the Sabine River Basin for beneficial purposes. In 1955, the groundwork for Toledo Bend was laid when both authorities cooperated under a memorandum of agreement, and studies showed the project was feasible. Toledo Bend became the largest man-made body of water in the South and the fifth largest in surface acres in the United States. From the dam site, the reservoir extends 65 miles upriver to Logansport, Louisiana, and inundates land in Sabine, Shelby, Panola, and DeSoto Parishes in Louisiana. It was built for water supply, hydro-electric power generation, and recreation. The lake normally covers 185,000 acres, and its construction cost of about $70 million was shared equally by Texas and Louisiana, including the land, dam, spillway, powerhouse, new roads and bridges, and the clearing of boat lanes and shorelines. In 1959, Louisiana and Texas arranged financing of $30 million in hydroelectric revenue bonds. Electricity sales became the only source of income used to repay those bonds and one of the main sources of income for the authority’s operation and maintenance. Land acquisition began in 1963, construction of the dam, power plant, and spillway began the next year, and after the structures were completed, the power plant began operating in early 1969. Toledo Bend Reservoir was the only public water conservation and hydroelectric project in the nation undertaken without federal participation in its permanent financing.