Roper Lake State Park occupies a 32-acre lake in Arizona’s Gila River valley below the Pinaleño Mountains near Mount Graham, about five miles south of Safford. The site began as a private recreation area in the 1960s, became state-owned in 1969 through acquisition by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, and expanded with the 1972 purchase of former ranch land for a reservoir. Opened to the public in 1975, the park offers boating, swimming, picnicking, camping, cabins, hiking, birdwatching, and fishing for stocked bass and trout as well as sunfish and channel catfish. Nearby Dankworth Pond State Park adds another fishing and paddling destination.