On June 13th, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stopped his re-election special train in Vinita in response to citizens' request for help funding construction of the Grand River Dam. A large, rowdy crowd estimated at 5,000 greeted him, and he thanked the crowd for arranging the event and said he would see what he could do when he returned to Washington, D.C. In September 1937, he signed legislation providing $20 million for the project, construction began in February 1938, and the dam was finished in 1940 with the lake filled by the end of summer. Grand Lake O' the Cherokees has 1,300 miles of scenic shoreline and approximately 50,000 surface acres of water. The dam is on State Highway 28 near Langley, Oklahoma, about 14 miles southeast.