New Pond Construction
Recreation, livestock and drainage ponds — cored, keyed, compacted, spillway built for storm flow. Sized from half-acre stock ponds to lakes.
Ponds · Lakes · Dams — Built & Repaired, Statewide Arkansas
Arkansas ponds built to hold water.
Fifty years of building recreation, livestock and drainage ponds across Arkansas — cored, keyed, and compacted so they hold for decades, not seasons. Based in Greers Ferry lake country, working statewide. And when you call, a Cox answers.
Building Ponds Since1972 · three generations
AR Contractor License#3287-C Commercial · Active
NRCS Cost-Share WorkBuilt to practice standards
Rock In The Way?Hydrohammer · no blasting
The pond trade
A pond is a dam
you get one chance to build right.
Anybody with a dozer can dig a hole that holds water for a season. A pond that holds for fifty years is built underneath: a core trench cut down to tight material, a keyed dam tied into it, clay placed and compacted in lifts, and a spillway sized for the storm that will come. That invisible work is the difference between a lake and a mud flat — and it's been our family's trade since 1972.
We build them all over Arkansas: recreation ponds and fishing lakes, livestock water, drainage and retention ponds. Our shop sits in Greers Ferry lake country — Ozark foothill ground where clay, rock and springs make pond-building honest work. When the cut hits rock, we don't stop and we don't blast: our excavators carry a hydraulic hammer that breaks it clean.
We also repair ponds other outfits built — leaking cores, silted-in bowls, slumped dams, undersized spillways. Some are worth fixing, some are cheaper to rebuild. We'll tell you which, straight, after we walk it.
Working with NRCS or your county conservation district on a cost-share pond? Bring the design — we build to the practice standard your plan calls for.
★ Statewide from Heber Springs
Greers FerryQuitmanDrascoClintonFairfield BaySearcyMountain ViewBatesvilleConway
0+ yrsBuilding Arkansas ponds — est. 1972
0Generations of Coxes on the dozer today
378NRCS pond practice code — cost-share builds welcome (EQIP)
0Blast permits needed — hydrohammer breaks the rock
Pond & lake scope
From first cut
to full pool.
Lake Construction
Acre-plus recreation and fishing lakes with engineered dams, drains and overflow — the long version of the same discipline.
Pond Repair & Reshaping
Leaking cores, silted bowls, slumped dams, failed spillways — drained, cleaned out, rebuilt and recompacted. Honest verdict on fix vs. rebuild.
Clearing & Access
Timber and brush cleared, access cut, spoil placed and shaped — the whole site handled by one crew, one mobilization.
Rock Excavation
Ozark ground hides rock. Our 10,000-lb hydraulic hammer on an 80,000-lb excavator breaks it in the cut — no blasting, no blast permits, no waiting on a second contractor.
Cost-Share Builds
Working with your county NRCS or conservation district? We build to the practice standard in your plan, on ag and conservation cost-share projects.
Get us to your ground
Talk to a Cox
about your pond.
Call the shop — a Cox answers501.250.4490
Email[email protected]
Shop50 Fort Cox Rd, Heber Springs, AR 72543
ServingAll of Arkansas — Ozarks to the Delta
Best first stepText photos of the site + roughly where the dam would go
Book a site walk
Step 1 of 3 — what's the water for?
Where & when
Step 2 of 3 — so the right machine shows up.
Timeline
Who do we call back?
Step 3 of 3 — we'll call you back to set up the walk.
Pond questions, straight answers
What Arkansas pond owners
ask us.
What does it cost to build a pond in Arkansas?
Small ponds start around $10,000 — that's the dirt work on open ground; if timber or brush has to come off first, clearing is added on top. From there the number moves with size and depth, how much clay is on site (hauling clay in is the big cost driver), rock (we break it with the hydrohammer — no blasting), and equipment access. Call 501-250-4490 or text photos of the site and we'll talk real numbers after a site walk.
Will my pond hold water?
That's the whole job. A pond holds because of what you can't see when it's full: a core trench cut to tight material, a keyed dam tied into it, clay compacted in lifts, and a spillway that handles storm flow. We've built them this way for fifty years — and we repair a lot of ponds that were built wrong the first time.
Do you build to NRCS specs for cost-share programs?
Yes. If you're working with your county NRCS or conservation district on a cost-share program like EQIP — which can cover a large share of pond construction for qualifying producers — bring us the design and we'll build to the practice standard it calls for. New to the program? Start with our plain-words guide to NRCS pond cost-share.
Can you fix an existing pond that leaks or silted in?
Yes — repairs are a big part of our pond work: silt cleanouts, dam rebuilds, leaking cores, spillway rework, bank reshaping. Some ponds are worth fixing and some are cheaper to rebuild; we'll tell you straight which one yours is.
When's the best time to build?
Dry season — late summer through fall. Dirt compacts right when it's dry, and the finished pond catches winter and spring rain. Call ahead of the season; the calendar fills.
What don't you do?
Backyard koi ponds, liners, and water-garden features — that's landscaper work. We're dirt-work pond builders: dams, cores, spillways, big water. If it takes a dozer and an excavator, it's ours.