JETMORE ? Final plans are being made to turn a drought-stricken patch of land into a reservoir that could include campsites, beaches and boat ramps.

Planners envision a dam more than a mile long across Buckner Creek in west-central Kansas. Engineers estimate the lake created by the dam would spread across about 350 acres. The dam and recreation area would be called “Horse Thief Reservoir.”

Pawnee Watershed District No. 81 already has committed to buy the land, a 560-acre site eight miles west of Jetmore, from private landowners.

The state has given the watershed district the right to store water behind the dam. And dam design is under way thanks to a $200,000 donation from beef and pork packer Excel Corp.

The watershed’s 4-mill levy for the approximately 1.5 million acres it encompasses will help pay for the project. But the project still needs more federal, state and local support, said Ron Allen, manager of Pawnee Watershed.

Allen expects the project to receive $3.75 million to $4.25 million from the Kansas State Conservation Commission’s Small Lakes Program. The commission will request from the state Legislature about half of that amount in the 2004 budget, with the remainder likely over a period of two or three years.

The earliest construction could start is spring 2004, Allen said.