The floods were frequent and intense in Yell and Perry counties during the 1920s and 1930s. While historians focus on the effect the Great Flood of 1927 had on the eastern half of the state, west Arkansas dealt with its own problems as water flowed down mountainsides in the Ouachita and Ozark hills and overwhelmed those living in the valleys below.
After Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1938 in the wake of another natural disaster affecting multiple states (the Great Flood of 1937), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was authorized to build a dam along the Fourche La Fave River. In addition to controlling flooding along the Fourche La Fave, the dam was expected to reduce flooding along the Arkansas River, into which the Fourche La Fave flows. Testing began in October 1938, and the Department of War announced in 1939 that a dam would be erected in western Perry County and named for the nearby community of Nimrod.
The Corps began receiving construction bids in January 1940. The Russ Mitchell Co. and Brown & Root Inc. were selected that spring to construct the dam, and the federal government started buying up land in the area.
"By October 1941, the dam was largely complete," Guy Lancaster writes for the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. "Heavy rains the following month completely filled the reservoir, providing an unexpected test of the dam's stability. By February 1942, the final clearing of trees from the dam's reservoir area was being carried out, with the whole project reaching completion in March 1942. The estimated cost of the entire project came to just under $3.8 million. ... The lake is situated along the northern boundary of the Ouachita National Forest with the Nimrod Wildlife Management Area to its west and Highway 7, an Arkansas Scenic Byway, to its east."
Nimrod Lake was the first of the big Corps of Engineers impoundments in Arkansas. During the next three decades, thanks to a powerful congressional delegation that would steer millions of federal dollars to Arkansas for projects, the Corps would stay busy. Just to the northwest of Nimrod Dam, Blue Mountain Lake was created by a dam on the Petit Jean River. Blue Mountain's construction was halted by World War II and completed in June 1947. To the south, the Ouachita River was dammed to create Lake Ouachita, the Caddo River was dammed to create DeGray Lake, the Little Missouri River was dammed to create Lake Greeson, and the Little River was dammed to create Millwood Lake.
Along the White River and its North Fork in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, dams created Beaver Lake, Table Rock Lake, Bull Shoals Lake and Norfork Lake. Small dams near the Oklahoma border in southwest Arkansas created De Queen Lake, Dierks Lake and Gillham Lake. The McClellan-Kerr Navigation System along the Arkansas River created additional reservoirs, as did navigation projects along the Ouachita River in far south Arkansas. Channelization of numerous streams took place in the Arkansas Delta.
During a two-day excursion on Arkansas 7 from the southern border of the state to its northern border (that trip is detailed in a story on the front page of this section), we saw the work of the Corps as we passed just below Nimrod Dam on the first day, crossed the Arkansas River at Dardanelle on the second day, and ended our trip on the shores of Bull Shoals. We also saw a leading example of a rare defeat for the Corps and its congressional supporters. That example is the Buffalo National River.
At the time it opened, the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System was the largest civil works project ever built by the Corps. Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Act in July 1946, and that authorized a navigation system along the river from Catoosa, Okla., to where the Arkansas empties into the Mississippi River in southeast Arkansas. The project was designed to provide a minimum 9-foot-deep channel along the final 450 miles of the river.
Kay Goss writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas: "Completion of the project was not assured by passage of the 1946 act; only $55 million was authorized for initial improvements, with later funding to be approved on a year-to-year, dam-by-dam basis. Sen. John L. McClellan of Arkansas and Sen. Elmer Thomas of Oklahoma sat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. In 1948, Gov. Robert S. Kerr of Oklahoma ran a successful campaign to become Oklahoma's junior senator, where he joined McClellan in championing waterway transportation."
The first commercial barge, which was carrying steel pipes, arrived at Catoosa on Jan. 3, 1971. The system was dedicated on June 5, 1971, during a ceremony at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa. President Richard Nixon was the keynote speaker.
Our trip ended where Arkansas 7 meets Bull Shoals in Boone County. The Flood Control Act of 1938 had authorized construction of six reservoirs in the White River basin. The Corps built Norfork Dam on the North Fork River in southern Baxter County from 1941-45. Construction of Bull Shoals Dam west of Mountain Home on the White River began in 1947. President Harry S. Truman spoke at the dedication on July 2, 1952.
The Buffalo River, which we crossed between Jasper and Harrison on Arkansas 7, is the place where Arkansans said "enough" when it came to building dams. The Buffalo had been included in the Flood Control Act of 1938 as one of the White River basin streams to be dammed. Two potential sites were selected by the Corps. One was upstream from Gilbert in Searcy County, and the other was near the mouth of the stream. By the 1960s, however, an epic battle had ensued between the anti-dam Ozark Society headed by Neil Compton of Bentonville and the pro-dam Buffalo River Improvement Association headed by James Tudor of Marshall. National media attention was focused on the battle, which even included a Buffalo River canoe trip by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.
In December 1965, Gov. Orval Faubus, a Madison County native who long had loved the river, announced that he couldn't support a dam on the Buffalo. Faubus was at the height of his political power, and the Corps withdrew its proposal. In 1966, Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison defeated Democratic incumbent James Trimble. Hammerschmidt then began efforts to obtain the national river designation from the National Park Service. The Corps had met its match.
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Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 12/17/2017