Business View Magazine
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gether, they agreed that they needed to do something
to try and harness Mother Nature or at least tame her
down, if they could. Having seen the dust bowl, and
having now experienced the flooding, they approached
their colleagues in Congress and said, ‘We have to de-
velop a flood control project in these states.’ The cost
was half a billion dollars. Congress replied: ‘We’re on
the brink of World War II; we can’t afford to spend that
kind of money.’”
“They went back to the drawing board, which was in-
dicative of Kerr’s attitude and the way Kerr lived his
life,” says Portiss. “He wasn’t about to give up. He
went back and determined a way, together with John
McClellan: ‘You know, we can make this flood control
project into a different kind of project providing not
only flood control benefits, but also things like com-
mercial navigation, wildlife conservation, municipal
water, hydro-electric power – benefits of that sort.’ And
when they returned to the Congress, it said, ‘Okay.’”
So, in 1946, Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors
Act, authorizing the construction of a multi-purpose
waterway originating at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa and
running southeast through Oklahoma and Arkansas to
the Mississippi, utilizing three rivers: the White, the Ar-
kansas, and the Verdigris. Construction of the McClel-
lan–Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System began in
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa
WHAT:
A major port on the McClellan–Kerr Arkan-
sas River Navigation System
WHERE:
Near the City of Catoosa, Rogers Coun-
ty, Oklahoma
WEBSITE
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