Business View Magazine - November 2016

Business View Magazine - November 2016 83 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 : www.tulsaport.com