| U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 1 July 1939 –present |
| Country |  United States of America |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Garrison/HQ | Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Motto(s) | Essayons (Let Us Try) |
| Colors | Scarlet and White [1] |
| Website | www |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander | Scott S. Preston, Commander, District Engineer [2] |
| Insignia | |
| Shoulder Sleeve Insignia |  |
| Branch Insignia |  |
| Regimental Insignia |  |
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District (USACE-SWT), is a United States Army military unit headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. [3] It "oversees Army Corps of Engineer responsibilities in all of Oklahoma and parts of southern Kansas and northern Texas". [4] Tulsa District was founded in 1939 in the heartland of the country to provide engineering support to the nation at a time of great contrast. The vivid memories of the 1936 flood — one of the greatest and most widespread flooding disasters ever seen — contrasted with the drought which tried to squeeze the life out of every living thing. These tragic events helped bind the citizens and the local and federal governments into a strong problem-solving union. Tulsa District professionals developed a spirit and dedication which has carried the district through almost 75 years of service to the nation. [5]
July 1, 1939 - Tulsa District is formed and receives $11 million for work on eight authorized projects. District work includes completing the Great Salt Plains and Fort Supply Lakes already under construction; design and construction work on authorized Canton, Optima, and Hulah Lakes; continue studies leading to authorization of Mannford (Keystone), Oologah, Tenkiller Ferry, and Wister Lakes; and continue cooperation on work for Grand Lake (then under construction) and Markham Ferry and Fort Gibson Dams. [5]
December 1940 - Military construction for the Army Air Corps is transferred from the Quartermaster Corps to the Corps of Engineers. Thirteen months later, the Corps undertakes all construction for the Army’s war efforts. [5]
Early 1941 - Tulsa District is building the Tulsa Aircraft Assembly Plant #3, (the Bomber Plant) which became home of McDonnell Douglas in Tulsa, Okla. Construction began on the $29 million Midwest City Air Depot (now Tinker Air Force Base) and the Oklahoma Aircraft Assembly Plant #5 in Oklahoma City which was annexed into Tinker in 1947 as Building 3001. [5]
December 7, 1941 - Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, triggering U.S. entry into World War II (1941 - 1945). During the war, Tulsa and Denison Districts placed $800 million in military construction and procured special engineering equipment costing more than $100 million. [5]
1944 - Flood Control Act authorizes recreation facilities at reservoirs. [6]
April 1, 1945 - Denison District is merged with the Tulsa District after Denison Dam (Lake Texoma) was completed by the Denison District in 1944. [5]
July 24, 1946 - McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River navigation project is authorized in Rivers and Harbors Act. The plan includes navigation from Catoosa, Okla., to the Mississippi River. [5]
1950-1953 - Korean Conflict. Tulsa District military construction averages $50 million a year. [5]
1954 - Arkansas River navigation is placed in a “deferred for further study” category. A major engineering problem needed to be solved — 100 million tons of silt flowing down the Arkansas annually could prevent navigation. [5]
1957 - Navigation system construction begins. [7]
July 1961 - Tulsa District is relieved of all military construction responsibilities to reemphasize its increasing civil works programs. [5]
December 30, 1970 - McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System is ready for use: 448 miles, 17 locks and dams. [5]
January 21, 1971 - First tow travels full length of navigation system, arrives at Port of Catoosa. [5]
June 5, 1971 - President Nixon dedicates $1.2 billion navigation system. [8]
1972 - Clean Water Act extends Corps regulatory authority (Section 404 Permits) to all waters of the United States. [9]
October 1, 1980 - The portion of the Tulsa District lying within the state of Arkansas is transferred to the Little Rock District.
1981 - Tulsa District resumes military responsibility for four installations in Arkansas and five in Oklahoma. [5]
1982 - Tulsa District gives up the small pieces of Missouri, New Mexico, and Colorado and picks up the remainder of the Arkansas River Basin in Kansas. [5]
August 1985 - After a November 1984 fire destroyed 17 acres of the roof of Building 3001, Tinker Air Force Base, Tulsa District completes the $63.5 million repairs. [5]
October 1, 1985 - Tulsa assumes duties for two Air Force bases and one Department of Energy plant in the Texas panhandle; Arkansas military installations are shifted to the Little Rock District. [5]
1986 - Passage of an omnibus water bill, the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 which was the first omnibus bill in 16 years, authorizes numerous projects for Tulsa District and heralds a new era of local/federal cost-sharing partnership. [5]
1989 - Tulsa became the Design Center for the Hazardous, Toxic, and Radiological Waste program for the entire five state Southwestern Division. [5]
1995 - Tulsa District, working under the Federal Emergency Management Agency, responds to the bombing attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The Corps primary role was public works and engineering. [5]
2000 - Mingo Creek Local Protection Project in Tulsa completed. The project consists of construction of 23 floodwater detention sites and approx. 10 miles of channelization along Mingo Creek and its tributaries. It reduced flooding to approx. 3,000 single family residences and 125 apartment buildings in the flood plain. [5]
2006 - Tenkiller Auxiliary Spillway completed and dedication. The auxiliary spillway has five 50-foot wide by 35-foot high tainter gates constructed near the right abutment of the embankment. The spillway structure is similar to the existing spillway. In addition, a new Highway 100 bridge was built to carry traffic across the upstream approach channel for the new spillway. [5]
2009 - Tulsa District receives funding for more than 200 projects across the district as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The total funding received totaled more than $125 million. [5]
2011 - The district completed all Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005 construction projects meeting the September 2011 deadline. [5]
2012 - For the first time on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, a pintle ball is removed and replaced at one of the system's locks. Workers drained all water from the lock, raised the dam gate, removed the damaged pintle and installed the new pintle. [5]
2013 - A Supersaturated Dissolved Oxygen System [10] is completed at Tenkiller Dam in Oklahoma. The stream below the dam is home to a trout fishery, that during times of drought experiences low dissolved oxygen levels and high water temperatures that results in fish kills. As a result of a multi-agency effort, a two-part mechanical solution was developed to prevent further fish kills below the dam. The low flow pipe system and the Supersaturated Dissolved Oxygen System were the result of a partnership between the Corps of Engineers, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Southwestern Power Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oklahoma Water Resources Board, Sequoyah Fuel, Tenkiller Utilities, Trout Unlimited, and Tulsa Fly Fisherman. [5]
Its early assignments included
On October 1, 1980 a portion of the Tulsa District within Arkansas was transferred to the Little Rock District. In 1981 Tulsa District resumed military responsibility for four installations in Arkansas and five in Oklahoma, and in 1982 Tulsa District surrendered pieces of Missouri, New Mexico, and Colorado and picked up the remainder of the Arkansas River Basin in Kansas. [11]
After a November 1984 fire destroyed 17 acres of the roof of Building 3001, Tinker Air Force Base, Tulsa District completed the $63.5 million repairs in August 1985. [11]
On October 1, 1985 Tulsa assumed duties for two Air Force bases and one Department of Energy plant in the Texas panhandle; and Arkansas military installations were shifted to Little Rock District. [11]
In 2000, Mingo Creek Local Protection Project in Tulsa was completed. The project consists of 23 floodwater detention sites and approximately 10 miles of channelization along Mingo Creek and its tributaries. It reduced flooding to approx. 3,000 single family residences and 125 apartment buildings in the flood plain. [11]
LOCAL HISTORY: In 1811, Sans Orielle, an Osage Indian, with others of his tribe, guided Major George C. Sibley, Indian Agent from Fort Osage, Missouri, and his party to Salt Plains. They are thought to have been the first white men to see the Plains, which Major Sibley called the Grand Saline. [12] [13]
The Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, flowing around the plain, was known to the Osages as Nescatunga (big salt water). Another early day explorer to see the Plains was Capt. Nathan Boone, who headed a Government expedition from Fort Gibson into what is now central Kansas in 1843. [12]
The Great Salt Plains have been the scene of many Indian Councils, both of war and peace. In drafting the treaty which defined the territory to become the so called permanent home of the Cherokees in 1828, the United States Government withheld the Salt Plains area with the provision that, "The right is reserved to the United States to allow other tribes of red men to get salt on the Great Salt Plains in common with the Cherokee Tribe." [12]
The value of the Plains lay not in its salt alone, but in the rich hunting afforded by the animals migrating there for the salt supply, and possession of this area is said to have been the muse of many Indian battles. In the earliest of the settlement of the Indian Territory, Western Kansas and Texas cattlemen sent wagons to the Plains to haul away great loads of salt. A local legend of interest concerns a cache of gold that was reportedly buried in the vicinity of the dam. In 1850, five men were returning to Missouri from California with fourteen bars of gold. In the vicinity of the present dam, they were attacked by Cheyenne-Arapaho Indians, three of the men being killed. [12]
The two remaining men wrapped the gold in a buffalo calfskin and buried it, marking the spot with an end-gate rod from their wagon. At least one of the men survived, since in 1901 Carl Sheldon arrived in the area with a map showing the location of the buried gold. Mr. Sheldon continued to search for the gold until 1940 when he was forced to leave because of the dam construction. In 1904, Sheldon had sample of the material from the drill bit assayed and traces of gold and the hide reportedly were found. Due to shaft cave-ins and movement by underlying quicksand, this was the closest Sheldon came to finding the gold. [12]
DEVELOPMENT: The Great Salt Plains Dam and Lake [14] located on the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River is the oldest Corps of Engineers’ project in the Tulsa District, authorized by Congress in the Flood Control Act of 1936. The Little Rock District started construction in September 1938. When the Tulsa District was organized in July 1939, the project was placed under their jurisdiction and was completed in July 1941 at a cost of some $4.6 million. [12]
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is an engineer formation of the United States Army that has three primary mission areas: engineer regiment, military construction, and civil works. The day-to-day activities of the three mission areas are administered by a lieutenant general known as the commanding general/chief of engineers. The chief of engineers commands the engineer regiment, composed of combat engineer army units, and answers directly to the chief of staff of the army. Combat engineers come from throughout the service and can be active duty, national guard, or army reserve. Combat engineers' duties are to construct fighting positions, fixed/floating bridges, and obstacles and defensive positions, place and detonate explosives (sappers), conduct operations that include route clearance of obstacles and rivers, prepare and install firing systems for demolition and explosives, and detect mines. For the military construction mission the commanding general is directed and supervised by the assistant secretary of the army for installations, environment, and energy, whom the President appoints and the Senate confirms. Military construction relates to construction on military bases and worldwide installations.
Lake Texoma is one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, the 12th largest US Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) lake, and the largest in USACE Tulsa District. Lake Texoma is formed by Denison Dam on the Red River in Bryan County, Oklahoma, and Grayson County, Texas, about 726 miles (1,168 km) upstream from the mouth of the river. It is located at the confluence of the Red and Washita Rivers. The project was completed in 1944. The damsite is about 5 miles (8.0 km) northwest of Denison, Texas, and 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Durant, Oklahoma. Lake Texoma is the most developed and most popular lake within the USACE Tulsa District, attracting around 6 million visitors a year. Oklahoma has more of the lake within its boundaries than Texas.
Tenkiller Ferry Lake, or more simply, "Lake Tenkiller," is a reservoir in eastern Oklahoma formed by the damming of the Illinois River. The earth-fill dam was constructed between 1947 and 1952 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers for purposes of flood control, hydroelectric power generation, water supply and recreation. It went into full operation in 1953. The lake and dam were named for the Tenkiller family, prominent Cherokees who owned the land and ferry that were bought for the project. This is 6th largest lake in Oklahoma, based on water capacity.
Keystone Lake is a reservoir in northeastern Oklahoma on the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers. It is located upstream about 23 miles (37 km) from Tulsa. It was created in 1968 when the Keystone Dam was completed. The primary purposes are: flood control, hydroelectric power generation, wildlife management and recreation.
Grand Lake o' the Cherokees is situated in Northeast Oklahoma in the foothills of the Ozark Mountain Range. It is often simply called Grand Lake. It is administered by the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA).
Gavins Point Dam is a 1.9 mi (3 km) long embankment rolled-earth and chalk-fill dam which spans the Missouri River and impounds Lewis and Clark Lake. The dam joins Cedar County, Nebraska with Yankton County, South Dakota a distance of 811.1 river miles (1,305 km) upstream of St. Louis, Missouri, where the river joins the Mississippi River. The dam and hydroelectric power plant were constructed as the Gavins Point Project from 1952 to 1957 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Pick-Sloan Plan. The dam is located approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) west or upstream of Yankton, South Dakota.
Narrows Dam is a dam located 6 miles north of Murfreesboro, Arkansas, that impounds the water of the Little Missouri River (Arkansas) to create Lake Greeson. Narrows Dam was authorized as a flood control and hydroelectric power project by the Flood Control Act of 1941. The dam is a feature of the comprehensive plan for the Ouachita River Basin. Lake Greeson is operated for hydroelectric power, recreation, and flood control.
Tuttle Creek Lake is a reservoir on the Big Blue River 5 miles (8 km) north of Manhattan, in the Flint Hills region of northeast Kansas. It was built and is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers for the primary purpose of flood control. Secondary functions of the project include release of water stores to maintain barge traffic on the Mississippi River during seasons of drought, maintenance of a multi-use conservation pool for fish and wildlife enhancement and recreation, and release of sufficient water in droughts to maintain water quality for downstream communities.
Dierks Lake is a reservoir 56 miles (90 km) down the Saline River, and 5 mi (8 km) from Dierks, Arkansas.
Isabella Dam is an embankment dam located in the Kern River Valley, about halfway down the Kern River course, between the towns of Kernville and Lake Isabella in Kern County, California.
The McClellan–Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS) is part of the United States inland waterway system originating at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa and running southeast through Oklahoma and Arkansas to the Mississippi River. The total length of the system is 445 miles (716 km). It was named for two Senators, Robert S. Kerr (D-OK) and John L. McClellan (D-AR), who pushed its authorizing legislation through Congress. The system officially opened on June 5, 1971. President Richard M. Nixon attended the opening ceremony. It is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
Optima Lake was built to be a reservoir in Texas County, Oklahoma. The site is just north of Hardesty and east of Guymon in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Terminus Dam is a dam on the Kaweah River in Tulare County, California in the United States, located near Three Rivers about 15 mi (24 km) from the western boundary of Sequoia National Park and 20 mi (32 km) east of Visalia. The dam forms Lake Kaweah for flood control and irrigation water supply. Completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in 1962, Terminus is an earthfill dam 255 ft (78 m) high and 2,375 ft (724 m) long. The reservoir has a maximum capacity of 185,600 acre⋅ft (0.2289 km3) of water, although it usually sits at much lower levels.
Lake Oologah is a reservoir in northeastern Oklahoma. It is located near the towns of Oologah, Nowata, and Claremore. The lake has a surface of 29,500 acres (119 km2) of water and 209 miles (336 km) of shoreline with 11 lake-side parks. The water storage capacity is rated as 552,210 acre-feet (681,140,000 m3). The lake is formed along the Verdigris River, and is a source of water for the Tulsa Metropolitan Area. The purpose of the dam and lake is flood control, water supply, navigation, recreation, and fish and wildlife.
The Water Resources Development Act of 1986 is part of Pub.L. 99–662, a series of acts enacted by Congress of the United States on November 17, 1986.
Water Resources Development Act of 1976,, Pub.L. 94–587 is a public law enacted on October 22, 1976 by the Congress of the United States of America concerning various water resources and projects.
![J. Strom Thurmond Dam Dam in [[File:Georgia 150.svg|x20px|link=|alt=]] US 221 / SR 150, Columbia County, Georgia / McCormick County, South Carolina, USA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/ThurmondDam.jpg/320px-ThurmondDam.jpg)
J. Strom Thurmond Dam, also known in Georgia as Clarks Hill Dam, is a concrete-gravity and embankment dam located 22 miles (35 km) north of Augusta, Georgia on the Savannah River at the border of South Carolina and Georgia, creating Lake Strom Thurmond. U.S. Route 221 cross it. The dam was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1946 and 1954 for the purposes of flood control, hydroelectricity and downstream navigation. The concrete structure of the dam spans 1,096 feet (334 m) and rises 204 feet (62 m) above the riverbed, housing a power plant with an installed 380 MW capacity. The Dam has prevented over $185,000 in estimated flood damage annually and also provides recreation, water quality, water supply, along with fish and wildlife management.
The Fort Gibson Dam is a gravity dam on the Grand (Neosho) River in Oklahoma, 5.4 mi (9 km) north of the town of Fort Gibson. The dam forms Fort Gibson Lake. The primary purposes of the dam and lake are flood control and hydroelectric power production, although supply of drinking water to local communities, as well as recreation, are additional benefits. The project was authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1941 and construction began the next year. During World War II construction was suspended and it recommenced in May 1946. In June 1949, the river was closed and the entire project was complete in September 1953 with the operation of the last of the power plant's four generators. Rights to construct the project originally belonged to the Grand River Dam Authority, but were seized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1946.
Webbers Falls Lake, also known as Webbers Falls Reservoir, is a reservoir created by a lock and dam on the Arkansas River in Muskogee County, Oklahoma. The normal elevation is 490 feet (150 m). It has 157 miles (253 km) of shoreline and a surface area of 11,600 acres (47,000,000 m2). The drainage area of the lake is 97,033 square miles (251,310 km2). It is an integral part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which was completed in 1971.
The combination of topographic and climatic factors in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area have frequently caused major flash flooding, especially near streams that normally drain the area. The city was founded atop a bluff on the Arkansas River. Thus, elevation protected most of the inhabitants and their possessions from damage when the river flooded. However, by the turn of the 20th Century the population growth had moved closer to the river, and the flatlands west of the Arkansas had begun to develop as well. The floods typically caused widespread property damage and sometimes death. By the 1920s, seasonal floods of the Arkansas began to cause serious damage and loss of life. Since its founding, city leaders had responded to such events by simply rebuilding and replacing the property that had been destroyed in situ. Not until 1970 did the city government begin developing strategies to mitigate floods or at least minimize property damage and prevent loss of life. This article describes some of the more notable floods in Tulsa, then the mitigation and control strategies that evolved from them.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.