Chapter Eighteen

The Bull Shoals Dam

Page 315-316 (top half of page)

Any discussion of the reason for the construction of the Bull Shoals Dam must begin with a review of the frequent and devastating floods that occurred on the White River and its tributaries in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Floods had occurred from time to time prior to August of 1915, but in August of 1915 the flood waters of White River reached an all-time high-even higher than any prediction. Farmers had produced bumper crops all along the river and harvesting was scheduled to begin in about a month when the flood came. Most crops were almost a total loss; livestock and property damage was high-estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Loss of life was heavy also. In 1927 an even more destructive flood plagued the people of the White River Valley as the flood waters were even higher than in 1915.

The people realized that there was little that they could do as they had no control over the rainfall and, at that time, no way of regulating or controlling the runoff from the rainfall. The problem was not limited to the White River alone but many other rivers in various sections of the country were flooding urban areas as well as farm lands. The United States government recognized the need for Federal action and the task of regulating and controlling the stream flow from the rivers was assigned to the U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers. Many of the men in the Corps of Engineers had seen service in Europe during World War I and had observed the dams on the rivers in Europe. They had the technical training, experience, and know-how to begin a systematic study of the rainfall over a period of years of these different rivers and from the study determine how these floods might be controlled. A comprehensive study of the Arkansas River and the White River in Arkansas led to a voluminous Report and Recommendation by the U.S. Corps of Engineers to the President and to the Congress that a series of flood control dams be built along these rivers and some of their tributaries.

The Report and Recommendation was received by the Congress and several of the proposed dams were authorized. Authorization for construc tion was necessary, but an authorization by Congress without an appropriation of funds for the construction was a meaningless gesture. Congress did appropriate some money for construction but in the early years the amount appropriated was only sufficient to make preliminary studies as to location, type of dam, damages, cost of construction and estimated benefits to be derived therefrom.

Congress was concerned with the benefit payout ratio, and while it favored construction, the Study seemed to indicate that in some proposed dams the benefits from flood control only did not offer a satisfactory benefit payout ratio. This situation led the Corps of Engineers to further their study to include dual-purpose dams-dams built primarily for flood control but with hydroelectric facilities and recreation as secondary benefits.

Among the foremost proponents of the flood control dams in Arkansas, mention is made of a few of those who come to mind at this time: John P. Morrow of Batesville, R. F. Overman and a Mr. Murray of Little Rock. Mr. Rodman of Calico Rock, Judge R. M. Ruthven of Cotter, D. D. Terry of Little Rock, later served in Congress, Reece Caudle of Russellville, and Tom Shiras of Mountain Home. There were many others all along the Arkansas and White Rivers who devoted their time, their energies and their finances to keep before Congress the necessity of appropriating the funds necessary for construction of the authorized dams.

It can be said to the credit of the entire Arkansas Congressional delegation in the late 1920's and in the l930's that the delegation favored the authorization of the flood control projects and voted for appropriating the funds necessary for construction.

With the proposed addition of hydroelectric facilities in the dam, the question arose as to how the electricity produced at these dams would be marketed. Two ideas for the marketing were advanced: First, that all power generated at the power plants operated by the Corps of Engineers be sold at the bus-bar to the private power companies to be used in their transmission and distribution systems; second, that the government itself through some agency would market the power giving priority to public bodies, municipalities, governmental installations, and electric cooperatives with the surplus, if any, going to the private power companies.