Volume 1, Number 7 - Spring 1963
White River
(A condensation of the chapter, "Taming the Rio Blanco", from the unpublished manuscript of the history of Taney County by Mr. Elmo Ingenthron).
Before the historic tribes of Indians passed from the White River Valley, the French explored it in quest of precious metals. But it was the Spanish explorers, impressed by the white foaming waters of the river's many shoals, who named it "Rio Blanco", White River.
The Rio Blanco gave generously to its early visitors: it was a sportsman's paradise to the hunter and fisherman; it gave food to the hungry, transportation to the traveler. To the early settler, it provided water for his livestock, waterpower to grind his grain, gin his cotton, and saw his lumber. Its lifesaving fog rose to protect his crops against the late frosts of springtime, and its clamshells provided pearl buttons for his clothes.
The early settlers paid a price for the seeming goodness of the river by having to contend with its cantankerous nature: after every flood, they re plowed their fields and rebuilt their fences; they repaired the havoc wrought at fords, ferries, and bridges. After each episode in which man lost, he vowed to somehow harness its Herculean strength and put it to work for the benefit of mankind.
Sometime prior to 1911, an industrial concern proposed in a congressional act to build a dam across White River and construct a tunnel across a short neck of ground that would give greater fall than by staying within the river bed. The engineers of the War Department objected to this proposition, and President Theodore Roosevelt is reported to have vetoed the bill when it reached his desk. However, congressional approval was given February 4, 1911, for the construction of a dam across White River between certain points. Under the authority of this legislative act, the Federal Power Commission issued a fifty-year license to the Ozark Power and Water Company for the construction and operation of the project.
In the spring of 1911, R. C. Morrison and W. S. McCall came to Forsyth and employed men to assist with a survey and to dig test pits on each side of the river at various points.
When it came time to begin construction of the project, the St. Louis banking concern which was to provide the financing faltered. After a short de lay, the Henry L. Doherty firm of New York pro vided the necessary money.
For the next two years, work progressed satisfactorily. The dam was thought to be one of the largest in the country used exclusively for the generation of electricity. There were from two hundred to eight hundred men employed on the project.
In March 1913, when the clearing of the reservoir was almost but not quite accomplished, and the dam hardly completed, the sleeping Rio Blanco awakened like a raging monster and rushed forth to challenge the manmade obstacle to its age-old freedom. The reservoir was quickly filled to over flowing. Great numbers of people looked on to witness the terrible struggle, but the dam held firm as the mighty river poured wrathfully over the spill- way in its efforts to escape into the downriver lowlands.
And all was not well with the farmers above the dam. They had not had time to harvest their corn crops along the flood plains of the river, and several lawsuits against the dam company followed. However, the courts ruled that it was an "Act of God" and that the dam company was not responsible for the downpour that caused the inundation of their cornfields. One angry farmer, commenting on the verdict, was heard to say, "It was a dirty trick to flood our corn fields, but it's an unforgivable sin for the dam company to lay their meanness on the Lord".
The uncleared portion of the reservoir was never cleared, and for half a century, "Sunken Forest" has stood as a symbol of the river's wily ways.
In due time it became evident that Powersite Dam had only partially tamed the old river, and that other steps would be necessary to curb her forays upon the inhabitants of the valley. In 1927 and again in 1945, White River poured over the dam and down the valley almost unchecked, playing havoc with towns, villages, and farmsteads.
There has followed the construction of three more dams on White River: in Arkansas, one on the North Fork of the river ($29,707,000), and another at Bull Shoals ($75,260,000); the third one is Table Rock Dam in Missouri (about $66,100,000). It would seem that man's dream of harnessing the Rio Blanco for the benefit of mankind is approaching reality.
[14]
This volume: Next Article | Table of Contents | Other Issues
Other Volumes | Keyword Search | White River Valley Quarterly Home | Local History Home
Copyright © White River Valley Historical Quarterly
