October 24, 2011

The Ozark Dam Contractors, a consortium of nine companies, began construction on Bull Shoals Dam in 1947. Two specially constructed projects, a railroad spur and a conveyor belt, were used to deliver materials to the site. Shown here is the thirty-inch-wide, 7.8-mile-long conveyor belt that carried aggregate from Lee’s Mountain near Flippin (Marion County). The belt broke down only once, due to a lightning strike, during its approximately four years of operation.