July 24, 1946

The U.S. Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Act authorizing the building of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, which included plans for hydropower, flood control, recreation, and navigation from Catoosa, Oklahoma, to the Mississippi River. Only $55 million was authorized initially, with later funding to be approved on a year-to-year, dam-by-dam basis. The system ultimately added billions of dollars in river transportation to the economies of both Arkansas and Oklahoma.