January 3, 1971

The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, authorized in 1948 and begun in 1958, was finally ready for full use: the first commercial barge containing steel pipe pulled into the Port of Muskogee, Oklahoma. The system—comprising seventeen locks and dams over a 443-mile span of the Arkansas River from Catoosa, Oklahoma, through Arkansas to the Mississippi River—was envisioned as an aid to flood control, navigation, and recreation. It also benefits Arkansas with hydropower potential, wildlife conservation, and water supply, adding billions of dollars annually in trade transportation in Arkansas and Oklahoma.