A ..
Yes, they had German prisoners as labor to do the rough grading of the land.
During the construction and after it was operational, the Model Board consisted of
the pertinent division engineers, the Waterways Experiment Station director, and a
representative of the Chief of Engineers. Hathaway was the Chief's representative,
and I was on the working committee. We met probably a little more frequently than
the board did to work with the Waterways Experiment Station on the design and
completion of the model.
When Hathaway left, I think, I'm not really sure, but I think I took his position on
the board. The Mississippi River Commission make an inspection twice a year, and
I have a picture there of everybody standing on a steamer, and I'm one of them. I
remember when the Model Board arranged this particular trip. None of the working
committee are in the picture, and I was there, so I must have been on the board, or
at least a representative of the Chief.
Q ..
Well, tell me what were you doing with the model? What were the major concerns?
A
Well, the instrumentation, primarily. The type of resistance they were using. There
was still foot dragging by some of the field offices. They thought that they could--
by this time, the computers were in wider use, and they thought they could do just
as good using their computers as they could on the model, but that opposition
gradually disappeared. T h e model was used a lot for verification of levee designs
and things like that. Up to the time I left, I don't remember any major floods.
By the time I left, it was sort of mothballed. In other words, it was put in a standby.
They quit using it for design studies and sort of put it in a standby position. But
then several different times for major floods it was placed back into operation. It
did a lot of help in showing which areas might be subject to flooding so that the
people doing the emergency sandbagging and everything had a lot of help in where
they could spend their efforts most profitably on the floods. I don't know whether
it's still in `a standby position or not.
Q ..
No, I think it's largely gone. Most of it, I think, has disappeared. There are parts
of it that are still there. Not used for much, but I think they still have it there, as
far as I recall.
A ..
Yes.
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