Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
Hydraulic Engineering Center (HEC) developed into the HEC 6 Program for sediment
transport.
in his Sons of Martha, and
I was looking through the chapter I wrote for A. J.
there's a lot in there that might help you with background. (A. J. also worked with us at
Little Rock.) The Corps built a lot of projects in the late '40's through the `O'S, locks, dams,
storage projects. When I took hydrology from Emory Lane in about 1946, I remember only
one hydrology book by Wisler and Brater. There was also one book on water power by H.
Barrows. But, you know, at that time the hydrologists were all self-made hydrologists.
The hydraulic engineers were self-made hydraulic engineers. There were very few college
courses in hydrology or hydraulics.
When we worked for the Missouri River Division in
MRD had a panel of
consultants on river engineering and sediment, including Lorenz Straub of the University of
Minnesota, Emory Lane, who had been at Iowa and was then back with the Bureau of
Reclamation, Vito Vanoni of
[California Institute of Technology], and Hans Albert
Einstein of U.C. Berkeley [University of California, Berkeley]. When Straub returned from
two years in Europe in 1929 as a Freeman Fellow studying river engineering and visiting
hydraulic laboratories, he worked briefly for the Corps in Kansas City (in the Special Studies
Section) on river problems before returning to the University of Minnesota in late 1930. In
Kansas City, he had responsibility for sedimentation and hydraulic studies of the Missouri
River and its tributaries.
Section 308 Reports
Straub's Ph.D. was in structures from Illinois, but in 1930 he received a Professional
Engineering degree from Illinois. The title of his thesis was "Sedimentary Characteristics
of the Missouri River." I think that the sediment material in the old 308 Report on the
Missouri River was largely his work. We used the Missouri River 308 Report in the '50's;
and, in fact, we still referenced the 308 report on the Sacramento River in the
The
inventories of water resources, preliminary planning for water resources development, and
sediment information contained in those reports was just fantastic. (The 308 Reports were
accomplished by the Corps in response to the River and Harbor Act of 1927.)
Those 308 Reports are rather legendary, aren't they?
Yes, indeed. They really are. We were in a position to work with all those people, and it was
A:
a very inspiring experience. Design of the Arkansas River locks and dams was on the
Previous Page
