John W. Morris
nations made the real estate problem in Tulsa very complex. The great success of our overall
program has to be credited to Dave Helms because of the way he handled real estate matters.
We also helped change some of the contract provisions. Of course, Manning Seltzer, General
Counsel, OCE, gets principal credit, but it was Tulsa District that recognized early the impact of
contracts, not only on the work that was changed but, in many cases, items that
changes in
were not yet completed. Out of that came a significant modification to the changes clause of civil
contracts which allowed compensation for the impact of a change on work not yet completed.
Q:
The Tulsa District history also says that you had a pretty large role to play at locating the head
of navigation for the project.
True. Let's see if I can put that all together. The project was designed for the navigation channel
A:
to leave the Arkansas River at Muskogee, Oklahoma, move up the Verdigris River through three
locks to Catoosa, 12 miles west of Tulsa. Near Catoosa the Verdigris River passes under two I-40
bridges and a railroad bridge, as I recall. The original project had the head of navigation
downstream of all three.
Colonel "Babe" Wilson, the head of the ABDA, came to me one day and indicated we had a
"head-of-navigation" issue. He said, "It's in the wrong place."
He was right, for we shouldn't end the project immediately behind a major obstacle, especially
since operating efficiency would be constrained in that particular location. Also, we still had in
mind going to Wichita someday, and there was no point in starting off a new project with a major
issue and costs of passing these bridges if we could legally and reasonably include a correction
into the ongoing project. Such philosophy, incidentally, would have been beneficial to the
Missouri River project, as I was to learn later.
Our studies indicated we could eliminate one of the three locks and its dam on the Verdigris River
and save enough money to pay for this extension, which we did. Locating the head of navigation
above the bridges was approved. In spite of some troubles which we were able to resolve, the Port
of Catoosa now has a more efficient arrangement.
Another interesting vignette about the Tulsa experience involved the completion and dedication
of Oolagah Dam in 1962. General Wilson and the governor were present, and it was hot, just
terrible. Gerry and our two children attended. The officers wore white uniforms which soon
became completely soaked from perspiration. I wondered why in the world we didn't have
conditioned cars. The reason was simply that the maximum cost allowed for a car in 1962 was
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,200. Well,
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,200 would buy you a car, but it wouldn't buy you an air-conditioned car. I soon
noticed that trucks had air conditioning and then discovered that the
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,200 rule didn't apply to
trucks-it only applied to automobiles.
So the question was, "What was an automobile and what was a truck?" Come to find out, a
wheel-drive vehicle was a truck. Well, Jeep had introduced the Wagoneer, a four-wheel-drive
station-wagon type of vehicle, so I ordered ten Wagoneers with air conditioning. My procurement
people didn't do it right. Instead of buying the vehicles with the air conditioning installed, they
bought the vehicles and the air conditioners as separate items. Would you believe that in all the
work he had to do, General Dunn noted the procurement of the air conditioners. He phoned me
one day and asked why in the world was I buying ten air conditioners for vehicles.
I said, "Well, I'm going to put them in those trucks."
So he said, "What are you talking about?"
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