Construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam
Date: August 1962
Three photographs showing crews paving the roads on or around the Tuttle Creek Reservoir on the Kansas River in Riley County, Kansas. Tuttle Creek Dam was constructed by the U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Corps of Engineers.

Construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam
Date: October 1964
These five photographs show road paving activities on the Tuttle Creek Reservoir project on the Kansas River in Riley County, Kansas. Tuttle Creek Dam was constructed by the U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Corps of Engineers.

Construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam
Date: 1952
A collection of six photographs detailing the beginning of the Tuttle Creek Dam project on the Kansas River in Riley County, Kansas. The contract for this initial construction was awarded to the George Bennet Construction Company of Kansas City, in the amount of $2,238,888. The photographs show the initial moving of excavated earth and limestone, the preparatory work for the construction of a temporary bridge, and various views of ongoing excavation. Tuttle Creek Dam was constructed by the U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Corps of Engineers.

Construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam
Date: 1958
These seven photographs show scenes of the Tuttle Creek Dam construction north of Manhattan, Kansas. Tuttle Creek Dam was constructed by the U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Corps of Engineers.

Construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam
Date: 1958
Seven photographs taken during the construction of the Tuttle Creek Reservoir on the Kansas River in Riley County, Kansas. Tuttle Creek Dam was constructed by the U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Corps of Engineers.

Construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam
Date: 1958
Seven photographs detailing the beginning of the Tuttle Creek Reservoir Project on the Kansas River in Riley County, Kansas. Tuttle Creek Dam was constructed by the U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Corps of Engineers.

Construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam
Date: July 1958
Seven photographs showing construction activity on differents areas of the Tuttle Creek Reservoir on the Kansas River in Riley County, Kansas. Tuttle Creek Dam was constructed by the U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Corps of Engineers.

Construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam
Date: 1958
Seven photographs showing individuals or construction activities on different areas of the Tuttle Creek Dam on the Kansas River in Riley County, Kansas. Tuttle Creek Dam was constructed by the U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Corps of Engineers.

Construction of the Tuttle Creek Dam
Date: 1958
Seven photographs showing construction activities on different areas of the Tuttle Creek Reservoir Project on the Kansas River in Riley County, Kansas. Tuttle Creek Dam was constructed by the U. S. Army Engineer District, Kansas City, Corps of Engineers.

Flood control where?
Creator: Jones, J.O.
Date: February 2, 1952
In this article from the Kansas Farmer, University of Kansas Professor J.O. Jones challenges the Kansas large reservoir plan aimed at flood control. "Nature has a disconcerting way of frustrating man's attempts to thwart her." Large dams, he argues, near the outlets of huge drainage areas do not offer protection to those portions of the basin upstream. "Tuttle Creek dam will not protect Marysville, Blue Rapids or Irving. Perry Dam will not protect Valley Falls."

Governor Edward Arn's statement on dams
Creator: Arn, Edward F., 1906-1998
Date: 1952
This statement by Governor Arn was delivered to the U. S. Congress in 1952 on his behalf by Maurice Fager. It identifies the extent of recent (1951) flood damage in Kansas and the need for flood control. The document proposes the "immediate start of the Tuttle Creek Reservoir."

Governor William Avery interview
Creator: Beatty, Bob, 1966-
Date: December 5, 2003
Click the thumbnail images below to play clips of Kansas Governor William Avery discussing his experience as governor of Kansas from January 11, 1965 to January 9, 1967. Bob Beatty, Political Science Department, Washburn University, conducts the interview as part of the Kansas Governors Recorded History and Documentary Project, Dr. Bob Beatty and Washburn University, 2005. A complete transcript of the interview is available by clicking Text Version below. The interview is the basis for Beatty's article "'You have to like people': A Conversation with Former Governor William H. Avery," Kansas History, v30 (Spring 2007/2008).

Keep our soil home
Date: 1950s
This anonymously written pamphlet was printed at the Monitor, Leonardville, Kansas. The author urges readers to study the problems that the proposed construction of the Tuttle Creek dam might create and to take action by writing their Congressman. The author urges an approach of small retention dams on tributaries of the Big Blue River rather than one large dam. A number of residents of the area organized to oppose the construction of the Tuttle Creek dam. This pamphlet is one example of that opposition.

Statement to Congress on flood control
Creator: Edwards, William P.
Date: May 11, 1954
In this 1954 statement to Congress, William P. Edwards states his opposition to the construction of the Tuttle Creek dam.

The Tuttle Creek story
Creator: Blue Valley Film Committee
Date: Between 1954 and 1956
The people of the Blue River Valley in Kansas produced this short film as part of their campaign against the construction of a dam and reservoir on the Big Blue River in the Flint Hills of Northeast Kansas, north of Manhattan. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed a series of flood control projects in the Missouri River basin beginning in the late 1930s. The Pick-Sloan plan authorized by Congress in the Flood Control Act of 1944 called for a series of large dams and levees on rivers in the basin. The film argues that the large flood control measures proposed by the Corps of Engineers are unnecessary and ineffectual and flood prevention methods through small retention dams in individual watersheds are less invasive and more effective. Despite heavy local opposition, construction of the Tuttle Creek dam began in 1952 and it became fully operational by July 1962. The dam displaced 3000 people and ten towns including Stockdale, Randolph, Winkler, Cleburne, Irving, Blue Rapids, Shroyer, Garrison, Barrett, and Bigelow.