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ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS HAROLD G. ARTHUR 1994 AND 1995 Denver, Colorado Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë STATUS OF INTERVIEWS: OPEN FOR RESEARCH Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Interviews Conducted by: Brit Allan Storey Senior Historian Bureau of Reclamation Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Ë Oral History Program Bureau of Reclamation Original Printing: 2000 Reformatted and Revised by Brit Storey, January 2010 SUGGESTED CITATION: ARTHUR, HAROLD G. ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW. Transcript of tape-recorded Bureau of Reclamation Oral History Interviews conducted by Brit Allan Story, senior historian, Bureau of Reclamation, during 1994 and 1995, in Denver, Colorado. Transcription by Barbara Heginbottom Jardee, Jardee Transcription, Tucson, Arizona. Edited by Brit Allan Storey. Repository for the record copy of the interview transcript is the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. Record copies of this transcript are printed on 20 lb., 100% cotton, archival quality paper. All other copies are printed on normal duplicating paper. i Table of Contents Table of Contents ....... ....................................................... i Statement of Donation ........................................................ xiii Introduction .................................................................xv Oral History Interview ..........................................................1 Born in Lead, South Dakota ...............................................1 I Wanted to Be an Engineer or an Attorney ....................................1 My Father Worked for the Homestake Mine and I Was Given a Summer Job There Because I Was Planning to Go to College ......................................1 I Went on the Road Looking for a Job ........................................2 At Casper, Wyoming, I Applied for Work on the Casper-Alcova Project ............2 Went to Work for the South Dakota State Highway Commission ..................2 Offered Job by Bureau of Reclamation .......................................3 Working for the Homestake Mine Company ............................ .......3 “Cleaning Up” or Scraping the Plates of the Amalgam in the Homestake Gold Mill ....4 Worked in Refining the Gold ........ .......................................4 One Summer Worked Digging Water Ditches .................................5 Father Didn’t Want Him to Work Underground ................................5 The Roads of South Dakota in 1935-1936 .....................................8 Inspecting Gravel Work on State Roads ......................................8 Working on the Casper-Alcova Project ......................................10 “. . .in those days all those jobs were filled with graduate engineers. . . .” ...........10 Working on a Survey on the Casper-Alcova Project ...................... ......11 Transferred to Work on Construction Inspection ........................ ......11 Government Housing on the Casper-Alcova Project ............................11 “. . . they started charging us a dollar-and-a-half a month for rent. . . .” ....... ......12 Assisted with Office Engineering Responsibilities .............................12 Working on Inspection of Work ...........................................12 “One reason we had to live out there . . .” ....................................13 Inspecting Dam Foundation Work ..........................................14 Removing Large Boulders from the Cut-Off Trench ..................... ......15 “. . . he bid $7.50 a cubic yard for excavating . . . Now that’s the kind of a price that would be bid today . . .” .................................................16 “Batching” out at the Work Site ...........................................17 “Was that a good job [with the Bureau of Reclamation] for those days?” ...........18 Harold G. Arthur ii Hours Worked on the Casper-Alcova Project .................................19 “How did reclamation’s inspectors interact so that there was continuity . . .? .. ......20 A Problem with the Contractor over Following Specifications .............. ......20 “He said, ‘if you had made the wrong decision, I’d still back you a hundred percent” .23 Another Example of Mr. Beemer’s Management Style ..........................25 Takes Civil Service Exam for Junior Civil Engineer Position ....................26 Leaves Reclamation to Work for the Forest Service ............................26 Reclamation Couldn’t Give a Civil Service Rating to Keep Him ............ ......27 The Conclusion of the Story about Boulders in the Foundation Area ...............28 Expresses Concern about Commissioner Daniel Beard’s Comments at ICOLD Meeting in 1994 ...........................................................29 Move to the Forest Service in 1937 .........................................29 Does Transportation Planning for the Forest Service in Missoula, Montana .........29 Decides the Forest Service Job in Missoula Isn’t Going Anywhere ................33 Plans Trip to Denver to See the Bureau of Reclamation but Stops at Regional Forest Service Office in Ogden ............................. .....................33 Takes Course in Soil Mechanics ...........................................34 Makes a Trip to Denver to Try and Get Back into the Bureau of Reclamation . ......34 Went to Work for the Earth Dams Section ........ ...........................34 Felt He Wasn’t Advanced Properly in Ogden .................................35 Goes Back to Work for Reclamation ........................................36 Office Was in the New Customs House in Denver .............................37 Working Conditions at the Bureau of Reclamation in 1941 ......................37 First Supervisor in Denver Was Frank (F. F.) Smith ............................38 Assistant Branch Chief Assigned Work .....................................38 Bought New House in the Spring of 1942 ....................................39 The Effects of World War II on the Bureau of Reclamation ......................39 Decides with Wife to Seek Employment in a Job Which Will Be Deferred During the Draft in World War II .................................................. 40 Sought a War Service Transfer to Work for the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation ...............................................................40 Reclamation Opposed a War Service Transfer ................................41 Move to Fort Worth, Texas ...............................................42 Worked on Development of the XB-36 Intercontinental Bomber ..................42 “. . . nobody knew but what Europe would fall, and the United States would be fighting Hitler from this country. . . .” ........................................42 How B-36 Design Occurred......... ......................................43 Design Work at the Bureau of Reclamation Was Checked and Rechecked ..........43 Design Work on the B-36 Was Turned into Reality on the Mock-up in a Matter of Days ...............................................................44 Promotion into Supervisory Responsibility ...................................45 Bureau of Reclamation History Program iii Took Courses Through Texas A&M ........................................45 Working Conditions While Designing the B-36 ...............................46 Design Considerations in Building the B-36 ..................................47 “. . . the thrust of the structural engineer is to make it strong enough, but don’t make it too strong. . .” .......................................................48 Lab Testing the Strength of a Part .... ......................................48 “Avoid Verbal Orders” ............................................ ......49 “. . . I went out to look at the guaranteed housing, and my wife just threw up her hands—it was Quonsets. . . .” ................................................51 Writes to Reclamation about Returning to Denver .............................54 Moves Back to Denver ....................... ...........................55 Reclamation Was Gearing up to Build Projects to Help Employ Military Men .......56 Rapid Promotions in Denver ........ ......................................56 Works on Boysen Dam ..................................................57 Cachuma Dam and Innovations in its Design .................................57 “So that was my first field trip for the Bureau of Reclamation–a rather significant one. . . .” ...............................................................61 Recollections about the Riverton Project .....................................63 Cachuma Project ................................................. ......63 Creates Staged Construction for Cachuma Dam ...............................64 Design of Small Dams–a Publication ........................................65 Requirements for Different Types of Dams ...................................65 Auburn Dam Was Originally Proposed as an Earth Dam ........................65 Directs Study of Concrete Dam at Auburn Because of Anticipated Environmental Damage of an Earth Dam ..................................................66 At Anchor Dam Reclamation Designed a Concrete Dam and an Earth Dam and Let Bids on the Two Designs Determine Which Was Built ..........................66 Competitive Spirit Between Concrete and Earth Dam Designers ..................67 “. . . the majority of dams, by far, of the Bureau of Reclamation, are earth dams . . . because of their economy” ................................................67 “So if I got into an organization, I wanted it to be one that was run by civil engineers, not by mechanical or electrical engineers. . . .” ............................... 68 Assigned to Coordinate Between Reclamation and the International Boundary and Water Commission on Design and Construction of Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande ..68 Several Things about the Falcon Dam Project Were Unprecedented for Reclamation ..70 “. . . I got out of my narrow area of specialization, and the Bureau at that time was very specialized . . .” .. ................................................71 Offered Job with International Boundary and Water Commission .................73 “. . . the project had to be divided so that Mexico’s work could be done by the Mexican contractor, and the United States’ work could be done by the United States’ Harold G. Arthur iv contractor, and the dollar value of the work done by United States had to be sixty percent, and the dollar value of the Mexican work had to be forty percent” ...74 Cutting Across Lines of Authority in Reclamation During the Falcon Dam Project ...80 Kept in Earth Dams Section in Spite of Not Really Working There While Doing Liaison on Falcon Dam .....................................................85 Falcon Dam “Was a Very Successful Operation” ..............................86 Because of Success on Falcon Dam, Reclamation Decides to Use Design Sponsors on All Its Projects ......................................................86 Returns to Earth Dams Section Work after Falcon Dam .........................87 Recommends Replacement of Reclamation’s Publication Low Dams ..............88 Placed in Charge of Book During Spare Time ................................88 Assigned Full Time to Produce Book .......................................89 Book Couldn’t Be Completed in the Time Frame Wanted .......................91 There Were Some “unhappy people in Washington . . . until they saw what they were getting. . . .” in Design of Small Dams .................................91 “I had a big argument with Washington about . . . putting the names of the individuals on their various chapters” .............................................92 New Chapters Were Added to Design of Small Dams in Subsequent Editions .......97 Used a Typewriter to Draft Correspondence ..................................98 Working with Ellis Armstrong in the Earth Dams Section .......................99 An Incident with Jack Savage and Frank Smith over Boca Dam ............ ......99 Impressions of Jack Savage ......... .....................................100 Ellis Armstrong .......................................................101 “We joked about the day when he would become commissioner and I would be chief engineer . . .” ...................................................101 “I was very pleased to see him [Ellis Armstrong] go, because I recognized that he was pretty stiff competition.” ...............................................101 Armstrong Accepts the Position of Commissioner of the Bureau of Public Roads Thinking it Was the Position of Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation ..........102 Reviews Disputed Plans Regarding the Nebraska Mid-State Reclamation District ...102 “. . . I realize now that I was getting picked off for special assignments quite often. . . .” ..............................................................104 Merle Modig’s Luggage Didn’t Make it to a Meeting in Kansas City .............104 How Reclamation’s Proposals for the Nebraska Mid-State Reclamation District Project Differed from Those of the Consulting Engineer .......................106 Working in the Earth Dams Section after Completion of the Design of Small Dams ..107 Assigned to Assist in Design of Diguillin Dam in Chile ........................107 First Meeting with Floyd E. Dominy .......................................108 Floyd Dominy Suggests Application for Position of Assistant Regional Director in Billings ..............................................................109 Regional Director Bruce Johnson Interviews for Assistant Regional Director Position 110 Bureau of Reclamation History Program v Bruce Johnson as Regional Director in Billings ..............................111 They Were Getting Ready to Build Yellowtail Dam ...........................114 Power Operations Were the Biggest Activity in Billings .......................114 “. . . I had to leave my typewriter behind and learn how to dictate!” ..............114 Right-of-Way Was a Major Issue .........................................115 Planning for the Helena Valley Project and the Anchor Dam Project ..............115 How Responsibility Was Assigned in Billings ...............................116 Assistant Secretary Kenneth Holum Proposes a Move to Sacramento as Assistant Regional Director .......................................................117 Floyd Dominy Calls about Kenneth Holum’s Offer of the Position of Assistant Regional Director in Sacramento ...........................................119 Asked Whether He Would Accept a Job as the Head of Research in Denver ........119 Kenneth Holum Refused to Approve Transfer Papers to the Research Labs ........120 Barney Bellport Interviews Him about Becoming Assistant Chief Designing Engineer in Denver ........................................................120 “I realized at that time that I’d been out on a training mission.” ..................121 How the Nature of the Work Changed in the Various Positions Held .............123 Dam Design Is Strictly a Technical Job .....................................123 It Was Unusual to See the Entire Process of Dam Design ......................123 In Billings Became Liaison with the Press ..................................124 Back in Denver the Activities Were with Professional Organizations .............124 Pressures on the Chief Designing Engineer’s Office Have to Do with Design Cost and Completion of Designs on Schedule .................................125 Special Assignments While Working in the Earth Dams Section .................126 Participates in Review of Maintenance and Safety of Reclamation Dams ..........126 Met Gil Stamm During Safety of Dam Reviews .... ..........................127 Small Reclamation Projects Act Reviews ...................................127 Virginia Ranch Dam, California ..........................................128 Safety of Dams Reviews ................................................128 Need to Exercise Equipment in Dams ......................................128 Impressions of Gil Stamm .......... ........... ..........................129 Issues Identified During Safety of Dams Reviews ....................... .....130 Impressions of Grant Bloodgood ..........................................130 Bloodgood’s Nickname Was “Beno” ......................................131 “Mahogany Row” in Building 52 .........................................131 Grant Bloodgood ......................................................132 Barney Bellport .. .....................................................132 Walker Young ........................................................133 Speech at Western Canada Reclamation Association While Assistant Regional Director in Billings ........................................................135 Harold G. Arthur vi Makes Arrangements for Dedication Ceremony for Oahe Dam and Reservoir by President John F. Kennedy ................................................135 Barney Bellport .. .....................................................137 Development of a Double Curvature Arch Dam for the Curecanti Project ..........137 Publication of Modern European Practice in the Design of Double-curvature Arched Dams .........................................................138 Trip to Spain with Floyd Dominy .........................................139 Visits National Engineering Laboratories in Lisbon Where the Morrow Point Dam Is Subject of a Model Study ..........................................140 Treated like Royalty on the Trip to Spain ...................................141 Cigars for Floyd Dominy ................................................142 Dominy Commits to Publish the Report on the Trip to Spain as a Senate Document .143 Preparing the Report on the Trip to Spain .............................. .....146 Responsibilities as Assistant Chief Designing Engineer ........................147 How Design Work Was Reviewed in the Office of the Chief Designing Engineer ...147 “. . . review in the chief designing engineer’s office was primarily policy . . .” . .....148 Trip to South Africa, Angola, and Mozambique ..............................149 Dominy Unexpectedly Hands off a Speech Before Engineers at the University in Pretoria to Harold Arthur ...................................................150 Discusses Auburn Dam and the Third Powerhouse at Grand Coulee with Engineers .151 Plays Cribbage with Floyd Dominy ........................................153 Explains Third Powerhouse Project at Grand Coulee ..........................155 Selecting Architects for Building 67 in the Denver Federal Center ...............157 Working Conditions That Required Construction of Building 67 .................159 Major Divisions in the Office of the Chief Engineer ...........................160 Regional Director Role in Construction When the Chief Engineer Was the Contracting Officer ........................................................161 Preparing Design Specifications for Bidding Purposes .................... .....162 “After the specifications. . ., the designers were continuing to work on more detailed construction drawings . . .” ........................................163 Why Reclamation Sought Construction Bids Based January 5, 2010on Unit Prices ..163 Why There Were Limits on Variations in Quantities Contracts ..................164 Alcova Dam Construction as an Example of a Quantities Bid That Got out of Hand .164 How Competition Affected the Way Construction Bids Were Made on Reclamation Projects ..............................................................165 “The contract administration part of the responsibilities of the chief engineer were his primary function. . . .” ............................................166 How Contractor Claims Were Processed ....................................166 “. . . construction engineer was the authorized representative . . .of the contracting officer,. . . he had a limited authority to settle claims. The authority . . . varied from project to project, depending upon the confidence that the contracting officer had. . . If it was Bureau of Reclamation History Program vii somebody who had a lot of experience and knew his job real well, he would have a higher threshold at which he could settle the claims, whereas if it were a construction engineer who was relatively new on the job, his authority would be more limited.” ..................................................166 Contingency Is Provided for in Budgeting ..................................168 Generally There Were Cost Overruns on Projects .............................168 “The main reason that the estimates were not more accurate is because of the fact that we were dealing with unknown geological conditions. . . .” ..................168 Estimates Would Have Been Better If Designers Had Been Able to Visit Job Sites ..169 Congressional Limitations on Travel Severely Restricted Ability to Visit the Job Sites ..............................................................169 Travel for the Work at Falcon Dam Was an Unusual Opportunity ................170 Political Considerations and the Design Process — Third Powerhouse at Grand Coulee ..............................................................171 Critical Path Method Schedule Prepared for Third Powerhouse at Grand Coulee Because of Tight Construction Time ..........................................171 “It [Coulee Third Powerhouse] was the largest dollar contract ever awarded by the Bureau of Reclamation up to that time. . . .” .................................172 Contractors on Third Powerhouse Run into Financial Problems .................173 Reclamation Had Several Alternatives to Deal with the Contractor for the Third Powerhouse ....................................................175 “Renegotiate the contract. That’s the best deal for the government . . .” ...........175 “This power that we’re going to produce is worth like a million dollars a day if we ever get it on line.” ...... ...............................................175 Solicitor Had to Approve Renegotiation of the Contract for Coulee Third Powerhouse ..............................................................176 Further Approvals for Renegotiating the Contract for the Coulee Third Powerhouse .176 Vinnell Learned the Results of the Meeting with the Assistant Secretary of the Interior Very Quickly ........................................................178 How Reclamation Studied Projects for Potential Construction .............. .....182 “The local people who wanted the project, were promoting the project . . .” ... .....183 “Now as far as the benefits were concerned, these benefits were arrived at by economists, not by engineers. . . .” ............................................184 “A Lot of those values are intangible to a large extent. . . .This is all very subjective.” 184 Program Sessions Within Reclamation Determine the Proposed Work for the Coming Years ..............................................................185 Skull Sessions ........................................................189 Engineers Doing Independent Consulting While Employed by Reclamation ........189 Problem at Ross Dam in Washington State Results in Prohibition on Outside Consulting by Reclamation Engineers ............ ...............................190 Harold G. Arthur viii Consulting Jobs Arthur Completed Before the Ban on Outside Consulting Work ....190 Becomes Associate Chief Engineer, Later Known as Deputy Director of Design and Construction ....................................................191 What the Job of Associate Chief Engineer Entailed ...........................191 Did Much of the Arrangements for the United States Committee on Large Dams (USCOLD) ....... ..............................................191 How USCOLD and the International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD) Interact ..192 ICOLD Congress Met Every Four Years ...................................193 ICOLD Had Executive Meetings Every Two Years ...........................193 USCOLD Met Every Year ...............................................193 How Papers Were Presented at ICOLD .....................................193 Participation in International Commission on Irrigation, Drainage, and Flood Control (ICID) .........................................................194 Languages Used at ICOLD ..............................................194 Arthur’s Attendance at ICOLD ...................................... .....195 How Arthur Became Associate Chief Engineer ..............................197 Selects Bill Wolff as Assistant Chief Designing Engineer ......................197 Bill Wolff Becomes Associate Chief Engineer ...............................198 Barney Bellport Approaches Arthur about Becoming Associate Chief Engineer .....198 Arthur Informs Bellport He Wants to Remain on as Chief Designing Engineer ......199 “. . . this is a technical job, and this is what I really want to do . . .” ...............199 Bellport Orders Arthur into Position of Associate Chief Engineer ................199 Other Responsibilities Besides ICOLD .....................................200 Dealing with Contractors’ Claims in the Chief Engineer’s Office (Chief Contracting Officer) ........................................................200 Chief Engineer’s Need to Visit Construction Sites ............................203 Barney Bellport ........ ...............................................203 Technical Input to Contract Negotiations ...................................205 “In fact, the construction business was so competitive that the feeling was . . . that they bid the job at no profit, or maybe at a small loss, and hope to make it up on their extras.” ..............................................................205 “In order to be low bidder, you had to be an optimist. And. . . things weren’t always going to work out the way you hoped. . . .” .................................205 Meetings of Reclamation with a Committee of the Associated General Contractors to Discuss Issues on Both Sides of Reclamation Contracting ................206 “Over the. . . years, there was a steady improvement and evolution in our specifications” ..............................................................206 “. . . improvement in the specifications were to reduce the contractor’s risk as much as possible, without passing the risk on to the government” .................206 How Changes in the Amount of Work Might Adversely Affect a Contractor .......207 Contracting for Grouting Services .........................................208 Bureau of Reclamation History Program
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