Message From the Vice Chair
“Clear and Cold Pure as Gold”
Bill HagenBurger, P.E.
“Clear and Cold Pure as Gold” is a quote by Hope Holway in 1924. Hope was the wife of
W.R. Holway who was the chief engineer for the Spavinaw pipeline project. Hope used this
phrase to describe the water flowing from the new Spavinaw Reservoir 55 miles north to the City
of Tulsa. The water arrived in Tulsa from Spavinaw by gravity through 60-inch and 54-inch
pipes and arrived at Lake Yahola just adjacent to the Mohawk Water Treatment plant. You see,
in 1924, this was a big deal for the people of Tulsa who had been receiving their water from the
Arkansas River, which was an unreliable source for Tulsa’s water supply. It was such a big deal
that the Tulsa Water Commission wrote a song published by the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce.
The title of the song is “Coming Down from Spavinaw” and it goes like this:
Coming down, coming down, coming down from Spavinaw. Water flows,
Tulsa grows, finest town you ever saw. We have dreamed, planned and schemed.
Now it's here! Water clear. Coming down, coming down, coming down from
Spavinaw! Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow from Spavinaw. Clear and cold, pure as
gold, nothing like the Arkansas. In the tub - no more mud! At the sink - take a drink!
Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow from Spavinaw!
W.R. Holway came to Tulsa in 1918 where he became the city waterworks engineer. In
1920, Holway was hired as a consulting engineer to plan the pipeline to carry water from Lake
Spavinaw to Tulsa. The line became operational in 1924, and was the largest such line in the
U.S. at the time. As waterworks engineer, Holway was in charge of the water treatment plant that
filtered silt from the Arkansas River water. The filtration plant never performed as designed and
Holway recommended that the city spend no more money trying to make the Arkansas River
water potable. Many different approaches to solving the water supply problem were studied and
it was decided to build a reservoir on Spavinaw Creek and construct a 55-mile pipeline to carry
the “Clear and Cold Pure as Gold” water to Tulsa.
When I was working in Tulsa, I remember hearing a story on how Holway received his
last paycheck for the project. With the help of Google, I was able to find the story in the City of
Tulsa’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report year ended June 30, 2006. And the story goes
like this. “Although Tulsans were fed up with trying to live off the brackish, hard water from the
Arkansas River, the very idea of such a difficult project drew its share of skeptics. As proof the
Spavinaw water line would work, and more importantly as a publicity stunt, Tulsan Charles
Boarder of the Chamber of Commerce challenged project engineer W.R. Holway to put his final
fee payment check of $15,000 in a water tight can, drop it in the Spavinaw inlet to flow down the
big conduit to the Mohawk outlet for all the waiting skeptics and press photographers to see.
Holway knew the water would make it to Tulsa, but didn’t want to take chances with his money.
To be safe, he arranged to have the can put in a nearby inlet wherein, much to the delight of
everyone, it made its appearance right on schedule.”
You might be wondering why I am writing about Tulsa’s water history, or you may have
already figured it out. Two reasons, first, I want to remind everyone to come to this year’s
Annual Conference in Tulsa, and secondly I enjoy the history of water treatment plants and
systems and hope you do too. I had the privilege of living in Tulsa for seven years and working
on the new Mohawk water treatment plant that replaced the original plant built in the 1920s.
Tulsa is a wonderful city, and I am looking forward to this year’s conference and I encourage
everyone to attend. While you are at the conference, track down Warren Williams, the Mohawk
water treatment plant superintendent and ask him how it was to operate the old steam turbine
pump station at the “Grand Old Lady.” See you all in Tulsa!!