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Chris Drew has an interesting job.
He spends most of his time lifting boats up and down the Arkansas River using a system of locks (gates that allow you to take a little section of the river and change the water level.) Locks are used to help ships travel on difficult parts of some rivers and canals. Click here to see a demonstration of how a lock works. At the Robert S. Kerr Dam and lock system, Chris sees mostly tug boats pulling big barges and recreational boats. Those tug boats carry a lot of stuff! One barge can carry the same amount of stuff as 3 railroad cars or 10 semi trucks. Some of those tug boats pull 12 barges! One of those tug boats Chris worked with was pulling barges with 11,600 tons of wheat and 1,400 tons of coal products! That's a heavy load. When a tug boat pulls that many barges, it takes several trips to get them all through the locks. |
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| There are five lock systems in Oklahoma, mostly on the Arkansas River but also on the Verdigris River in the Eastern part of the state. They are near Inola, Muskogge, Webbers Falls, Salisaw, and Spiro, OK. |
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| The main original purpose of the dam and lock system was to control floods, but today they are also important sources of hydroelectric power. The lock systems are also important because the allow businesses to ship goods in and out of the state. Increased trade on the river creates jobs in Oklahoma, and that's good for our state. | |
| Chris says the neatest part of his job is that he's in charge of a multimillion dollar facility. He enjoys meeting the boat captains and other people he come into contact with. He says it's also nice to have time to himself while he works.
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