Town of Bull Shoals Created by Developers Charles Woods Sr. & Jr.

C.S. Woods Sr. came to Arkansas in the early 1940s and sold land all across northern Arkansas for $1.25 to $3 an acre. He was in the right place when the U.S. government authorized the future construction of Bull Shoals Dam.

According to local historians, Woods incorporated his efforts in 1945, raised $10,000 from investors and bought land from 17 farmers on Newton Flat, totaling about 1,200 acres. His son, Charles Jr., joined him in Yellville. Together, the two men did much of the work themselves, clearing brush for future streets and sketching street plans on brown paper bags. The street plan was the first official document of the town, filed August 15, 1946. That is the date which marks the beginning of Bull Shoals. Lots were selling from $125 to $1,000 (for a lot with a potential lake view).

All the streets were wide with the principal streets of Central, East and West Broadway (now C.S. Woods Boulevard) laid out 100 feet wide. Of the 21 miles of streets, they put down nine miles of gravel and a three-mile stretch of blacktop. A three-story tower-like structure in the center of town was the location of Woods' real estate company, Ozarks White River Company, Inc. It is said that buyers could go up three stories and view the area they would most like to own.

When dam construction was to start in 1947, buildings went up at the south edge of town to house the supervisors of the construction project. Still today, this part of town is known as "Super City."

Other adventurers came to open necessary businesses. Woods marketed the lots as being in "A New Town Which Has a Great Future" and could show that it was located on a rapidly forming large lake.

Charles Woods Sr. and Jr. are credited with successfully lobbying to have Highway 178 routed over Bull Shoals Dam connecting Marion and Baxter Counties. Dedication Day, July 2, 1952, found Bull Shoals with a population of 131. That day, the crowds swelled it to 6,000.

Bull Shoals attracted retirees and outdoor enthusiasts for fishing and lake recreation during the 1960s, leading to additional business investment. The tourist attractions opened by Roy Danuser - Mountain Village 1890, Bull Shoals Caverns, and Top 'O The Ozarks Tower - are still associated closely with the identity of Bull Shoals.

Since 1972, Bull Shoals has been a City of the Second Class. According to the 2000 census, 2,000 people in 1,226 households call Bull Shoals home. That was a 30 percent growth rate from 1990. Charles "Pappy" Woods should be proud to know he built a town that would last.

First Grocery Store		First Postmaster - Rosalie Batchelder in front of first post office and pharmacy		Central Blvd. Bull Shoals 1948 - Esso Station (right), Sophia Rumbler's Dry goods (left) - back room was NATCO's first telephone office

 
President Truman Declares Dams A Result of Progressive Policies

When President Harry Truman arrived to dedicate two hydroelectric dams, it was a day the area had been "feverishly preparing for" for five months, according to The Baxter Bulletin of July 3, 1952. People were thrilled to see the President and all the dignitaries who accompanied him on that hot, muggy July 2, fifty years ago.

The President had flown to Little Rock on the Presidential plane "Independence," then boarded a special train to Cotter for an overnight stay, then to Norfork for a brief ceremony, then on to Bull Shoals by auto caravan over some newly-paved Arkansas roadways.

President Truman, in a crisp white suit and white Panama hat, dedicated Norfork Dam in a brief ceremony at 8:45 a.m. and then, Bull Shoals Dam, in the main ceremony at 10:30 a.m.

In his speech, President Truman blasted the private power companies that had fought against the dams, and promised to proceed with more dams because the people needed them. "These dams belong to the people and we are here to dedicate them to the service of the people."

President Truman pledged to build more dams and to get the electricity produced to the people through the Rural Electric Cooperatives. "I've just asked the Congress to appropriate money for Table Rock Dam on this same river up in Missouri," saying it should be started that same year. Further flood control measures would take 20 years to complete, he said. "Some time or another, we're going to get it done, in spite of all the opposition," he said.

President Truman spared no words against the private power companies, calling their actions to stop the dams examples of 'private selfishness." As he saw it, the power companies were among the special interest lobbies that were "ganged up together to work against the public interest." He said the fight for a general flood program had been going on for 30 years.

"If it hadn't been for the New Deal and the Fair Deal of the last 20 years, you wouldn't have these dams and these improvements on these other rivers like it. Put that in your pipe and smoke it."

President Truman & then Governor Sid McMath at the dedication		President Truman arrived at Cotter in the Presidential Train

 
Bull Shoals Dam & Others Bring Flood Control to White River Basin

Gone, now, are the devastating floods of the White River Basin - like the spring flood of 1927, when the White River crested at Cotter about 105 feet above the river bottom, lapping at the bottom of the Cotter Railroad Bridge.

Downstream from Cotter, four million acres of prime farmland flooded. Another result was the Flood Control Act of 1938, the law which would allow the government to begin controlling the 6,000 square-mile White River Drainage Basin, formed by the Boston Mountain Range. Bull Shoals Dam and three more dams would be built on the White River (Taneycomo Dam was pre-existing [1913] and privately owned.)

Here, now, are the flood control dams of the White River Basin
with construction dates:

• 1941-1944 Norfork Dam - $28.6 million
• 1947-1951 Bull Shoals Dam - $76 million
  (dam and power system total - $106 million)
• 1959 Table Rock Dam (Missouri) - $79 million
• 1960-1966 Beaver Dam - $76 million
   

 
South Shore Foundation...
...is a nonprofit, charitable organization working to enhance the quality of life in communities located along the south shore of Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas. Chartered in 1996, South Shore Foundation has assisted nonprofit groups with projects in education, environmental preservation, economic development, and community betterment.

NATCO
Northern Arkansas Telephone Company is a family-owned and operated company located in Flippin, Arkansas, which serves a 658 square-mile area in Marion and Boone Counties in Arkansas. NATCO has provided Bull Shoals with telephone service
since 1951.

NATCO Technologies...
...is a subsidiary of NATCO Communications, providing Internet and other telecommunication services to the entire Twin Lakes area of Baxter, Marion, and Boone counties.

Produced for the 50-year anniversary of the dedication of Bull Shoals Dam by President Harry S. Truman
July 2, 1952 - July 2, 2002.

Brochure Design and Production Donated by NATCO Communications, Inc. Produced in conjunction with the Bull Shoals Historical Society with the assistance of Robert Harper, author of The History of Bull Shoals...the best little town by a dam site.

Special thanks to the following for assistance and use of photographs and informational materials: The Baxter Bulletin, Baxter County Historical Society, Bull Shoals Chamber of Commerce, Bull Shoals Historical Society, Enterprise Printing, Harp's Village Mart, Linda Masters, Marion County Historical Society, Betty Morrow, Ozarks Watch magazine, Glenn Priebe, Southwestern Power Administration, the late Edith Strahan and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.