Henry C. Holderman

Henry C. Holderman. Henry Holderman was the man first credited with envisioning a dam across the Grand River. His goal was to bring hydroelectric power to the Cherokee Nation, Holderman was a teenager, hauling lumber between Chetopa, Kansas and the Spavinaw Hills on a route that took him through the Grand River Valley that is when his vision for a dam was first born. , Later in 1896 Holderman along with his brother Bert and two engineering students from the Spalding Institute in Muskogee, Oklahoma built a raft and floated the river from Lola, Kansas to Muskogee, looking for possible sites to construct the dam. Interestingly, the location they selected was very near the area where the engineers who actually built Pensacola Dam (Almost 40 years later) would begin construction. , The people of Oklahoma are forever grateful to Holderman for his vision and his efforts to bring beneficial hydroelectric power to the region.