Planning and financing began in 1919, The project scope included site selection, designing and constructing a dam to impound the creek, a 55-mile long pipeline to carry water to a reservoir near Tulsa, where it would be treated and pumped to a network of customers.

According to an article written by Dr. Fred S. Clinton, a pioneer Tulsa physician, there were a number of freshwater springs in the immediate vicinity.

Drilled wells also proved unsuitable, because the water was either hard and salty or ran dry after a relatively short time.

[3] In 1915, a committee composed of several leading Tulsa businessmen began studying alternative proposals for securing a satisfactory water supply.

The next mayor of Tulsa, O. D. Hunt, decided that building a filtration plant would allow usage of water from the Arkansas River at a far lower cost.

Tulsa voted for a bond issue to raise the money, and the plant was built at the future site of Newblock Park.

In 1919, Mayor Hubbard called for an election to pass a 5 million dollar bond issue to implement the Pressey proposal.

The suit eventually went to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which imposed a permanent injunction against the bond sale.

[1] Charles Page owned the Sand Springs Bottling Company, which was the dominant supplier of fresh water for domestic consumption.

[1] T. C. Hughes, City Engineer, studied government topographic maps and concluded that water could flow by gravity from Spavinaw to a point west of Catoosa, Oklahoma.

The board, in turn, hired J. H. Trammell to perform as the engineering contractor to plan the Spavinaw project, with W. R. Holway as his assistant.

[6] In 1922, a pipeline was begun to bring this water to Lake Yahola, located in Tulsa's Mohawk Park.

According to the City of Tulsa, the average monthly water pumpage rate in 2009 was 103 million gallons per day (MGD).