Harry Strunk, water conservationist

Grant Strunk of McCook pulls the tarp from the new monument that honors the legacy of his grandfather, Harry D. Strunk (1892-1960). The monument, at Norris and H, was unveiled in September.

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

Harry Strunk was one of the most influential people who ever lived in McCook. He was also one of the most colorful. After a disagreement with the local schoolmaster in his native Pawnee City, Harry dropped out of school. At age 14, with only an 8th-grade education, he landed a job as “printer’s devil” on a local paper. Over the next five years, he worked on a number of weekly papers and eventually landed in McCook, working for Frank Kimmel at the McCook Tribune. But he was ambitious and soon launched out on his own, publishing The Red Willow County Gazette, in 1911, at the age of 19.

Harry Strunk was opinionated and quite outspoken in his columns for the paper. Over the years Strunk was involved in many little, and some not so little feuds, which he apparently enjoyed. On one occasion he remarked to a friend, “My goal is to irritate someone every day, and some days I do a whole week’s worth.” His verbal battles with his former employer, Frank Kimmel, through the respective editorial columns of their respective newspapers were often heated, always entertaining for the readers, and went on for years.

Early in his newspaper career in McCook Harry recognized the need for water conservation in our area. In 1915 McCook had been hard hit by severe flooding of the Republican River, and by the early1920s he began to stress the need for controlling the rivers and streams for protection of floods---additionally to provide water for irrigation, which he saw as the means to change The Great American Desert into the Garden of Eden. It was an ever-recurring theme in his editorials and eventually became his passion. He was often quoted as saying that he would not rest until we controlled every drop of rain in our area, protecting our citizens from the ravages of floods and using the water on our fields.

Early on, in the conservation of water, Harry thought that he had the support of George Norris, Nebraska’s Senator, from McCook. Norris was a leader in the Senate and fought hard and effectively for the building of conservation dams. The problem was that though the two agreed on most points, they parted company on one key point. Norris advocated dams to provide flood control, navigation, irrigation, and hydro-electric power, with the emphasis on power---so of course, he promoted the building of large dams. Strunk’s feeling that dams should provide flood control plus water for irrigation. He was not opposed to producing electric power but felt that it should not be the main emphasis of the dams. Therefore, he tended to favor more and smaller dams.

In 1929 Senator Norris was invited to throw in his support for the construction of dams to protect the Upper Republican and its tributaries, a movement, which was supported by some 30 communities in Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas. Somehow Norris felt that Strunk, by failing to support his Hydro-Power concept, had sold out to the large, private Power Companies and refused his support for the Nebr./Kansas plan. So after almost 30 years of friendship and mutual support, the two men began a period of heated debate and bitter battles that lasted until Norris left the Senate (after his defeat to Kenneth Wherry in 1942).

Both Harry Strunk and Senator Norris mellowed in later years. On Strunk’s part, when Norris was passed over on a Senate Committee short list of the greatest Senators, he wrote a scathing editorial to the committee, in which he acknowledged Norris’ accomplishments in rural electrification, fair labor legislation, the lame duck amendment, and breaking the Joe Cannon stranglehold on the House of Representatives. He concluded, “We contest the decision of the committee, which presumed to tell us who are the outstanding senators of this country. We will make up our own minds---and when we do, in Nebraska, we will label Geo. W. Norris as one of the greatest statesmen this country ever produced. He later was quoted as saying that he and Senator Norris mostly agreed on issues, just that Norris was about 99% for the development of power while he was about 99% for the development of irrigation, flood control, and recreation.

On Norris’ part, after he left the Senate and had returned to McCook he stopped by Strunk’s office and admitted that he thought Strunk’s overall local project was right after all.

After the devastating Republican River Flood of 1935, people of our area stepped up their efforts to bring flood control to the Republican. The Republican Valley Conservation Association was formed in 1940. Strunk was elected the president of the group, a position he held for the rest of his life. While it appeared that there was support for some of the dams that the group advocated, WW II put those plans on hold until 1946.

As Harry Strunk got older, he attained great political respect and got a good deal more vocal in calling for the completion of the RVCA projects. He made it a point to become well acquainted with politicians and groups that might further RVCA aims. The stories about his phone calls (in the middle of the night) to important people have added to his legendary stature.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael Strauss talked about the persistence of Harry Strunk at one of the annual meetings of the RVCA. “If you want someone to haunt a house, call Harry Strunk.”

Harry Strunk and Harry Truman were on a first name basis and McCook telephone operators have told about tracking down the President to the Waldorf Astoria and getting him to take one of Strunk’s calls in the wee hours of the night.

A short time before he died I had the pleasure of visiting with former Senator Carl Curtis at his home in Lincoln. I brought up the subject of Harry Strunk’s calls. Senator Curtis laughed as he remembered. “Whenever I got a call from Harry in the middle of the night, I wasn’t sure if it was Harry Strunk or Harry Truman (who was sometimes referred to as “Give ‘en hell Harry). Either way, I knew I was in for a tongue lashing.”

The persistence of Strunk and the RVCA eventually paid off, even without the support of Senator Norris and the Big Dam faction. Work was started on Enders Dam in 1946. There were interruptions, but in the years that followed $175 million was spent on Trenton Dam, Medicine Creek Dam, Bonny Dam, Norton Dam, all in our area. Red Willow Dam, north of McCook, had been approved as early as 1944, but something always seemed to happen and the construction of this last dam, the final jewel in Harry’s crown, was delayed until 1960. Strunk had been successful in moving some pretty big mountains of bureaucracy, and in the process had received some great honors along with a good many barbs of criticism, and he was frustrated with the delays in getting Red Willow Dam built. He often said that he wanted to live long enough to see Red Willow Dam completed.

On July 4, 1960 work was finally started on the Red Willow Dam. There was a ceremony attended by political, civic, and Reclamation dignitaries from all over the country. Afterward there was a dinner at the Elk’s Club, to which local businessmen were invited to attend. I found myself seated at the bar beside Harry Strunk. By this time his health had deteriorated and his doctors decreed that he could drink only 7-Up. He wasn’t feisty that night, just very quiet, though people kept coming by to wish him well. It was like a victory party, a very happy occasion. I congratulated him on bringing the dam to our area. He passed the compliment off, saying that he was just one of a lot of good folks who had worked very hard to do something for the area. “A lot of those good folks aren’t here anymore”. “I think we did some good”, he said. “I hope we did”. He seemed very sad. Maybe he sensed that he had run out of battles to fight. A month later Harry Strunk died at St. Catherine’s Hospital.

— Source: McCook Gazette Centennial Edition, 1882-1982