James W. Trimble Lock and Dam: More than 50 years supporting navigation

The James W. Trimble Lock and Dam is one of 18 navigation locks and dams that make up the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. Authorized by Congress through the River and Harbor Act of 1946, the MKARNS was built to make the Arkansas River commercially navigable from the Mississippi River to the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The lock and dam, also known as Lock and Dam No. 13, was completed in 1969 and is located near Van Buren and Fort Smith along the Arkansas River.

It serves as the first lock on the MKARNS within Arkansas as the navigation system flows downstream toward its confluence with the Mississippi River.

The structure also carries Arkansas Highway 59 across the river, connecting Van Buren to Barling and the Fort Chaffee area.

Today, the lock remains an active part of commercial river transportation on the MKARNS, a system that supports an average of approximately 11.3 million tons of commercial cargo annually.

Commodities transported through the navigation system include grain, fertilizer, steel, petroleum products and construction materials that support national commerce and industries across an 18-state region.

Historically, the project was part of a large-scale effort by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to improve navigation, flood control and economic development throughout Arkansas and Oklahoma. Portions of the broader MKARNS also support hydropower generation.

Before the navigation system was constructed, the Arkansas River was difficult and unreliable for commercial navigation because of shallow water, shifting channels and seasonal flooding.

The structure was later officially named after James William Trimble, who represented Arkansas’s 3rd Congressional District from 1945 to 1967. In 1983, Congress formally designated Lock and Dam No. 13 as the James W. Trimble Lock and Dam.