Construction of Fellow's Lake

I vaguely remember when Fellow's Lake north of Springfield was built. My father took me out there while construction was still going on when I was about eight on nine years old, which would have made it late 1954 or, more likely, sometime during 1955. There was no water in the lake yet, but I remember my dad pointing out that this was where the lake was going to be and I believe there was some heavy equipment working on site at the time. As I recall, this was just shortly before the lake was filled when the Little Sac River was diverted back to its natural course.
The Ozarks were plagued by drought during the early 1950s, and in early 1954 the City of Springfield asked permission from the State of Missouri to build a second water reservoir to supplement the city's main water source, McDaniel Lake. The proposed lake, to be called Fellows Lake, was needed because the drought had left McDaniel Lake dangerously low and because of the anticipated growth of Springfield. McDaniel Lake was located on the Little Sac River just north of Springfield, and the new lake would be built about five and a half miles upstream on the same river. Cost was estimated at about $2,350,000. It was anticipated that the new lake would cover about 1,160 acres when fully inundated, but another 2,000 acres would be needed for the project so as to protect the property of surrounding land owners and to prevent erosion and pollution. The dam itself would rise 104 feet above the bed of the Little Sac and would stretch 1,820 feet across the river valley. Fellows Lake would be able to store up to nine billion gallons of water, which was almost seven times the capacity of McDaniel Lake.
The new lake was authorized on April 1, 1954, and work began shortly afterward. However, there were serious questions as to whether the new lake would be completed in time to alleviate Springfield's worsening water shortage. In the spring or early summer, a temporary pumping station was installed on the James River south of town, but it did little to ease the problem. (In 1957, Lake Springfield was built on the James as a primary water source for Springfield.) Then, later in the summer of '54, work began on six deep wells to supplement the water of McDaniel Lake until Fellows Lake could be completed, with the stipulation that the project could be halted if significant rains came. The rains finally did come in the fall of  '54 after three wells had been completed, and the other three were never drilled.
Fellows Lake was completed in the late summer or the fall of 1955 and dedicated on November 11 of that year. By February 7, 1956, Fellows Lake was supplying 750,000 gallons of water a day to Springfield.