William Glenn Sloan (August 21, 1888 - August 13, 1987) was an American inventor and scientist who was co-author of Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program to dam the upper Missouri River. Sloan was born in

Paris, Illinois Paris is a city in Edgar County, Illinois, south of Chicago and west of Indianapolis. The population was 8,291 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat and largest city of Edgar County. History Paris was established in 1826 on land donated ...

. His father, a Presbyterian minister moved to Helena, Montana in 1910. He graduated from

Montana State College Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 68 fields, and doctoral degrees in 35 fiel ...

with a bachelor of science in civil engineering in 1910. He joined the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

and a drainage engineer in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

in 1910. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he was a lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers. After the war, he was a private consultant on irrigation engineering until 1936, when he joined

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

first in the Rio Grande Valley. In 1943 he was named Regional Director of the

Billings, Montana Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Met ...

Reclamation office when he proposed using water from proposed dams on the Missouri River for of irrigation. The plan was to be in conjunction with the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

proposed by Lewis A. Pick to build dams on Missouri to alleviate flooding and improve navigation (known as the "Pick Plan") The two plans which became known as the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program were initially enacted in the

Flood Control Act of 1944 The Pick-Sloan Flood Control Act of 1944 (P.L. 78–534), enacted in the 2nd session of the 78th Congress, is U.S. legislation that authorized the construction of numerous dams and modifications to previously existing dams, as well as levees acros ...

. It was to result in a series of dams on Upper Missouri as well as its tributaries which among other things generate 2.5 million kilowatts of electricity. Among his other accomplishment is a patent on the

airlift pump An airlift pump is a pump that has low suction and moderate discharge of liquid and entrained solids. The pump injects compressed air at the bottom of the discharge pipe which is immersed in the liquid. The compressed air mixes with the liquid c ...

Montanans Aid Science Advance - Billings Gazette - 1958-02-11
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sloan, William Glenn 1888 births 1987 deaths People from Paris, Illinois People from Helena, Montana Montana State University alumni United States Bureau of Reclamation personnel