charles page owned the sand springs bottling company, which was the dominant supplier of fresh water for domestic consumption. by 1916, he had built a dam on shell creek, which created shell lake, near sand springs, oklahoma and proposed to sell fresh water to tulsa. his proposal competed with the alternative of building a dam on spavinaw creek. heated competition between the two major newspapers, the "tulsa democrat" (owned by page), which supported the shell creek proposal, and the "tulsa world" (owned by eugene lorton), which supported the spavinaw plan. page's proposal was rejected when tests showed that the quantity was inadequate to meet tulsa's expected needs.