The M/V Charley Border tug boat will be a key part of the Tusla Port of Catoosa educational center. Tulsa World file
CATOOSA - The museum at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa is being packed up and shipped to Arkansas as port officials prep a new educational facility.
Bob Portiss, director of the port, said Monday that the City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority will soon establish a new maritime educational center devoted to the history of the port and its current operations.
"We realized over the past couple of years that what we need most is a maritime educational center as opposed to a museum," he said. "People don't understand what kind of an asset we have and what it does for us."
Portiss said the port has hired Susan McWatters to be the full-time maritime educational coordinator and is 30-45 days from officially unveiling the project. He estimated the port will spend $25,000 on the educational center.
The facility will replace the existing Oklahoma Maritime Education Center and Park, which was established in 2007 at the port to show a history of commerce on the Arkansas River and its tributaries.
The displays, artifacts and other components of the former museum, housed at the port's administration building, are being transferred to the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock at the request of the Arkansas River Historical Society board of directors, Portiss said.
"We figured we should turn this over to someone that already has a strong initiative as far as history is concerned," he said.
The M/V Charley Border, a tugboat that was landlocked at the port as part of the Oklahoma Maritime Education Center and park, will remain as part of the new education center and become a key part of its "hands-on" philosophy, Portiss said.
"We're going to revamp the tugboat in a way that people will understand what the tugboat is for," he said.
Portiss said the new center should be a better fit with the port's mission to ultimately develop new business at the port - which is one of the largest inland ports in the nation with 2.2 million tons of cargo moving through it each year - as well as inspire a new generation of port workers.
The previous museum did get regular visitors, though most were curious to hear about what happens in Catoosa.
"People came out here primarily to learn about the port itself on self-guided or staff tours," Portiss said.
Robert Evatt 918-581-8447
robert.evatt@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Port plans educational center
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