Oklahoma City was founded on April 22, 1889. On April 21st there was nothing but one federal building and wilderness. On the 22nd, bam a city was born. Not many cities know to the day that they were first settled. They picked the location because it was close to a river. It would often flood so the corps of engineers "fixed" it and widened the path and it became a nice wide area, with a trickle of water most of the time. Only when the rains were heavy did it have any real water in it. Hence, they were mowing it regularly. Then the sales tax was passed and over the years the river had some locks put in and filled with water, and lined with concrete banks. It has no boat traffic at all except some evening dinner cruses and the rowers or skullers. With concrete walls, there is little wind, and no waves from traffic and now it is world class training site.
https://www.riversportokc.org/training-site/