Community History Bowie Co. TX The Red River and the Great Raft - 1800 History Story #1 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit  or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations  desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain  the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of  the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of  this consent. Gloria B. Mayfield, LadyTexian@tcainternet.com  TX Tombstone Project Manager Submitted by Vicki Richards GVRICHARDS@aol.com ************************************************************************The Red River and the Great Raft - 1800 History Story #1 The first settlers of Arkansas and Texas fared on nature's highways - the Rivers. Overland travel, more arduous and time consuming, also gave great exposure to attack by Indians and thus shunned by early settlers who came long distances. In the beginning of the 19th century the vanguard of the westward coursing Anglo Americans rode the rivers in the keelboats, flatboats, canoes, and dugouts to the future Four States area. Down the swift, wide Mississippi River, they sped to the mouth of the Red River. The current against them, they poled, paddled, and towed their small vessels through the rust red waters, some progressing nineteen or twenty miles a day. All went well for them until they encountered the GREAT RAFT. The boaters were amazed to see that the Red River no longer was red; it was not even water. From bank to bank for 100 miles there was nothing but driftwood, an impenetrable river-forest. The logjam was so dense in places that living islands of trees and vines grew out of the silt. The first white men, determined to cast their lot here, somehow managed to writhe their way through the Great Raft up to the rich country and to hew their homes and farms out of the wilderness. The very first settlers arrived about the year 1808. As the farms multiplied and plantations developed, the Great Raft had to be cleared so the steamboats could transport the increasing cotton and raw products to New Orleans, and to Eastern and foreign markets. Passage could be made if the water was high, with detours often running through bayous and lakes. The very first steamboats to dock at Lost Prairie was the * Enterprise, owned by * Benjamin Rush Milam, who had vowed to "bring her through the Great Raft of sink her in the attempt". The tortuous passages through the lakes and bayous were made more hazardous by low water levels and by having two keelboats in tow. The Enterprise was rewarded with cheers, toasts, salutes, at every river landing as Milam brought her through. The superhighway of agriculture and commerce - The Red River - was now open to bring flour, coffee, sugar, and manufactured necessities to the settlers and to carry their cotton, hides, furs, tallow, and innumerable products of farm and forest back to New Orleans and the Eastern and foreign markets. The exciting, sturdy steamboats - sternwheelers and sidewinders - continued to plow and twist their way through and around the Great Raft, but the century old mass of dead and living flora remained treacherous, and some of the colorful riverboats were lost, including the * Texarkana, whose bones lie in the bed of a Louisiana bayou. Over the years, several men tried to disperse the Great Raft in order to expedite the Red River traffic and render it less dangerous. Benjamin Milam, Colonel Calvin Monroe Hervey, and Captain James Shreve (for whom Shreveport was named) were the most energetic. After many unsuccessful attempts to set the Red River free, the Great Raft was finally broken up in 1880 by army engineers using explosives, snag boats, and a variety of other methods. The steamboat traffic on the Red River then became heavy, the boats sometimes being loaded wit cotton bales nearly as high as the captains helm, the weight of which kept the gunwales only a foot above the waterline. Source: Texarkana, Pictorial History, page 19, chapter 1, The Birth of Twins.