![]() ![]() When Shreve began work, the raft blocked a distance from 8 miles (13 km) directly below to 17 miles (27 km) directly above Shreveport. His group began clearing a navigational path through 115 km of the Great Raft and, finally, by the spring of 1838, a path had been cleared however, the remnants of the Great Raft along the river banks were not cleared and the Great Raft immediately began to reform Captain Shreve arrived at the toe of the Great Raft in April 1833 with four snag boats and a force of 159 men. He had already used this technology to clear navigational paths in the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1827. describes this effort: Ĭaptain Shreve was a steamboat entrepreneur who had successfully invested in the new steam-power technology by developing the snag boat, a steam-powered boat used for raft removal. In the 1830s, steamboat builder and river captain Henry Miller Shreve (1785–1851), Superintendent of Western River Improvement in 1829 "was hired by the US Army Corps of Engineers to remove the Great Raft to improve navigation on the Red River". ![]() Plate XV of the photographic album Photographic Views of Red River Raft, 1873 Plate CVII: Steamer Bryerly entering Red River through Sale & Murphy's Canal, 1873 Plate VII, 1873 Aid, clearing logjam in the Red River, Louisiana. It was important for shipping out area commodity crops, such as cotton. The city thrived and was considered a major gateway to East Texas. Ports developed along these lakes, and Jefferson, Texas, on Caddo Lake became the second-largest inland port in the United States during this period. Called the Great Raft Lakes, these included Caddo and Cross Lakes, along the lower reaches of the Red River's tributaries. The raft raised the banks of the river, creating bayous and several lakes. There were many smaller logjams on the Red River. The raft blocked the mouth of Twelve Mile Bayou, impeding settlement in the area west of Shreveport. Characteristics Īt the beginning of the 19th century, the raft extended from Campti, Louisiana, to around Shreveport, Louisiana. The main contributors to the development of the Great Raft are believed to be the shifting geomorphic conditions in conjunction with extensive precipitation, river bank rotational slips and slab failure, rapid lateral migration, copious, rapidly growing riparian vegetation, exceeding a geomorphic threshold, a flashy hydrograph and a very heavy sediment load. It is believed that the initial formation of the Great Raft was triggered by catastrophic flooding as the Red River was going through some major geomorphic threshold, such as a major avulsion. This ecosystem of entangled logs, vegetation and sediments remained in place for almost two millennia, altering the flow regime of the Red River and causing a complete change in its geomorphic character from a single channel to a series of anastomosing channels. ![]() They credited it with protecting them from competing tribes, as well as intermittently causing floods on the land and making it fertile for agriculture. īecause of its scale, the Great Raft became incorporated in the mythology of the regional Caddo tribe, which had been in the area for thousands of years. The raft, at one point, extended for 165 miles (266 km) from Loggy Bayou to Carolina Bluffs. By the early 1830s, it spanned more than 160 miles (260 km). It grew from its upper end, while decaying or washing out at the lower end. The Great Raft possibly began forming in the 12th century, or earlier. It was unique in North America in terms of its scale. The Great Raft was an enormous log jam or series of " rafts" that clogged the Red and Atchafalaya rivers from perhaps the 12th century until its removal in the 1830s. The Second Great Raft in 1873, photographed by Robert B. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |