Benchmarks

NOVEMBER 27, 1873: RED RIVER LOGJAM REMOVED FOR GOOD hroughout the 1800s, America’s 82 and 225 kilometers and consisted of wood then collected behind the obsta- eastern and southeastern smaller rafts ranging in length from 100 cles and created dams. The dams further coastal rivers acted as high- to 1,600 meters. In some cases the raft was restricted the flow of water, so that the ways for shipping. Generally so dense that it effectively masked the river-borne sediments settled out of the Twinding with shallow slopes, the riv- river itself; early reports noted that “the water, raising the riverbed — and the ers could be plied easily by barges and river may be frequently passed without level of the river. Subsequent flooding steamboats, but one particular water any knowledge of its existence.” led to the development of distributaries, body — the main channel of the Red Thousands of years ago, the Red River or bayous as they are known regionally, River that runs from Arkansas through was a classic meandering stream that and lakes. Louisiana — thwarted the plans of ship- wound sinuously in a single channel down The bayous and lakes formed because pers for much of the 19th century. A a gentle slope. But about 2,000 years ago, the rafts caused the river to act like a car massive entanglement of logs, stumps the Mississippi River shifted channels seeking a way out of a traffic jam on a and branches, known as the Great Raft, so that it connected with the Red River, freeway: As the river water backed up, blocked the Red from Fulton, Ark, to says Danny Harrelson, a hydrologist at it would try to avoid the downstream about Shreveport, La. But on Nov. 27, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in blockage by spilling out to the side and 1873, after more than 40 years of trying, Vicksburg, Miss. At the confluence of taking new routes that paralleled the the raft was destroyed and boats could the two rivers, a knickpoint — a point of main channel, sometimes spreading travel unimpeded down the main chan- abrupt change in a river valley — formed, between 30 and 50 kilometers across nel of the Red River. slowing the rush of water in the Red River the floodplain. These bayous flowed River geomorphologists know of and causing the riverbank to collapse, for kilometers — and for years. Some no other riparian obstruction like the choking the river with the shrubs and eventually got cut off and drained as the Great Raft of the Red River. Varying trees that once grew along its banks. escape outlet became blocked. Others accounts throughout the 1800s suggest Over time the additional logs and formed lakes as a new jam dammed the the Great Raft stretched for between stumps snagged on the river bottom; downstream exit point.

View of the Great Raft of the Red River, probably in the early 1870s. State LibraryState of Louisiana

74  EARTH November 2010 www.earthmagazine.org Benchmarks

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used steamer ships with powerful cranes and a platform to cut up the logs to remove portions of the Great Red River Raft, but it wasn’t until they started using nitroglyc- erin in 1873 that they made a big dent.

One of several timber jams composing the Great Red River Raft in 1873; this photo was taken close to the Arkansas-Louisiana border. Where the raft blocked water from flowing, silt accumulated rapidly and filled the river channel.

Shreve arrived at the base of the Great Raft on April 11, 1833, with 159 men and four boats, including his snagboat Archi- medes. The next day he wrote, “I am now about five miles through it. I have found it, thus far, easily removed ... I have no doubt but I could remove the whole raft in sixty-six days.” By May 8, his men had removed 31 sections of raft and cleared 64 kilometers of river. They also cut away trees growing on the river banks and islands, or towheads as they were called. He noted: “As relates to the practicability of effecting a complete and permanent improvement, there is no longer a doubt; I view it certain of success.” Shreve stopped work on June 23, after The Great Raft was not static; it the War Department had established removing 114 kilometers of raft. Traveling migrated up the river as the logs decayed two posts to help protect the settlers back downriver, he found that the chan- at the lower end and accumulated at the from Native Americans, and an open nel had deepened at least 3 meters and upper end. Joseph Paxton, a doctor who river would be the easiest means of that the current flowed 12 times faster lived near the Red River in Arkansas, transporting supplies to these posts. than before. More than 100 kilometers noted in a letter to his congressional The raft had to go. of raft remained, but with an additional delegate in 1828 that the river advanced In 1828, Congress appropriated $100,000, success was certain, he said. “like a destroying angel, spreading deso- $25,000 to remove the raft, with more The following year, however, Congress lation over a most lovely country.” The money approved in 1832. To remove supplied only $50,000. In addition, the raft raft’s ever-changing position caused the raft, the Army Corps of Engineers had started to regrow and several dams in many of the lakes to drain as an outlet turned to Capt. Henry Shreve, one of the bayous had broken and allowed wood reopened, but a few remained intact the principal inventors of the snagboat. to rejoin the remaining rafts. Two years when enough debris and sediment accu- Nicknamed “Uncle Sam’s Toothpullers,” later, in 1836, Shreve reported that just mulated at the outlet to form a more per- these boats had a steam-powered hoist 14 kilometers of raft remained but that manent dam. The most famous of these sitting atop double hulls, between the last 50 kilometers had taken as much is Caddo Lake, which starts in Louisiana which ran a heavy beam. To remove effort as the previous 193. Parts of the and backs up into Texas, forming the a snag, the boat ran full steam at it, raft were so dense that they “had more state’s only natural lake. caught the tree or stump on the cross the appearance of a forest than a river,” Some boats did exploit the bayous and beam, and forced it out of the water. The he wrote in his official report. Still, with lakes as travel routes, but the journeys snag either loosened or broke, or was a further $40,000, he hoped to have the were often challenging or deadly: Boats plucked with the hoist and sawed into river completely cleared by April 1837. sank when they hit snags. Furthermore, harmless pieces that were either floated He was only off by a year. the logjam made it difficult for settlers downstream or removed from the river By May 1, 1838, the Great Raft was

Both: R.B. Talfor, U.S. Geological Survey photographic library Survey Geological photographic U.S. Talfor, Both: R.B. in the upper Red River Valley; by 1831, and used to backfill a bayou. gone and “navigation through the whole

www.earthmagazine.org EARTH November 2010  75 Benchmarks

Boat on the Red River during operations to clear the raft; the raft was finally removed once and for all in 1873. extent of the raft was considered safe,” Shreve wrote. Large boats began to move upriver. But nature had not been defeated. A lack of funding prevented upkeep on the river, and by the fol- lowing April, a new raft had grown to 2,000 meters. Congress balked at sending more money. Despite the expenditure of more than half a million dollars, the raft had won. Over the next 30 years, little money and little effort went toward raft

Tennyson’s delivery represented a “grand achievement,” wrote a columnist the following day in the paper’s “Local Intelligence” column. The raft was gone and the river was tamed. Of course, the work was not over. To prevent future buildup, timber had to be removed from the banks through the entire region of the raft, bayous had to be dammed and small rafts had to be regularly removed. The Army Corps continued to work on the Red River The Red River in Shreveport, La., today. until 1900. In removing the Great Raft of the Red River and opening up the waterway removal. With the end of the Civil War, found the nitroglycerin indispensable. to easy navigation, the Army Corps of however, Congress recognized the need It was particularly necessary for the last Engineers accomplished a goal that had to open up the river and the territory several kilometers of raft, which were thwarted settlers in the Red River Valley around it. In 1872, the federal govern- dense and very wide. By early June, just for most of the 19th century. They lost ment provided $170,000 and appointed 6 kilometers remained and Woodruff lives, ruined numerous boats and spent Army Corps Lt. Eugene A. Woodruff to expected complete removal by winter. hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove the raft. He never saw that completion, however; break up the raft. They had come close, Woodruff’s first task was to buy and he died of yellow fever on Sept. 30. His but as so many had learned in the ongo- update a new snagboat. He also brought brother replaced him as the captain of ing battle of man versus nature, nature along several cranes and “saw-boats,” the team. does not give up so easily. as well as more than a ton of blast- Continued use of nitroglycerin aided Ironically, as historian Norman ing powder and half a ton of dyna- the workers, and by late November they Caldwell pointed out in 1941, the raft’s mite. Work began Jan. 10, 1873, and were up to the 42nd and final entangle- final destruction in November 1873 by month’s end, Woodruff had five ment. Its removal on the morning of Nov. “came too late to bear full fruit.” The parties attacking the 11 kilometers 27 marked the end of the Great Raft. initial removal of the raft did make the of entanglements. He found that the One week later, on Dec. 7, 1873, Capt. Red an important transportation corri- blasting powder produced “tolerably John S. Tennyson of the Army Corps dor for cotton, cottonseed and lumber. good results,” but the dynamite proved of Engineers traveled south down the But by 1884, river shipping had peaked; “entirely worthless.” Red River on a steamboat. One of his by the end of the decade, rail replaced On May 30, Woodruff tried a new first stops upon arrival was the offices water as the dominant means of trans- type of explosive — nitroglycerin — of the Shreveport Times newspaper portation. Perhaps it is fitting that it took that had recently come into popular where he dropped off a bale of cot- a new technology — nitroglycerin — to usage. He attempted to remove a stout ton. The bale, one of five transported defeat the Great Raft and that another tree extending 30 meters out of a deep by Tennyson, came from a plantation new technology — rail — made that river section. The nitroglycerin shot the at Spring Bank, Ark., 177 kilometers defeat obsolete.

tree 3 meters in the air. Woodruff soon upriver from Shreveport. David B. Williams Library State top: of Louisiana McFarland; ©iStockphoto.com/Eric Bottom:

76  EARTH November 2010 www.earthmagazine.org