Great Raft

The Great Raft was a gigantic log jam or series of "rafts" that clogged the Red and Atchafalaya Rivers and was unique in North America in terms of its scale.

Great Raft
Date1100–1838
VenueRed and Atchafalaya Rivers
LocationNorth America
TypeLog jam

Origin

The Great Raft probably began forming around 1100–1200 AD.[1] It grew from its upper end, while decaying or washing out at the lower end. This led to its peak length spanning more than 160 miles (260 km) in the early 1830s. The raft, at one point, extended for 165 miles (266 km) from Loggy Bayou to Carolina Bluffs.[2] The Great Raft formed part of the mythology of the local Caddo tribe[3] and protected them from competing tribes, as well as intermittently flooding land and making it fertile for agriculture.[4]

Characteristics

At the beginning of the 19th century, the raft extended from Campti, Louisiana, to around Shreveport, Louisiana. The raft blocked the mouth of Twelve Mile Bayou, impeding settlement in the area west of Shreveport. There were many smaller logjams on the Red River.[2]

The raft raised the banks of the river, forming bayous and making several lakes, called the Great Raft Lakes and including Caddo and Cross Lakes, along the lower reaches of Red River tributaries.[4]

Removal

Steamboat builder and river captain Henry Miller Shreve (1785–1851) began systematically removing the Great Raft, a task that was continued by others until the latter part of the 19th century. For his efforts, the city of Shreveport was named after him.

When Shreve began work, the raft was 8 miles (13 km) directly below to 17 miles (27 km) directly above Shreveport.[2]

Shreve had removed the raft up to the mouth of Twelvemile Bayou in April 1835.[2] Shreve concluded this work in 1838, having removed the last impediment to navigation on the Red River.[2]

Second Great Raft

Although Shreve had completely removed the raft, another formed farther up the river. The new foot was at the head of the old raft near today's Belcher, Louisiana.[2] This second raft gradually extended until it reached the Arkansas state line, when, in 1873, Lieutenant Eugene Woodruff succeeded in removing it.[2][5]

Consequences

The removal of the log jams hastened the capture of the Mississippi River's waters by the Atchafalaya River and forced the US Army Corps of Engineers to build the multibillion-dollar Old River Control Structure.

See also

References
  • Tyson, Carl N. The Red River in Southwestern History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. ISBN 0-8061-1659-5
  1. "The Great Raft". Discovering Lewis & Clark. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  2. Holbrook, Stewart (2007). Lost Men of American History. Read Books. p. 404. ISBN 978-1-4067-3205-4.
  3. Pels, Monica (2004). "Great Raft". Parish of Caddo. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  4. "Great Raft History". www.InvasivesWatch.org. Caddo Lake Institute. 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  5. Bagur, Jacques (2001). A History of Navigation on Cypress Bayou and the Lakes. Denton, Texas, United States of America: University of North Texas Press. p. 821. ISBN 978-1-57441-135-5.
  • The Attack on the Great Raft by Edith S. McCall, author of Conquering the Rivers: Henry Miller Shreve and the Navigation of America’s Inland Waterways (Louisiana State University, 1984). ISBN 0-8071-1127-9
  • Great Raft, Parish of Caddo, 2004.
  • The Great Raft. From Discovering Lewis & Clark , with an undated photograph courtesy Noel Memorial Library Archives, Louisiana State University, Shreveport, and another by photographer R. B. Talfour in 1873.
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