re: The Red River - it's a beautiful thing

quote:

---

Native American cultures along the river were diverse, developing specialized adaptations to the many different environments.[5] Starting near the headwaters, the Plains division of the Lipan Apache dominated the western Red River area until the 18th century, when they were displaced by invading Comanche from the north.[5] The middle part of the Red River was dominated by the Wichita and Tonkawa. This area was prairie, where Native Americans constructed portable and temporary tepees for housing. They practiced limited farming and followed game in seasonal, nomadic hunting cycles.[5] By the time of European contact, the eastern Piney Woods of the lower river courses were dominated by the numerous historic tribes of the Caddo Confederacy. They found plentiful game and fish, and also had good land for cultivating staple crops.

---

quote:

---

When John Quincy Adams became Secretary of State in 1817, one of his highest priorities was to settle with Spain the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase. He negotiated with Luis de Onís, the Spanish Minister to the United States, and finally concluded the Adams–Onis Treaty, also known as the Treaty of 1819. The treaty defined the south bank of the river as the boundary between the United States and Spain, as of when it was surveyed and demarcated following 1819. That boundary continued to be recognized when Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, and ongoingly when Texas became independent from Mexico in 1835–1836.

---

quote:

---

The Great Raft was an enormous log jam or series of "rafts" that covered the Red and Atchafalaya rivers in North America from perhaps the 12th century until its destruction in the 1830s. It was unique in North America in terms of its scale.

---

quote:

---

In 1829, the US Army Corps of Engineers hired steamboat builder and river captain Henry Miller Shreve (1785–1851), Superintendent of Western River Improvement, to remove the Great Raft to improve the river's navigation.

---

quote:

---

When Shreve began work, the raft blocked a distance from 8 miles (13 km) directly below to 17 miles (27 km) directly above Shreveport.[2] By April 1835, Shreve had removed the raft up to the mouth of Twelvemile Bayou.[2] He concluded this work in 1838, having removed the last impediment to navigation on the Red River.[2] This task was continued by others until the latter part of the 19th century. For his efforts, the city of Shreveport was named after him.

---

quote:

---

The Red River Campaign (March–May 1864) was fought along the Red River Valley in Louisiana during the American Civil War. It was part of a failed attempt by the Union to occupy eastern Texas. Confederate commander Richard Taylor succeeded in repelling an army under Nathaniel Banks that was three times bigger than his own.

---

quote:

---

The Red River Bridge War of 1931 was a boundary conflict between Oklahoma and Texas over an existing toll bridge and a new free bridge crossing the Red River. A joint project to build a free bridge between Durant, Oklahoma and Denison, Texas turned into a major dispute when the Governor of Texas blocked traffic from entering his state on the new bridge. The Red River Bridge Company of Texas owned the original toll bridge and had a dispute over its purchase deal. Oklahoma Governor William H. Murray sent the Oklahoma National Guard to reopen the bridge that July. Texas had to retreat when lawyers determined that Oklahoma had jurisdiction over both banks of the river.

---