Red River of the South

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Red River (Mississippi River))
Jump to: navigation, search
Red River (Bah'hatteno[1])
Rivière Rouge (former French name)
Country United States
States Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana
Part of Mississippi River
Source Confluence of Prairie Dog Town Fork and Buck Creek
 - location Harmon County, Oklahoma
 - elevation 1,535 ft (468 m)
Mouth Atchafalaya/Mississippi River
 - location West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
 - elevation 30 ft (9 m)
Length 1,360 mi (2,189 km)
Basin 65,595 sq mi (169,890 km2)
Discharge for mouth; max and min at Alexandria, LA
 - average 57,000 cu ft/s (1,614 m3/s)
 - max 233,000 cu ft/s (6,598 m3/s)
 - min 1,472 cu ft/s (42 m3/s)
Map of the Red River watershed.

The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major tributary of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers in the southern United States of America.[2] The river was named for the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name.

"The Mexicans and Indians on the borders of Mexico are in the habit of calling any river, the waters of which have a red appearance, 'Rio Colorado', or Red river", observed R.B. Marcy in 1853.[3] The Red River formed part of the US-Mexico border from the Adams-Onís Treaty (in force 1821) until the Texas Annexation or Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

The Red River is the second-largest river basin in the southern Great Plains.[4] It rises in two branches (forks) in the Texas Panhandle and flows east, where it acts as the border between the states of Texas and Oklahoma. It forms a short border between Texas and Arkansas before entering Arkansas, turning south near Fulton, Arkansas and flowing into Louisiana, where it flows into the Atchafalaya River. The total length of the river is 1,360 miles (2,190 km), with a mean flow of over 57,000 cubic feet per second (1,600 m3/s) at the mouth.[citation needed]



The Red River rises near the edge of the northwestern dip slope of the Llano Estacado mesa[5] in two forks in northern Texas and southwestern Oklahoma. The southern and largest fork, which is about 120 miles (190 km) long, is generally called the Prairie Dog Town Fork. It is formed in Randall County, Texas, near the county seat of Canyon, by the confluence of intermittent Palo Duro Creek and Tierra Blanca Creek. (The names mean "Hard Wood" and "White Land", respectively, in Spanish.)

Crossing the Red River at the Texas-Oklahoma border from I-35




Soon after, the river crosses south into Louisiana. The sister cities of Shreveport and Bossier City were developed on either bank of the river, as did the downriver cities of Alexandria and Pineville; the river later broadens into a complex network of marshlands surrounding the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, where it is joined by the Ouachita River, its largest tributary. Its waters eventually discharge into the Atchafalaya River[6] and flow eastward or southward into the Gulf of Mexico.


Tributaries include the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River, Salt Fork Red River, North Fork Red River, Pease River, Washita River, Ouachita River, Kiamichi River, Little Wichita River, Little River, Sulphur River, and Loggy Bayou (through Lake Bistineau and Dorcheat Bayou).


The Red River's watershed covers 65,590 square miles (169,900 km2)[4] and is the southernmost major right tributary of the Mississippi, and the southernmost major river system in the Great Plains. Its drainage basin is mostly in the states of Texas and Oklahoma, but also covers parts of Arkansas and Louisiana. Its basin is characterized by flat, fertile agricultural land, with only a few major cities. The drainage basin of the Red River is very arid and receives little precipitation. As a result, much of the river above the Texas-Oklahoma border is intermittent, and until the river is past its great bend south in Arkansas, the flow varies widely. Most of the agriculture in the basin is sustained by groundwater, which is recharged with rainfall and riverflow. The lower course of the river flows through a series of marshes and swamps, where its flow is dramatically moderated.


Native Americans[edit]

Native American cultures along the river were diverse, developing specialized adaptations to the many different environments.[4] By the time of European contact, the eastern Piney Woods were dominated by the numerous historic tribes of the Caddoan Confederacy. They found plentiful game and fish, and also had good land for cultivating staple crops.[4] The middle part of the Red River was dominated by 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.[4] 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.[4]

European-American exploration and settlement[edit]

Crossing the Red River near Granite, Oklahoma, 1921.

In 1806, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Red River Expedition to explore parts of the new lands of the Louisiana Purchase by traveling up the Red River. He said it was "in truth, next to the Missouri, the most interesting water of the Mississippi", in a letter to William Dunbar.[7] Having threaded the maze of bayous at the river's confluence, and the "Great Raft" of lodged driftwood, the expedition, was stopped by the Spanish near what is now New Boston, Texas.



When John Quincy Adams became Secretary of State in 1817, one of his highest priorities was to negotiate the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase with Spain. He negotiated with the Spanish Minister to the United States, Luis de Onis, and finally concluded 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. That boundary continued to be recognized when Mexico gained its independence from Spain, then again when Texas became independent from Mexico. It remains so until the present, being the border between Texas and Oklahoma.[9]


The area along the lower Red River of Grant Parish, Louisiana, and neighboring parishes were a mixture of hill country and cotton plantations, with white planters and subsistence farmers, and numerous African American slaves working the plantations in the ante bellum years. It was an area of heated social tensions and insurgency during and after the Reconstruction era. Grant was a new parish created by the Reconstruction legislature, which was trying to increase Republican Party representation. In 1873, Grant Parish was the site of the Colfax massacre, caused by the political tension and violence arising from the disputed 1872 gubernatorial election and efforts by local whites to keep white supremacy. White militias, organized from nearby parishes, killed more than 100 freedmen, some of whom had surrendered as prisoners.

In 1874, such militias organized as the White League in Grant Parish, and other chapters were soon founded across the state. The Coushatta Massacre was attributed to the White League, which attacked Republican officeholders to run them out of office. The paramilitary groups intimidated and terrorized freedmen to keep them from the polls, and by the late 1870s, conservative Democrats had retaken political control of the state.

Great Raft[edit]

Main article: Great Raft


In the 20th century, the interest group known as the Red River Valley Association was formed to lobby the United States Congress to make the river fully navigable between Alexandria and Shreveport, Louisiana. Leading supporters of the longstanding project were Louisiana Democratic senators Allen J. Ellender, J. Bennett Johnston, Jr. and Russell B. Long, the Fourth District Congressman Joseph David "Joe D." Waggonner, Jr., and the late Shreveport Mayor Littleberry Calhoun Allen, Jr. With the completion of the project, a lock system constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers allows navigation of barge traffic as far north as Shreveport.

Greer County debate[edit]

Specialists debate whether the North Fork or the Prairie Dog Town Fork is the true stem.[4] Because of a cartographic error, the land between the north and south forks was claimed by both the state of Texas and the United States federal government. Randolph B. Marcy's expedition followed the Prairie Dog Town Fork in 1852.[4] Originally called Greer County, Texas, the US Supreme Court ruled that it belonged to the United States, which at the time oversaw the Oklahoma Territory. That territory was later incorporated into the state of Oklahoma, whose southern border now follows the south fork. Today, the southern Prairie Dog Town Fork is considered the main fork, though the North Fork is as long and normally has a greater water flow.[4]


Jimmie Davis Bridge atop the Red River between Bossier and Caddo parishes in far northwestern Louisiana


See also[edit]


  1. ^ Caddo name. Meredith, Howard. "Caddo (Kadohadacho)." Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved 9 Sept 2012)
  3. ^ Marcy, Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana: in the year 1852... with Reports on the Natural History of the Country, Washington, 1853:04.
  5. ^ John Miller Morris, El Llano Estacado: Exploration and Imagination on the High Plains, 2003.

External links[edit]