The Great Red River Raft and its Sedimentological Implications - Reconstructing Human-Landscape Interactions: Interpreting Desert and Fluvial Environments - page 35

The Great Red River Raft
and its Sedimentological Implications
Nalini Torres and Danny W. Harrelson
Abstract The Red River Raft was a series of log jams believed to have developed
over 2,000 years ago when the Mississippi River avulsed and captured the Red
River to the South. Navigation of the Red River and the Red River Raft presented
major challenges during the settlement of the Red River Valley. This Raft
extended approximately 150 miles along the river from Natchitoches, Louisiana to
the Louisiana-Arkansas State line. Several theories on how this raft developed
include catastrophic flooding, climatic change, and prehistoric human activities.
The presence and eventual clearing of the Raft influenced the geomorphic evo-
lution of the Red River and the Atchafalaya basin as well as changed the geo-
morphic character of the Red River with considerable physical and historical
consequences. Numerous attempts were made to clear parts or even the full extent
of the Raft beginning in the 1830s. After years of struggle, the Raft was eventually
cleared by AD 1873. In AD 1968, the Red River Waterway navigation effort was
authorized providing for a 9 ft., navigation channel from its confluence with the
Atchafalaya near Simmsport to Shreveport, Louisiana. The Red River Navigation
project consisting of a series of five locks and dams was completed in AD 1994.
This chapter will review and describe the historic and current geomorphic evo-
lution of the Red River attributable to the completion of the Red River Navigation
Project and the removal of the Raft.
Keywords Red River Raft Atchafalya Louisiana Army Corps of Engineers