The Red River Valley in Arkansas by Robin Cole-Jett

Author:Robin Cole-Jett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2014-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Snag boats, like the C.W. Howell on Spirit Lake, were common sights when the Red River was still navigable. These vessels cleared debris and jams from the channel. From the collections of the Arkansas Historical Commission.

When a group of 180 recruits from New York easily made their way to Fort Towson via the Red River in April of 1838, “in less than half the time it was ever done before,” the future of southwestern Arkansas seemed assured.169

With the Red River now easily navigable, Garland City, Fulton, Laynesport and Jonesboro became prominent commercial centers in the Great Bend region. Proprietor B.H. Layne praised his nascent town of Laynesport in the Arkansas Gazette when he advertised lots for sale, describing the site as “8 or 10 feet above high water mark…it being the only good crossing or even landing place on the North side of the river, for 30 or 40 miles up or down…it [is] a place not to be excelled, or perhaps equaled, by any town on our Southern inland waters.”170 Steamboats plied the waters, mostly to transport cotton and passengers. Ships would dock weekly, if not daily, at these cities, with one ship going as far west as Arthur City, Lamar County, Texas. An incomplete steamship roster, gleaned from newspaper accounts and assorted recollections, included the Caspian (1838), the Napoleon (1844), Frontier (1844), Colonel Harvey (1844), Miami (1844), Waverly (1844), Douglass (1844), Campte (1846), Southwestern (1846), the Little River (1847), Jim Gilmer (1847 and 1848), Franklin (1847), Buffalo (1848), General Butler (1848), A.B. Shaw (1848) and the Belle of Illinois (1847 and 1848). Accidents happened, as well: the steamers Marmion and Amelia sank near Pecan Point in 1841 and 1848, respectively, and the Texarkana sank in 1870 with whiskey on board.171 Toward the end of the steamboat era, a few ships were retained for simple excursion cruises. The Rosa Bland, for example, steamed weekly from Fulton to Laynesport in 1891, decked in electric lights.172

The railroads gradually lessened the need for steamboats, and by the turn of the twentieth century, the Red River was once again a silent stream. Sandbars have retaken the channel, and today its waterways are used only by recreational boaters and fishermen.

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