Red
River 
The Red River is one of
several
rivers with that name, and of two rivers with that name in the
United States. It rises in two branches (forks) in the
Texas Panhandle and flows east along the border of
Texas and
Oklahoma,
and briefly between Texas and
Arkansas.
At
Fulton, Arkansas, the
river turns south
into
Louisiana to empty into the
Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers. The total length of this journey is 2189
km (1360
mi). The river
gains its name from the red-clay
farmland of
its
watershed. Since
1943 the Red River has been
dammed by
Denison Dam to form
Lake
Texoma, a very large
reservoir of 360
km² (89,000 acres),
some 113 km (70 mi) north of
Dallas. Other reservoirs serve as
flood
control on the river's
tributaries.
Much of the river's length in Louisiana was
unnavigable in the early
19th
century due to a collection of fallen
trees that formed a
"Great Raft"
over 257 km (160 mi) long. Captain
Henry Miller Shreve cleared the
logjam in 1839,
and now the river is navigable for
small craft north of
Natchitoches, Louisiana. The Red River Valley Association was formed to
lobby Congress to provide funds for the navigation project. Among supporters of
the navigation projects were longterm Louisiana
Democratic senators,
Allen J. Ellender,
J. Bennett Johnston, Jr. and
Russell B. Long, Louisiana's former Fourth District Congressman
Joseph David "Joe D." Waggonner, Jr., and the late Shreveport Mayor
Littleberry Calhoun Allen, Jr.
Due to a
cartographic error, the land between the north and south forks was claimed
by both the state of Texas and the
federal government. Originally called
Greer County, Texas, the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it belonged to the federal government, 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.
That southern fork, which is about 193 km (120
mi), is now called the Prairie Dog Town Fork. It is formed in
Randall County, Texas near
Canyon, Texas by the
confluence of intermittent
Palo Duro Creek and
Tierra Blanca Creek. (The names mean "Hard Wood" and "White Land",
respectively, in
Spanish.) It flows east-southeast, through
Palo Duro Canyon in
Palo Duro Canyon State Park, then past
Newlin, Texas to meet the Oklahoma state line. From there eastward, it is
usually referred to as the Red River, even before meeting the north fork.
(Source by
Wikipedia) |
