Great Raft

The Great Raft was a gigantic logjam or series of "rafts" that clogged the Red and Atchafalaya Rivers and was unique in North America. It has been speculated that the trees in the jams were knocked down by an impact event [cite web
last = Grondine
first = E. P.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Everything is Connected: Searching for Historical Impacts in North America and a Survey of Southern and Eastern Native American Sites
work = CCNet ESSAY
publisher = Cambridge Conference Correspondence
date = 2000-09-04
url = http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/ce090400.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-02-13] It probably began forming around 1100–1200 AD.

The Great Raft grew faster at its upper end than the lower end decayed or washed out, leading to its peak length spanning more than 160 miles/250 km in the early 1830s. Steamboat builder and river captain Henry Miller Shreve (1785–1851) began systematically removing the Great Raft, a task that was continued by others until the latter part of the 19th century. For his efforts the city of Shreveport, Louisiana, was named after him. The removal of the logjams hastened the capture of the Mississippi River's waters by the Atchafalaya River and forced the US Army Corps of Engineers to built the multibillion dollar Old River Control Structure.

ee also

*Caddo Lake

References

*Tyson, Carl N. "The Red River in Southwestern History". Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. ISBN 0-8061-1659-5