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navigable only " 'for boats of three or four tons burthen.' "13 Only
small boats could be successfully moved through the raft area or
around it by way of the almost equally difficult lateral bayous. The
steamboat did, however, soon appear on the lower Red River. In
1820 the Beaver from New Orleans reached Natchitoches, and by
1825 there were seven steamboats in the lower Red River trade.14
At this time it was hardly expected that steamboat navigation would
ever be established through the raft.16
Nevertheless, it was inevitable that men's attention should be
turned to the raft barrier. With the successful establishment of the
Republic of Mexico, some began to wonder as to how effective the
Red River might be as a barrier against a possible "powerful enemy"
to the southward. That part of the river above the raft would cer-
tainly be a very poor line of defense."* The establishment of such
military posts as Fort Jesup and Fort Towson gave needed protec-
tion to the Red River line, but at the same time, the problem of
transportation to and from these posts became important. The War
Department accordingly ordered a survey of the raft region in
1824,17 and in the autumn of 1825 the Arkansas Territorial Legis-
lature petitioned Congress to remove the raft "so that boats might
ascend to the Kiamichi and the newly established Fort Towson."1u
At the same time General Thomas S. Jesup, the Quartermaster Gen-
eral, recommended the building of a road from Natchitoches to Fort
Towson and thence to Fort Gibson on the Arkansas. Nevertheless,
the General writes that he considered "the improvement of the
navigation of the Red River a matter of first importance." He
thought this work might be undertaken by the regular army troops
at a small expense.19 The attack upon the raft had begun.
Early in 1826 army engineers from Fort Jesup spent two months
examining the raft. These gentlemen concluded that the raft could
only be removed at great expense and advocated the clearing of a
1s Texas State Republican, October 5, 1819, as quoted by Douglas C. McMur-
trie, "The First Texas Newspaper," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXXVI,
32.
14 Foreman, op. cit., 47. The first steamer on the Red River is said to have
bad her steam exhaust pipe leading out through the bow and terminating in the form
of a serpent's head. As the boat progressed up the river under full steam, it was
appropriately named pinelore or "the fire canoe" by the Choctaw Indians. Flagg's
note in Thwaites, op. cit., XXVI, at, n. 18.
1s Arkansas Gazette, November 25, 1820. In this article the possibilities of
the Red River lands are extolled, though no mention of the raft barrier is made.
Some of the lands were already surveyed and the Editor writes that large settle-
ments "are already formed upon it, within the limits of our territory." Fulton,
Arkansas, was laid out about this time as an evidence of this optimism. Fulton
lots were advertised for sale in the Arkansas Gazette for December 25, 1819.
1n Arkansas Gazette, January 20, 1821, quoting the Knoxville Register.
17 Arl/muas Gazette, May 1, 187.
1 Foreman, op. cit., 4.
tu Brigadier General Thomas S. Jesup to Honorable James Barbour, Secretary
of War, November 26, 1825, 19th. Cong., 1st. seas., Sen. Doc, vol. i, no. 2, B, p. 14.
The Red River Ralt
255