Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-06-28
Up the Red River.
Trying to get Rid OF Raft that AM
nOys Navigation.

nOys Navigation.
The Shreveport Oa.) Times, pub
fishes very full and interesting ac-
count of the great raft in Red River, the
experiments of its removal in former
times, and the SUCCESS that is now at
tending the efforts of Lieut.. E. A Wood
ruff. The following extract shows the
work thus far accomplished, how it is
done, and the benefits to result:
The most of the fleet is now at work
at Tow head, No. 25, seventeen miles
from the foot Of the raft, having cut
| through twenty-four tow-heads. To
reach this point has required a vast
amount of work, and the heaviest part
of the undertaking. The channel cut
in the narrowest part is seventy feet
wide, and this only occurs in few in
stances. In nearly every cut place the
channel is as wide as the river just
above Twelve Mile Bayou. The re-
naming patch of raft, No. 26, about
one-eighth of a mile long, is the last
one left, and that will be open by the
14th of this month, when boats will be
able to go from Shreveport to the head
of Red Bayou, eighteen and one-fourth
miles from the foot of the raft, and
avoid Twelve Mile Bayou, the lakes,
and Black Bayou-something that has
not been done in thirty years before.
A boat reaching Red Bayou by this
route can get above the floating raft by
going down Red Bayou, three miles to
Stump Dam, thence by the Sale &
Murphy route to Bargetown; or, it can
take Posten Bayou, just above the Red
Bayou outlet, and follow the Alban route
around the remaining floating raft.
Thus we have already from the work
done, decided improvement in our
communication with the upper country.
A good deal of work has already been
done by shore party above Red Bayou,
which will be made more apparent when
the feet has reached there. This is the
work thus far accomplished.
The removal of the raft is being ac-
complished by simple but powerful
means. 1t is done by the steamer Aid,
with her steam capstans, and immense
purchase power, which moves to the
attack followed at intervals of 100 yards
by one crane boat and two fats armed
with glittering saws. An old log, per-
haps 100 feet long, first attracts the at
tention of the commanding officer, who
at once orders the skiff men to advance
to hitch "onto him." This is done
quickly, and soon the steam capstan is
tugging away. If he prove refractory
and won't yield, another capstanis called
in, when he generally succumbs and is
dragged from his sandy bed with many
more hanging to him, forming quite
mass of logs. dirt. roots. and growing
cetton woods. This mass is pulled to
pieces and the logs turned loose, to be
picked up by the steam saw boats inthe
rear and cut into small pieces, which
are allowed to float off and eventually
find o resting-pJace in the lakes, sup
piled by Dooley Bayou outlet. Some
times two or three logs are hitched at
one time, and the full purchase power
of the Aid applied and then the mass
moved is very large. Sometimes the
Aid moves up and bitches on to three
or four different parts of the raft, as she
is able to do, having front of forty or
fifty feet, and then backs out with all
her weight and force Sometimes she
makes three or four efforts before the
mass moves. Once moved, the water
soaks through, the dirt crumbles, and
the mass is easily pulled to pieces and
the logs allowed to float off. AS yet
explosive materials have not been called
into requisition to any great extent.
The benefits likely to accrue from
the opening of the raft are beyond con-
lecture. 1t will reclaim hundreds of
thousands of acres of the finest cotton
lands in the world, now utterly useless,
and prevent the further destruction of
many valuable farms, seriously threat
cned by the elongation of the raft, be-
sides opening up to navigation an i'm
mense area of country now almost des-
titute of such facilities.