The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1873-12-26
The Red River Raft.

| There is now certain prospect that
the great raft which has been an OBJ
structiOn in the Red river, in Louisiana,
ever since the advent of white men in
this country, will soon be removed, and
that navigation will beOpened for steam
ers from Shreveport, La, to Jefferson,
| Texas. The history of the raft, and
the attempts to remove it, is exceeding
ly interesting. In 1905, the obstruction
of logs reached one hundred miles.
Since that time RATS have formed at
various points in the river near Shreye-
port. One of these was removed by
Capt. Shreve in 1880, by the help of a
congressional appropriation, and anoth-
er between 1910 and 1874, under a gov
ernment contract, by Gen. Williamson.
In 1854, the raft region extended only
twelve miles, and at that time Capt.
Fuller, aided by a congressional appro-
pIiation of $150,000, attempted to re-
move it. At the end of two years, how
ever, the appropriation had been ex-
hausted and nothing accomplished, and,
the work being abandoned, the Obstruc.
ton began to increase. The present
raft region extends thirty. five miles,
from point forty miles above Shreve-
port to the Arkansas state line, and con-
tanned, before the present work COM
menced, nearly fifty RATS, from one
eighth of O mile to a mile in length,
and occupying the entire width of the
river, navigation only being accom-
plished through the bayous around the
raft, but as these we're only available at
very high water, navigation was insig-
nificaut. In 1871, the attention of the
engineering department was again di-
rected to this work, and an appropria-
ton of $4,000 having been made by
congress, the work of preliminary sur
veying was entrusted to Lieut.. Wood
ruff, who completed it in 1872, and sub
mitted plans and specifications for the
removal of the raft, whereupon an ap-
preparation of $150,000 was made
The plans were accepted, and Lieut.
Woodruff reached the raft region in
January last with a snag-boat, two
cranG-boats, and all the requisite ma
chinery for his work. The following
description shows the difficulties to be
overcome
Logs, roots and snags of every des-
cription had been crowded and jammed
into a tangled mass, becoming more
compact each year as the pressure from
above increased. Annual freshets had
brought down mud and deposited it in
and over this mass until in places, the
raft itself had become entirely covered
with earth, small islands, or "tow
heads" thus being formed. Upon
these tow heads were growing trees,
usually willows, three feet and more in
In addition to the removals of logs
by saving and cutting, blasting powder !
was used, but it did not prove of any
use. Dynamite was then tried, but |
failed, refusing to explode even with an
electrical exploder. At last nitro-gly- |
cerine was brought into use, and it new
er failed to do its work thoroughly. |
All that remains to be done now, is the
blowing out of some tow-heads and i'm
proving certain points in the channel,
which will be accomplished in a few
weeks. The obstruction of centuries
will then have been removed by the
kill and perseverance of Lieut.. Wood
'uff. The saddest part of the record of
his great work is that Lieut.. Woodruff
las not lived to finish il, having died
# yellow fever at Shreveport, !