Hunt for the Red River
| A Congressman said in 1800 about the Red River Valley: “The masses of virgin silver and gold that glitter in the veins and rocks which underlie the Arkansas River mingle with the minerals near certain other streams and offer themselves to the hand of him who will gather, refine and covert them to use are common and wonderful.” This congressman may have not known what he was talking about, but neither did anyone else who wondered what treasures the western Red River hid. For most of the 19th century, the Red River above Natchitoches, Louisiana, was still a complete mystery to the white man. |
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| Special thanks to Greg Huber for the tons of information - including maps and excerpts of books - that he shared! |
| The Indian, French and Spanish Red River The Caddos, Wichitas, Taovayas, and Comanches traded and raided around the Red River for centuries before Spanish and French explorers made their way to the region. The impressions of the middle Red River the Europeans took back with them were quite frightful: Athanse de Mezeires, the lieutenant governor of the Natchitoches district, reported of the fierce "Nortenos" whose women tattooed their lips and breasts. Other explorers, such as Pierre (Pedro) Vial, a Frenchman working under Spanish employ, and Philip Nolan (possibly an American spy), wrote about and mapped the Red River region. However, because the lands were so far away from Mexico City, the Spanish governors had an impossible time enticing settlers that far north, and left the Red River pretty much alone. Purchasing a River The remoteness of the Red River still weighed heavily when Thomas Jefferson finagled the deal to buy Louisiana Territory from the French. Jefferson not only wanted to have the Mississippi explored - which was the eastern boundary of the Purchase - he also wanted to know about the Red River. The river formed the southern border, the line between New Spain and America. Was it a water way to Santa Fe? Maybe even to the Pacific? Four expeditions were sent up the Red River within a span of 20 years, but all journeys ended in failure. In 1804, William Dunbar and George Hunter - Lewis and Clark's counterparts - set out to follow the Red River, but went up the Washita River instead. Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis then attempted the same journey in 1806 but were stopped by the Spanish at Spanish Bluff (which is in Bowie County, Texas). Freeman and Custis did bring back a detailed map of their journey, which would serve future explorers well. John Lewis and William Alexander led another expedition in 1806 but didn't go farther than the Plains. And Stephen H. Long's expedition of 1818 ended in confusion: he and his men accidentally followed the Canadian River, a river they had explored previously. Guess who the Illegals were? The Adams-Onis Treaty of 1820 settled the boundary of New Spain and the United States once and for all, with the northern banks of the Red River considered a part of Spain. Until Texas statehood in 1845, neither Americans nor Mexicans undertook expeditions to the western Red River, where the Comanches and Kiowas ruled unimpeded. The Mexican government, however, did keep a weary eye on the eastern Red River region in Texas: illegal Americans had begun settling the area while still New Spain, and Mexican independence didn't change this influx any. Without empresarios, Americans were developing plantations, towns, and most importantly, roads. Their presence may have been a great advantage for the eventual Texan rebellion. |
| All the fashionable exlporers used John Melish's map, including Randolph B. Marcy. |
| The Freeman map of the Red River may have been plain, but it charted parts of the western Red River which were unknown before 1806. |
| "Wrong Way" Stephen H. Long. He wasn't really called that. |
| Enter Randolph B. Marcy By the 1850s, most of the United States had been mapped. Lewis and Clark had determined that the Pacific Ocean could not be reached by river. John Melish, a geographer, had mapped the location of the 100th meridian, which determined the established "frontier" of the west. Everyone was flocking to California in search of riches, and overland trails were blazed by the Union army to aid the emigrants in their treks. One of these trail blazers was Randolph B. Marcy. From his station at Fort Smith (Arkansas) and later Fort Arbuckle (Indian Territory), Marcy established the California Emigrant Trail, through Texas to Santa Fe, in 1849 (this later approximated the Butterfield Overland Stage and Mail Route). He also helped General William G. Belknap select sites for Texas frontier forts in the early 1850s. It was Marcy who recommended the site for Fort Sill in the 1860s. Due to his intimate knowledge of Texas and Indian Territory geography, Marcy was selected to find the source of the Red River in 1852. The U.S. actualy had several reasons to go up the Red River besides the official, "let's just see what's there," justification. Marcy was to report back on the minerals he found, just in case there were any precious metals laying around. He was also to report on the condition of the region. Was the unexplored west really the "Great American Desert," suitable to only wild savages, as Stephen H. Long insisted it was, or could the Southern Plains tribes be forced into farming, thus opening the west for Anglo settlement? The Red River Expedition of 1852 Along with several troops, a Delaware guide named Jim Ned, and Captain George B. McClellan, Marcy set out to discover the Red River headwaters. Unlike his predecessors, Marcy didn't use a boat, but explored mainly on horse back. He kept a meticulous diary, reporting on the different animals, plants, and nature he encountered. He made friends with the Indians, and even wrote a dictionary of sorts of the Wichita language. He reported on Wichita, Comanche, and Kiowa customs. He found a huge prairie dog town (estimating it to contain around 20 million of the critters), and wrote passionately of his impressions of the wild and unexplored regions of the Red River, especially of the Cross Timbers: Palo Duro! Marcy found the source of the Red River within the sheer cliffs of Palo Duro Canyon. Upon seeing the canyon, his writing sounded almost poetic: “The magnificence of the views that presented themselves to our eyes as we approached the head of the river, exceeded anything I had ever beheld. It is impossible for me to describe the sensations that came over me, and the exquisite pleasure I experienced, as I gazed upon these grand and novel pictures.” For Marcy, Palo Duro looked like castles and fortresses with an “azure and transparent sky above.” A Hero Back in Washington, people thought Marcy was dead from an Indian attack, and they gave him a nice funeral, which Marcy found amusing. Upon Marcy's (very lively) return with his hundreds of sketches, dozens of maps, and pages upon pages of diary entries, he was given a hero's welcome. His extensive report was published and a shortened version of it became a best seller. Here was the man who had explored the last wild place in the United States! Marcy testified of his adventures in front of an eager Congress. One could argue he was the John Glenn of the 1850s! |
| Randolph B. Marcy was a happening dude. He married, (I swear I'm not making this up, to paraphrase Dave Barry) Mary A. Mann. I wonder if they had a "do not ask, do not tell" policy back then? |
| Red River Legacy Well regarded historians have contemplated the impact of the Red River Expedition ever since Marcy undertook it in 1852. Walter Prescott Webb took to heart Marcy's description of the Cross Timbers as a dividing line between the fertile east and the arid west. Angie Debo retraced Marcy's steps in Oklahoma, where she found some discrepancies in his calculations. Oddly, Marcy himself isn't well remembered in mainstream history. Maybe because he became America's last explorer, or because other captains superseded him when the Civil War came around. The legacy is clear, however. Finding the Red River headwaters became a watershed moment in the history of the American west. The southern plains proved inhabitable and maybe even conducive to farming. The Native Americans could be better understood and strategies could be developed to "civilize" them. New roads were opened for American settlers, though they didn't appear en masse until the 1890s. For good or bad, a new country had opened, and the last river to be explored in the contiguous United States was finally known. |
| Marcy's 1852 map of the Red River (a better version of the map will be uploaded soon) |
| The birthplace of the Red River - the Prairie Dog Town Fork. The river is spring fed. |
| Marcy's Impressions Mount Scott – Named one of the highest peaks Mount Scott, which later became part of Kiowa lore as to where the buffalo went Petrified Forest (around 100th Meridian, along “Great Divide”)– “Upon the rocky bluffs bordering the river we found silicified wood in great quantities, strewed about over a distance of two miles. The petrification was most perfect, exhibiting all the fibers, knots, and bark, as plainly as in the native state, and was quite similar to the cotton wood.” Prairie Dog Town – Had to reroute around the mounds, which he guessed at 40,000 acres of mounds (roughly 20 million prairie dogs) |
| A boulder along the shore of the Red River by the 100th Meridian |
"The trees, consisting principally of post oak and black jack, stand[ing] at
such intervals that wagons can without difficulty pass between them in
any direction. The soil is thin, sandy, and poorly watered. This forms a
boundary line, dividing the country suited to agriculture from the great
prairies, which, for the most part, are arid and destitute of timber. It
seems to have been designed as a natural barrier between civilized man
and the savage.”
such intervals that wagons can without difficulty pass between them in
any direction. The soil is thin, sandy, and poorly watered. This forms a
boundary line, dividing the country suited to agriculture from the great
prairies, which, for the most part, are arid and destitute of timber. It
seems to have been designed as a natural barrier between civilized man
and the savage.”
