I have never seen Mansura, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, well-represented on any map prior to satellite data. But we can figure out why...

Jefferson, the county seat of Marion County, Texas, became an inland port after the first federal Red River raft (massive log jam)...

I was looking around at some former ferry sites along the Red River and saw Thompson's Ferry at Horseshoe Bend in Love County, Oklahoma...

In 1838, when the United States and the Republic of Texas surveyed the boundary between the countries along the Index Line (today's...

In August of 1859, surveyors marked the 100th Meridian at the Red River - the line that marks the eastern boundary of the Texas panhandle...

According to this map filed by the Houston & Texas Railroad with the Texas General Land Office, their rail line was proposed to extend to...

Visit this fantastic map of Mexican Texas in 1835 (mislabeled as Republic of Texas) in the Barry Ruderman collection,...

I found a couple of 1872 sketches of the “Red River” by Alfred Rudolph Waud. Waud was an English illustrator who worked in the last half...

Paddle wheeler “Amy Hewes” on the Red River (no date), but most likely this picture was taken in the 1940s. The “Amy Hewes” was built in...

Reader Ben Jones graciously shared a vantage point of the Red River that’s rarely seen nowadays – Spanish Bluff on the southern bank of...

Adverts in old newspapers help to provide context to history, such as how much the Red River Valley was interconnected long before our...

The northern portion of John Pope’s 1854 map to survey a possible transcontinental route through Texas marks the Cross Timbers between...

An English cowboy paid to have his picture taking at Red River Station in Montague County, Texas before heading up the Abilene Trail...

I often spend my evenings (as well as days, weekends, times when I should be grading papers…) perusing old maps. One of my particular...

The Red River in Louisiana experienced quite a bit of troubles in 1864. Nathan Banks, Union general, commandeered several gunboats to...

This photograph is possibly the last image of Comanche women in a traditional camp on the open prairie. Comanche women and child at...

I’ve been making several trips around the Red River Valley to discover forgotten towns for my book project this summer. However, I don’t...

Texas is a big state. It’s also my birthplace and the birthplace of my dad, so of course I feel affinity for it… sometimes. It’s also a...

Now available all over the place! I am not one for bragging, but when I opened the box that contained my author’s copies of my newest...

The old story of the “Arkansas Traveler” tells of a person coming through the backwoods of Arkansas and happening upon a house. The...