I shouldn’t have had a path this Saturday in August two years ago, I had outpatient surgery the day before and I was taking all the legal painkillers through the doctor, but I had been asked to be a coffin at the funeral of a close circle of friend relatives, Dr. Ben Elrod, and I wasn’t going to miss the church service I attended as a child , the First Baptist Church of Arkadelphia.
Elrod, a Rison local, was president of 3 schools – one in Indiana, one in Kentucky and Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas. He was also president of Arkansas independent schools and universities, a position I held later. I trusted Elrod very much on my five-year recommendation at AICU and then wrote a small e-book about his life and leadership principles.
My son took me to Arkadelphia that day. My memory is a bit blurry due to the pain relievers, however the speech that was most productive for me was delivered through another old circle of relatives, friend, Dr. Joe Nix, a former Ouachita instructor who has become a mainstay in the start of the environmental movement in Arkansas.
Nix communicated about higher education or leadership. He communicated about a river and the many days he and Elrod had spent in that river.
“All men have a river, ” said Nix.
For Ben Elrod and Joe Nix, this river is the Caddo. For me, this river is the Ouachita.
I grew up a few blocks from the Ouachita River, several kilometers downstream from where the Caddo s. That’s where I vade, caught on the shore and jumped off the rocks. cotton from Arkadelphia to New Orleans.
The river originates in the Ouachita Mountains in western Arkansas and flows for more than 500 miles before reaching the Tensas and Little rivers near Jonesville, Louisiana, to shape the Black River. The Black River then flows for 41 miles before reaching the Red River. , which in turn flows into the Atchafalaya.
It is also that of the ancient seven-mile-long river, which traditionally connected
these streams to the Mississippi River. Traffic can then continue to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.
The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has not been able to do so. But it’s not the first time It has long replaced water with massive pumps and dams. Left by its own means, the Mississippi would probably have already replaced the course towards Atchafalaya, severing the port of New Orleans in what would necessarily have become a giant ox lake.
In 1nine02 the so-called Ouachita-Rio Negro Navigation Project was initiated, in the 1nine24 the structure was completed in a formula of six locks and dams, then the obsolete locks were replaced, now there are 4 locks and dams on the waterway, offering a navigation channel at least nine feet deep and one hundred feet wide for barge traffic from the Red River north of Camden.
In September 1991, the Arkansas Times published an essay on the Ouachita through Arkansas editor Charles Portis of “True Grit” and other acclaimed novels.
“It was a great wonder to me in recent years when I learned that there was normal steamboat service on this modest green river until the 1930s and even Camden,” Portis wrote. “I’m not talking about fashion replicas or party barges, rented for short excursions, but authentic steamboats, with giant paddle wheels in the back, bringing cotton balls to New Orleans and carrying bananas and sugar bags upriver, with paying customers.
“There were two boats, the Ouachita and the City of Camden, and they were traveling on a cycle of about two weeks: New Orleans-Camden-New Orleans, with stops along the way. The fare back and forth, adding a bed and all food was $50. He imposed the classic decorum of steam, with men who were to wear coats in the dining room. At night, after dinner, the waiters would bend like musicians for a dance. “
Dee Brown, the most productive Arkansas writer known for “Bury My Heart in Wounded Knee,” told Portis that as a teenager he took a boat from New Orleans to Camden. I had a summer assignment at a fuel station between Stephens and Camden and hitchhiking. On weekends he hitchhiked in Crescent City and then used the cash he had stored to get the boat home.
“He paid a dollar for a night’s accommodation in a boarding house near the French Quarter,” Portis wrote. “The adventure back was a delight, as Mr. Brown recalls, a quiet of five or six days. full price for its $25, despite everything at the Ouachita in Jonesville, with the two walls of the final forest a little more day by day.
“There were elegant breakfasts of ham and eggs when the ham was authentic, with oatmeal and hot biscuits. At lunch one day, he discovered a cracked avocado on his plate, or “crocodile pear,” as he called it on the menu. I’ve never noticed one before, I wouldn’t eat one.
“Young Mr. Brown traveled gently and had to borrow a coat from a waiter at every meal before he could sit down. He had a little cabin for him with a bunk bed and a bachelor hook on the wall for him. he enjoyed the night dances, had to sit them like a nail because he might not dance, the town’s population on the way on board just for the dance, and among them were young Delta athletes who brought drinks in secret. corn whiskey and ginger jake. These were days of prohibition. A young woman from New Orleans, traveling with her family, showed up to be briefed on how to dance with Dee Brown. ‘I also wanted to dance with her, of course, but I might not dare to do it. ‘
After the acquisition of Louisiana in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned 4 to explore the new territory. Most Americans are familiar with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s expedition to the northern regions of the country’s immense land acquisition.
Less are familiar with Zebulon Pike’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains and southwest louisiana purchase regions; less are aware of the foray of Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis into Red River; and until historian Trey Berry arrived, there was a shortage of data on the adventure of William Dunbar and George Hunter on the Ouachita River until it is now Hot Springs.
“While the Ouachita River expedition was not as extensive and did not provide the scope of geographic and environmental data collected through the Lewis and Clark Discovery Corps, Dunbar and Hunter’s exploration remains vital for several reasons,” Berry, now president, wrote. University of Southern Arkansas at Magnolia ”. He provided Americans with the first clinical examination of the various landscapes, as well as animal and plant life in southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. all purchases from Louisiana Explorations.
The explorers described an incredibly active and colorful interaction between the European and Amerindian populations. Hunter and Dunbar have also reported encounters with European trappers, hunters, planters and settlers, as well as fellow travelers crossing the waters of the red, black and Ouachita rivers. its abundant notes also describe a region in which the European and Indian populations have harvested abundant herbal resources along the rivers and inland.
“Reports from either man show that hot springs had a vital site for others seeking to alleviate their illnesses and ailments. The expedition met several people who had gone to the fountains or were on their way to bathe in their waters.
When Hunter and Dunbar were handed over to what is now Hot Springs, they discovered a cabin and some small cabins that had been built through other people who had come to enjoy the hot mineral water. The entries in his diary were the first English-language descriptions of the lands along the Ouachita River in Arkansas and Louisiana.
“When the team approached Ecore at Fabri (Modern Camden), the former of a French colony, two vital occasions occurred,” Berry wrote. “First, the explorers discovered a tree with curious Indian hieroglyphics engraved on its trunk. The sculptures depicted two men taking hands and possibly would have been the industry between Europeans and Native Americans.
Second, while Hunter was cleaning his gun in the canister, the gun fired. The bullet tore through his thumb and lacerated two fingers. He continued with his hat, headless in just fractions of an inch. threat of infection for more than two weeks, his eyes were burned, he may not see the entries in his diaries and he hardly helps the expedition.
“Near the Arkadelphia supply site, they met a type of Dutch origin called Paltz. The Dutch hunter was familiar with the domain and informed explorers of a nearby salty spring as well as other herbal features. Paltz said yes,” he lived in the Ouachita for 40 years, and before that in Arkansas.
“Hunter, Paltz and a small team investigated a salt well and reported it as very extensive in nature. The chemist conducted experiments of express gravity in saline water and discovered that he had a higher concentration of what he called sea salt. “
The Hunter-formed organization, Dunbar, thirteen enlisted soldiers, Hunter’s teenage son, two of Dunbar’s slaves, and one of Dunbar’s servants had left the St. Catherine’s Landing on the east bank of the Mississippi River on October 16, 1804. through Hunter in Pittsburgh, they subsequently traded this boat for a flat boat with a cabin on deck. They secured the boat near what is now Monroe, Louisiana. Their return adventure began on January 8, 1805 and they arrived in Natchez, Mississippi, on January 27.
“Dunbar and Hunter weren’t the first to roam the Ouachita River or spice up hot spring waters, or describe dominance in magazines or publications,” Berry wrote. They passed the first clinical mapping and description of the ouachita River valley. Newspapers reveal an active European presence in the region with many small towns and owners, hunters and investors who have been the region’s herbal resources for decades.
“His adventure did not rival that of Lewis and Clark, but their adventure in the Red, Black and Ouachita rivers, as well as the explorations and diaries of Freeman, Custis and Pike, are tales of the entire history of Louisiana Purchase exploration. “
The first steamship sailed the Ouachita in 1819. Glenn Gore of the Ouachita River Foundation wrote that it sounded “like this and presented such a monstrous spectacle that it was described as “a swollen dragon. “After these terrible beginnings, steamships began to play an essential role in the colorful Ouachita-like history. Ouachita was the wonderful way of industry and shipping for the entire river valley. “
At the beginning of the Civil War, Arkadelphia and Camden on the Ouachita were among the 10 largest cities in Arkansas. Steamships crossing the river between Arkadelphia and Camden had names such as The Dime, Will S. Hays, Alamo, CMHumphrey, Arkadelphia City, Francis Jones, Susie B. , Rock City, Rob Roy and Lightwood.
The Dime built through merchant pioneer Jacob Barkguy, who lived near present-day Caddo Valley. The shipment got his call when a guy who had noticed bigger ships in the Mississippi exclaimed, “It’s no bigger than a penny. “
The Will S. Hays was much larger, capable of containing 2000 cotton balls, but nevertheless sank when overloaded. When I was a kid, I dreamed of boats like that so I could go from my house to New Orleans across the sea. The Ouachita was familiar but exotic. It’s still my river.