Great Raft

The Great Raft was a gigantic log jam or series of "rafts" that clogged the Red and Atchafalaya Rivers and was unique in North America in terms of its scale.

Origin

The Great Raft probably began forming around 1100–1200. It grew faster at its upper end than it decayed or washed out at the lower end, leading to its peak length spanning more than 160 miles/250 km in the early 1830s. The raft, at one point, extended for 165 miles from Loggy Bayou to Carolina Bluffs. The Great Raft formed part of the mythology of the local Caddo tribe and protected them from competing tribes, as well as intermittently flooding land and making it fertile for agriculture.

Characteristics

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Raft extended from Campti, Louisiana, to around Shreveport, Louisiana. The raft blocked the mouth of Twelvemile Bayou, impeding settlement in the area west of Shreveport. There were many smaller logjams on the Red River.

The raft raised the banks of the river, forming bayous and making several lakes, called the Great Raft Lakes and including Caddo and Cross Lakes, along the lower reaches of Red River tributaries.