Fort Towson Landing

Downstream, in Louisiana, the river these boats used was blocked by the Great Raft, a mass of fallen timber that had choked the Red River for centuries. By the early 1830s it stretched more than 160 miles. Henry Miller Shreve, superintendent of western river improvement, reached its foot in April 1833 with four snag boats and 159 men and by spring 1838 had cleared a channel through it; Shreveport is named for him. The remnants along the banks began rebuilding the jam at once, and a second raft soon formed farther up the river.

What the plaque says

Fort Towson Landing The Fort Towson Landing was south of here on the banks of the Red River. Also known as the Public Landing, from 1824 to 1854 it served as a receiving point for soldiers and supplies delivered by keelboats and steamboats. Traders at the Choctaw settlement of Doaksville and local planters received goods and trans- ported cotton to New Orleans. The cotton went to textile mills in Great Britain and the eastern United States, helping to fuel the Industrial Revolu- tion. Commercial navigation on the Upper Red River continued until the early 1900s when railroads sur- passed it as an economical mode of transportation.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Towson Historic Site — 0.8 mi
  The 1824 Red River post where arriving Choctaw and Chickasaw families were dispersed after removal, beside the site of Doaksville, the Choctaw capital where Stand Watie surrendered in 1865.

More markers nearby

• Fort Towson — steps away
• Transportation Crossroads — 0.7 mi
• Doaksville — 1.5 mi
• Stand Watie's Surrender — 1.5 mi