Arkansas River

“ On the march we perceived for the first time, to our left, at a distance of about 10 miles, the low sandy bluffs of the Arkansas river, partly wooded with cotton trees. The Little Arkansas, its tributary, was now a small, very fordable creek; but when swelled by rains it becomes a wild torrent, overflowing its steep banks, and the whole valley. The soil is sandy; grass rather indifferent. ”

“ The Arkansas River rises in the Rocky Mountains in north latitude forty-two degrees, near the borders of the territory of the United States and Mexico. It is about two thousand miles in length, running in a direction east south-east. Tributary streams are little known; they are remarkable for being deeply impregnated with salt. That part of Arkansas that traverses the Missouri territory is skirted, in great part, by extensive prairies. Spurs of the Masserne Mountains often reach the river. ”

“ Three hundred miles farther the explorers ventured, and had nearly reached the mouth of the Arkansas River, floating on a wide expanse of water between lofty woods, when they heard wild yelling on the west shore, and saw a crowd of savages pushing out huge wooden canoes to surround them. ”

“ The Arkansas River at this point is about 300 yards wide, its waters are muddy, not quite so much so, as those of the Mississippi or Rio Bravo. Its valley is wooded and about two miles in width, the main bottom here, being on the east side. On the west it is a rolling prairie as far as the eye can see, affording excellent grass. ”

“ It rises in Central Colorado, flows east into Kansas, and out again east of the middle of the south boundary of the same State, southeast across Oklahoma and Indian Territories, and diagonally across Arkansas, bisecting it into nearly equal parts, and emptying into the Mississippi. The river is about 2000 miles long, navigable for 650 miles, and drains an area of 188,000 square miles. Much of the water in its upper course is used for irrigation purposes. In Fremont County, in Central Colorado, it flows through the Royal Gorge, one of the deepest cañons in the United States. ”

“ They lie fifty miles south of the Arkansas river, and six miles west of the road from Cadron to Mount Prairie, on Red river.
The approach to the Springs lies up the valley of the creek, which is partly made up of its waters. On leaving the banks of the Washita, the face of the country almost imperceptibly changes from a rich soil, covered with a luxuriant growth of trees, to a sterile mineral tract. On the right hand rises the Hot Mountain, with the springs issuing at its foot ”

“ That was a long trip, anyway, 640 miles by steamboat up to Fort Gibson amidst the Cherokees in the Indian Country. The Arkansas River had proved to be a lonely stream, winding amidst cane brakes and bayous and timber and wide flowery prairies, peopled chiefly by bear and deer and horses and wild fowl. At Little Rock, the first town of any consequence, and the capital of Arkansas Territory, about half the passengers left, and a dozen others came aboard. ”

“ The Arkansas River once a mighty stream, has held out with more success than the Republican against the winds and drifting sands, but it is slowly and certainly disappearing, burying itself in the sand and earth it carries down at flood times—a work in which it is assisted by the strong, persistent prairie winds. ”

“ Arkansas territory exhibits every variety and quality of soil. The cultivated belt below the Post of Arkansas bears some outward resemblance to the coast in Louisiana; though its soil is not so fertile, and needs manuring to produce large crops. Large prairies interspersed with forest bottoms, and large tracts of excellent soil, are found five or six hundred miles from the mouth of Arkansas river. Mount Prairie, which lies on the Washita, has a black soil of extreme richness. On the White river are some of the healthiest and most fertile situations in this country. ”

“ Back to the foothills on either side there are bottom lands which are saturated and subirrigated by the underflow from the river, and are fertile and productive almost beyond comparison. The Arkansas river is a meandered stream through the state of Kansas, and under the laws and departmental rules and regulations of the United States it is a navigable river through the state of Kansas, and was, in fact, navigable and navigated from the city of Wichita south to its mouth ”

“ The White River front is the second, extending from Helena, Arkansas, to the mouth of the White and Arkansas Rivers. The third and fourth, known as the Tensas and the Atchafalaya fronts, run respectively from the Arkansas River to the Red River in Louisiana, and from the Red River to New Orleans. The first two sections have received no government work except in limited localities, where it was merely incidental to the work of river improvement undertaken by the commission; and those fronts are everywhere exposed to the overflow, except where private enterprise has done the work. ”

“ By the year 1873 a railroad was built through the entire length of the valley, and immediately after their settlement these bottom lands were extensively cultivated, large crops of agricultural products were raised, towns and cities sprang up, population rapidly increased, and by the year 1883 practically all the bottom lands of the Arkansas valley were in a state of successful and prosperous cultivation; that the waters of the Arkansas river furnished the foundation for this prosperity. ”

“ Continuing down the river, we encamped at noon on the 14th, at its mouth, on the Arkansas river. A short distance above our encampment, on the left bank of the Arkansas, is a pueblo, (as the Mexicans call their civilized Indian villages,) where a number of mountaineers, who had married Spanish women in the valley of Taos, had collected together and occupied themselves in farming, carrying on at the same time a desultory Indian trade. ”

“ Whenever land can be reclaimed for agriculture or grazing on the flanks of the mountains and in the protected valleys and parks, it is done, so that the district has extensive irrigation canals, in some parts diverting practically all the available flow of water in the streams. This is particularly the case with the Upper Arkansas River, such diversion of the headwaters 464 in Colorado having robbed the river of its water to such a degree that the people of Kansas, whither it flows on its route to the Mississippi, are greatly annoyed and have protracted litigation about it. ”

“ The left bank of the river still is in the limits of the state of Mississippi, the right thus far is in Arkansas Territory; of which Little Rock on the Arkansas river is the principal place, at which many emigrants from the eastern states have settled themselves. ”

“ The next route to the north is that over which the semi-weekly mail to California passes, and which, for a great portion of the way to New Mexico, I traveled and recommended in 1849. This road leaves the Arkansas River at Fort Smith, to which point steamers run during the seasons of high water in the winter and spring.
Supplies of all descriptions necessary for the overland journey may be procured at Fort Smith, or at Van Buren on the opposite side of the Arkansas. Horses and cattle are cheap here. ”

“ Across the plains of Colorado and Kansas the channel of this river is very shallow, in some places the banks being less than five feet above low water, and the channel at least three-quarters of a mile in width. The stream in Colorado is almost entirely diverted to the irrigation of lands alongside, and the sandy wastes thus watered have been made veritable garden spots. This wholesale diversion of the water by that state was the cause of much complaint on the part of property owners and others along the river in Kansas who suffered considerable loss and inconvenience from the river going dry. ”

“ The error has been, in some degree, corrected in Robinson's new map of Louisiana, lately published at Natchez, which may be esteemed the best map extant respecting that section of country. He calls it Pine river.
Black river is a large, deep, and gentle stream, composed of numerous auxiliaries, which draw their waters from the counties of Wayne, New Madrid, and Lawrence; the two former lying in Missouri Territory, and the latter in Arkansas. It is navigable with boats of the largest burden, at all seasons of the year, for more than one hundred miles. ”

“ White river runs through a section of country which, according to a recent political division, belongs chiefly to the Territory of Arkansas; but several of its tributaries originate in Missouri, the chief of which are James river, Great North Fork, or Pine river, and Black river, with its auxiliaries—Currents, Fourche à Thomas, Spring, Eleven-points, and Strawberry rivers.
About a hundred and fifty miles below the Pawnee mountains, the main south fork of White river is joined by the War Eagle and Osage forks; a region remarkable for the abundance of beaver found in its streams. ”

“ The principal northern tributaries of the Arkansas are Fontaine qui Bout, which flows in a S. direction from the N. base of Pike's peak, near the foot of South park, joining the main river at Pueblo; Squirrel creek, the Little Sandy, and Big Sandy, flowing S. E. from the divide to the Arkansas. ”

“ The Arkansas, ever changing its winding course after the manner of prairie-rivers, has long since shifted its bed some distance to the south, leaving only a portion of the old bridge to span what in high water becomes an arm of the river, but which ordinarily serves to convey the water from a neighboring mill. We lean upon its guard-rail while fancy is busy with the past. ”

“ The lofty banks through which the Arkansas occasionally passes are of shale and sandstone, rising precipitously from the water. Ascending the river the country is wild and broken, until it enters the mountain region, where the scenery is incomparably grand and imposing. The surrounding prairies are naturally arid and sterile, producing but little vegetation, and the primitive grass, though of good quality, is thin and scarce. ”

“ You also see the vast and arid salt fields on this trip. Another tour might well be through Bingham Canyon into the mining country where you see the world’s largest open pit copper mine.
From Salt Lake City, one of the routes east takes you through the world-renowned Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River, one of the great scenic thrills of the West. Another scenic route east takes you through Cheyenne.
From Colorado Springs, the “Sunshine City”, motor tours take you through the beautiful residential section and over High Mesa to the colorful Garden of the Gods. ”

“ It is already west of the Mississippi river, that mighty geographical highway, which, like a longitudinal line, stretches across seventeen degrees of latitude, every mile of which will, ere long, be settled and cultivated by the Anglo-American race. As the population presses first on the Indian's hunting-grounds, and next on his cornfields, he flies before the irresistible tide, and takes shelter at some more remote western point. ”

“ It is nearly square in form, each side measuring about 250 miles, and covers an area of 53,850 square miles, of which 805 square miles are water. It ranks twenty-third in size among the States of the Union.
Topography. With the exception of a few high bluffs, the eastern margin of the State is subject to inundation from the Mississippi River, causing an overflowing of the numerous lakes, bayous, and swamps. But the region to the westward attains a higher elevation, and the surface is broken by numerous ranges of hills and low mountains, which have a general trend from east to west. ”

“ The hot dank soil, steaming under the summer sun, brings disease in the wake of the flood.
Louisiana, from its character, is usually the principal sufferer: the Arkansas borders fare little better. All along the course of the stream the land is dotted with lakes and pools and marshy lands, created by former overflows. Along the lower portion of the river bayous or sloughs open from either bank, and meander lazily toward the gulf. ”

“ The Master heard evidence and was presented exhibits and maps which showed that the migration of the Mississippi River northward and west continued until about 1912. At this time an avulsion occurred leaving Tennessee lands on the west or Arkansas side of the new or avulsive river channel. The Master found that thereafter, because of the avulsion, the water in the thalweg became stagnant and erosion and accretion no longer occurred. At this time the boundary between Arkansas and Tennessee became fixed in the middle of the old abandoned channel. ”

“ Beginning in 1886 Congress made several appropriations looking to the improvement of the river from a point in Arkansas, not far from the Oklahoma boundary, westward to the mouth of the Washita, and about $500,000 was expended on the project. The officer in charge of the work several times recommended that it be discontinued, because not likely to result in any commercial navigation ”

“ The tributaries of the Arkansas within the State are mostly small streams, but the southeastern corner is drained by the large Neosho River and its main affluent, the Verdigris, which flow southward and enter the Arkansas in Indian Territory. ”

“ Spotted bass normally form a small part of the game-fish fauna in the lower Neosho River. The species attains greater abundance in smaller, clear streams of the Arkansas River Basin in Kansas (Cross, 1954, and unpublished data of State Biological Survey of Kansas) . During the drought, the lower Neosho probably assumed many characteristics of a smaller stream in normal times. Flow was reduced or entirely interrupted and turbidity was lessened. These conditions resulted in faunal changes in which spotted bass were more prominent than in years of normal flow. ”