The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949 Page: 425
512 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
The Colorado River Raft
of $50,000 which Captain Cheatham considered would be suf-
ficient to remove the raft in 185o. The raft, however, had grown
considerably since that date. In 1900oo the head of the raft was
thirty-one miles up stream. By 1928 it had grown fourteen miles,
the head being forty-five miles from the mouth of the river.41
The reclamation districts started the work of clearing out the
channel in 1925. They adopted an interesting technique in re-
moving the massive collection of logs and other debris, which had
defied all previous efforts of man over a period of nearly a hun-
dred years. A channel, eighty to two hundred feet wide and
twenty to thirty feet deep, was cut along the east bank of the
river. Part of the east edge of the raft was removed. By 1928 this
channel had been opened the entire length of the raft.
The engineers made the force of the river water assist them
in removing the raft, which the river had formed. The flood in
the summer of 1929 poured through the channel with such force
that it swept practically the entire collection of drift out into
Matagorda Bay.
The drift, however, was not yet disposed of; for it clogged the
bay and retarded the flow of the river at its mouth. Finally in
1934, the reclamation district in Matagorda County cut a channel
two hundred feet wide and nine feet deep from the mouth of
the Colorado straight through the mass of logs in the bay and
across Matagorda Island into the Gulf of Mexico. This flood-
discharge channel is 6.4 miles long and is kept open now by the
Corps of Engineers to protect navigation on the Intracoastal
Waterway.42
The two reclamation districts in Matagorda and Wharton
Counties have spent over $1,200,000 in removing the raft, open-
ing the mouths of tributaries to the river, keeping the channel
open, rebuilding old levees, and constructing twenty-three miles
of new levees.43
41B. F. Williams, "Report of the Inspection of the Lower Colorado River from
Wharton to Bay City" (1928), 3. This unpublished report, dated May 24, 1928,
was made by the state reclamation engineer. It is in the files of the General Land
Office.
42State Reclamation Department, Lower Colorado River Reclamation Study
(Austin, 1936), 8.
43H. P. Bunger, Irrigation and Flood Protection, Austin to Matagorda, Texas
(1938), 5. This is Report No. 20 for the Bureau of Reclamation. The total bond425
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 52, July 1948 - April, 1949, periodical, 1949; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101121/m1/434/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.