The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 421
641 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Comments on Changes in the Red River
west end of this bulge north of parallel 399'7". A bluff cut-bank
up to seven or eight feet high now stretches north some 500 east
from approximately latitude 34o9'7", longitude 9837'380" to a
new apex approximately north of the former upstream end
of Goat Island near latitude 349'2o", longitude 98037'20". The
former dunes with their cottonwoods have been washed away and
replaced at present by an undulating sand flat covered with the
usual Tamarix thickets. On this flat, lying diagonally across par-
allel 3409'3o" and meridian 98037'30" some seven to eight seconds
to the north and west of their intersection, is an island with a
southeastward bluff cut-bank some seven to eight feet high. This
island, about half a mile long and an eighth mile wide, is covered
principally with Populus and Baccharis on its more elevated por-
tions and Tamarix on the flats. The cottonwoods all seem to be too
young to date back to 1921, certainly too young to have attained
much size as of that date. This suggests that the island may be a
young one, although its position places it within the apex of the
cottonwood area noted in 1921.
Upstream, between meridians 98039'2o" and 9840'380", the
south cut-bank of the river appears to be appreciably farther
north than it was in 1921. Exactly how much farther can be ascer-
tained only by an engineer's crew running its present meanders
and plotting them on the 1921 map. A bluff bank some five to
seven feet high is in the vicinity of 98 40'oo". Back of this bank
is an area of Populus, Baccharis, Tamarix, and other vegetation
in varying density and admixture. In this region are numerous
producing oil wells on which taxes are being paid to Oklahoma.
Applying the principles laid down by the court in its decree of
March 12, 1923, it would seem that at least some of these wells
are clearly now in Texas as a consequence of material accretion
to the south bank of the river since 1921, when, presumably, these
wells were drilled on the sand flat of the river.
The greatest flood on this portion of the Red River since 1921
was on May 18, 1935. About 9:30 P.M., a section of the Missouri,
Kansas, and Texas railway trestle above Burkburnett was dis-
lodged by floodwaters and carried downstream where it rammed
out two sections of a new concrete bridge on United States421
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963, periodical, 1963; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101196/m1/447/?rotate=180: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.