Texas Almanac, 1941-1942 Page: 266
[578] p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
TEXAS ALMANAC -1941-42
River Navigation-ntracoastal
Canal.
As a producer of great quantities of heavy
commodities, Texas is in need of low trans-
portation rates. In the chapter on the History
of Texas it was stated that the first great
need of Texas was population and the second
was transportation. The coming of the rail-
roads gave Texas access to markets, thereby
vitalizing its principal resources. The dredg-
ing of deepwater ports furthered the process
by opening to Texas the markets of foreign
countries and furnishing low rates to the in-
dustrialized and thickly populated Atlantic
seaboard. In the opinion of many rate au-
thorities, however, a vital need of Texas is
water transportation into the interior along
the channel, or channels, of one or more of
the several rivers that flow by easy gradient
across the Coastal Plain.
There are projects for navigation of several
of these streams, notably the Trinity and the
Red, in connection with general water and
soil conservation purposes. A number of these
streams were navigated for varying distances
from the coast during early days-the Trinity,
Red. Cypress Bayou, Sabine, Neches, San
Jacinto, Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe and Rio
Grande. Today there is practically no utiliza-
tion of these potential waterays except the
lower channel of the Trinity on which a barge
line is operated in connection with the Intra-
coastal Canal in Galveston Bay to Liberty,
which is about sixty miles inland.
In recent years, however, several develop-
ments have added to the practicability of
river navigation in Texas. Among them haxe
been (1) the impounding of large reservoirs
in the upper watersheds of some of these riv-
ers, (2) the working out of all-purpose pro-
grams of soil and water conservation, (3) the
development of industries which supply a
great amount of tonnage, and (4) the im-
provement of power machinery for clearing
and deepening river channels. There has been
still another development which has added
greatly to the practicability of Texas river
canalization by tying them to the M1ississippi
River canal system, construction of the Intra-
coastal Canal.
Intracoastal Canal.
Regular barge service is now maintained
oxer the Intracoastal Canal of Louisiana and
Texas as far west as Freeport at the mouth
of the Brazos It intersects the Houston and
Sabine-Neches deepwater channels, giving
barge service to Galveston. Houston, Texas
City. Port Arthur, Beaumont and Orange.
Early in 1941 work on the canal as progress-
ing with the expectation that it would be
completed to Corpus Christi by June The
completed section has a controlling depth of
nine feet.
The Intracoastal Canal is being extended
westward and will eventually connect the
Brownsville ship channel and Rio Grande xith
the Mississippi. It is proposed by the Mexi-
can Government to extend the canal exen-
tually to Vera Cruz This landlocked water-
way gives the entire seaboard of Texas barge
line connections xith the Mississippi system.
Trinity Navigation.
The principal river canalization project is
that which would. as part of a six-purpose
program, deepen the Trinity channel to depth
sufficient for all-year barge traffic.
The Trinity has long been proposed as a
navigable stream Dallas citizens in 1868
raised a bonus of $500 and induced J. M
McGarvey to steam up the river in his craft
of sixty feet length and twenty feet beam. as
a demonstration of the navigability of the
Trinity. Enthusiasm ran high and money wasraised by subscription for the construction of
a boat. This boat, the Salile Haynes, named
for the daughter of Dr. J. W. Haynes, was
launched Dec. 17, 1868, and made its way
from Dallas downstream. Its history is not
known definitely, but it operated on the Trin-
ity for some time subsequently. Agitation for
rixer navigation died don with the expan-
sion of railroads in the early se enties.
In the late eighties, howe er, the movement
for navigation of the Trinity was revived and
in 1892 the Trinity Rioer Navigation Company
mas organized at Dallas. A small steamboat,
the H. A. Harvey Jr., was bought at Mermen-
teau, La., and sailed to Dallas, arriving May
24, 1893. As the result of work on the part of
Dallas backers of Trinity navigation, a survey
was made and several locks constructed, but
the project was abandoned by the Federal
Government in 1922 when surveys showed the
nater supply inadequate, in addition to the
lack of sufficient tonnage for profitable opera-
tion of the waterway as an isolated project,
as it would have been at that time.
The adent of the Intracoastal Canal into
Texas, however, along with a large Increase
in the state's population and markets, has re-
moed the project from its purely local status
and the present plans would make the Trinity
Canal a tributary to the great national inland
oaterhay system. In addition to this, com-
pletion of flood control and other reseroir-
projects by Fort Worth and Dallas and pri-
xate interests assure ample water for year-
round navigation. More than 780 000 acre-feet
of water is now impounded in the upper
Trinity Basin.
After the project had been dormant for a
number of years it was revived in 1930. first
as a navigation project, but later as an all-
purpose undertaking including (1) water, soil
and forest conservation, (2) navigation, flood
control and reclamation; (3) wild life conser-
vation, (4) alleviation of stream pollution.
(5) storage and control for municipal and
other purposes, and (6) recreational purposes.
Under an act of Congress in 1936 a joint sur-
xey of the Trinity Basin by Departments of
War and Agriculture was authorized. This
had been completed and was in process of
compilation early in 1941.
The recent movement for navigation of the
river has been a co-operative one between
Fort Worth. Dallas and lower points on the
river Under previous plans Dallas was the
terminus; under the present plan the upper
terminus of navigation would be placed at
Fort Worth.
Early in 1941 a sixty-mile channel was being
maintained by the Federal Government as far
upstream as Liberty, and it was expected that
the channel would be cleared for another
sixtv miles to Romayor during 1941. Power
craft have recently ascended the Trinity to,
Midway, Madison County 23C miles above
Galveston Bay, during normal river stages.
Red River ProJect.
In early days steamers ascended the Red
Ri.er on a few occasions as far as Denison,
and there has been consistent advocacy of
canalization of this stream The beginning of
xork, during 1940, on the huge Lake Denison
project gave impetus to this undertaking,
since the impounding of this reservoir, to be
the largest in the Gulf Southwest, will regu-
late the flow of the Red River and greatly
facilitate navigation Navigation is part of
the Red Rixer all-purpose project. (See also
p. 162 )
Big Cypress Navigation,
Before the coming of the railroads to Texas,
the Big Cypress Bayou was navigated to Jef-
ferson. Marion County. connection being
maintained with the Mississippi, through
Caddo Lake and the Red River From the
founding of Jefferson in 1842 until after 1872266
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This book 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 Book.
Texas Almanac, 1941-1942, book, 1941; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117164/m1/268/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.