RED RIVER (ante), the southernmost of the great tributaries of the Missisippi. The peculiar color from which it derives its name is attributed to the red clay of the gypseous formation which constitutes a portion of its bed. It rises in the Panhandle or n.e. section of Texas, in lat. 34° 40' n. and long. 103° 2' w., its source being the fissures of the Llano Estacado or Staked Plain, a barren and rainless tableland about 2,450 ft. above the sea. Following an e. direction it first passes through an immense cafion of some 100 m. in length, owned and occupied by Comanches and Staked Plain Indians, who have effectually resisted all attempts at exploration; then forms the dividing line between Texas and Indian territory, being the entire s. boundary of that territory. At Fulton, Ark., it makes a sudden bend, and for the rest of its course pursues what is in the main a s.e. direction, though with many windings, until it enters the Mississippi about 31° north. Its chief tributary is the Washita river, which it meets some 25 m. above its mouth; the other affluents, like the North Fork, the Big Wichita, etc., are of minor importance. The total length of the Red river is estimated at about 1550 m., and the area drained by it at about 97,000 sq m., a large proportion of which area is remarkable for its fertility. Its broadest part (2,700 ft.) is just below where it issues fr0111 the cation already mentioned, and for more than 100 m. thereafter it flows in a very wide and shallow channel, and then gradually contracts, while its bed deepens, until at its confluence with the fir Wichita river, 400 in. from its source, it measures only 600 feet. Thereafter its width
is rarely more than 800 ft. until it nears its mouth, where it stretches to some 1800 feet. Its greatest depth is about 50 feet. In the upper part of its course, where the channel is wide, it is never more than 6 or 8 ft. deep even in the flood times, which are frequent. The fall of the river from its source to its meeting with the Big Wichita is very rapid, being nearly 1500 ft., thence to Fulton about 800 ft., and from Fulton to its mouth, where it is 50 ft. above the gulf level, only 188 feet. During the low water seasons (from June or July until December) the mouth of the river cannot be entered by boats of more than 2 ft. draught., For steamers of light weight it is navigable as far as Shreveport, La., for seven or eight months in the year, but as far as Fulton for only three or four mouths. For smaller vessels it is navigable at high water for about 1250 m. above its mouth. Just below Shreveport, navigation was formerly impeded by the great raft, an immense collection of timber and driftwood extending thence as high up tn, Great Echore, a distance of 15 miles. The U. S. government in 1833 undertook the removal of this obstruction, and after various abortive efforts lieut. Woodruff in Nov., 1873, succeeded in cutting through the raft a navigable channel, which can be kept open at slight annual expense.