DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Navigation of the Colorado River, up in Colorado County. Now settle in, because this is a story about big dreams running headlong into a pile of logs. In early Texas, getting from one place to another overland was no Sunday ride.
Hardship, frustration, danger — those were your traveling companions whether you wanted them or not. So naturally, folks looked at those long, meandering rivers and thought: there has to be a better way. From 1829 all the way to the Civil War, optimistic Texans kept trying to make those rivers work for them.
And I do mean optimistic — bless their hearts, they needed every bit of it. The Colorado River was one of the great hopes. And for a moment — just a moment — it delivered.
In 1838, a keelboat by the name of the David Crockett became the very first boat to navigate that river. Now that is a name that fits the ambition. After that, flatboats started working the water, hauling cotton, hides, lumber, and pecans downstream, and things looked promising.
But the Colorado had a secret it wasn't giving up easily. They called it simply — the raft. Not a friendly little raft you'd float a summer afternoon on.
This was a series of timber masses, some floating, some sunken, choking off the river somewhere between ten and twenty-five miles above its mouth. How long was this obstruction? Well, that depended on who you asked.
Estimates ran anywhere from three to eight miles. What everyone agreed on was this: it stopped you cold. Flatboats would come down loaded with goods and hit that tangle of timber, and that was it.
Everything had to be unloaded right there and hauled by wagon — laboriously, the marker says, and I think that word is doing a lot of honest work — all the way to Matagorda. So much for the easy river route. Now, people weren't just sitting on their hands.
The Republic of Texas incorporated two companies specifically to clear that river. The State authorized the construction of a whole new channel to go around the raft. And yet — the obstruction remained.
It remained an impediment. It remained a hazard. Some shallow-draft boats managed to squeeze through on occasion, but the raft had a way of outlasting everyone's plans.
Meanwhile, something new was coming across the Texas landscape, something that didn't care one bit about log jams or river depth. The railroads arrived, and they were efficient in a way the rivers simply couldn't match. They started taking away the business, bit by bit.
And then came the Civil War, and after it — silence on the water. After the Civil War, Texas rivers ceased to be an important factor in transportation. Just like that, the dream that had been chased from 1829 onward was over.
The David Crockett had her moment. The flatboats had their runs. But in the end, the raft won the argument — and the railroads wrote the final chapter.
What the marker says
Because overland travel in early Texas was an enterprise often fraught with hardship, frustration, and danger, many individuals looked to rivers for a solution to the problem. From 1829 to the Civil War, optimistic Texans attempted to ply the area's long, meandering rivers, but met repeated disappointment. The most serious drawback to navigation of the Colorado was "the raft." This was a series of timber masses--some floating, some sunken--choking off the river about 10-25 miles above its mouth. The length was variously given as 3-8 miles. In spite of this, the keelboat "David Crockett" became the first boat to navigate the river, in 1838. After that, flatboats brought cotton, hides, lumber, and pecans down as far as the raft, but there the goods had to be taken off and hauled laboriously by wagon to Matagorda. The Republic of Texas incorporated 2 companies to clear the river and the State authorized the construction of a new channel around the raft, but the obstruction remained an impediment and hazard. Although shallow-draft boats managed occasional trips, the more-efficient railroads eventually took away much business. After the Civil War, Texas Rivers ceased to be an important factor in transportation.