DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's the word on this one, and here's how I tell it. Now, if you were movin' cotton or pelts or just about anything worth movin' in East Texas — say, somewhere between the 1830s and the 1860s — there was one name you needed to know on Caddo Lake: Swanson's Landing. Sitting sixteen miles northeast of where you're rolling right now, this was a key port, a genuine crossroads between the Texas interior and New Orleans.
Goods went out, settlers' supplies came in, and the whole operation turned on the vision of one man. Peter Swanson — civil engineer, planter, born 1789, died 1849 — founded this place and put it on the map before most folks had even drawn the map. Cotton bales stacked high, pelts bound for distant markets, and the steady commerce of a young land finding its legs.
Then came the railroad. In the 1850s, the Southern Pacific — the first railroad in East Texas, mind you — ran its terminal right here at Swanson's Landing and built the line all the way to Marshall. Think about that.
The landing wasn't just a port anymore; it was the anchor of an iron road pushing west. When the Civil War came on, 1861 to 1865, the road got rerouted to haul troops between Marshall and western Louisiana. The machinery of war has a way of bending everything to its own purpose.
After the war, the port declined. The world had moved on the way worlds do. But Caddo Lake had one more story to tell about this place — and it is not a gentle one.
On February 11, 1869, the steamer Mittie Stephens burned near Swanson's Landing. Sixty-nine lives were lost. Sixty-nine.
That quiet stretch of dark water holds that number still, and no amount of tellin' makes it any lighter.
What the marker says
(Site 16 mi. NE; Historic Railroad Bed Here) A key port on Caddo Lake for traffic to New Orleans, 1830s-1860s. Founded by Peter Swanson (1789-1849), a civil engineer and planter. Cotton, pelts and other products went out and settlers' goods came in at this landing. 1850s terminal of Southern Pacific (first railroad in East Texas), built to Marshall from the landing. During Civil War, 1861-65, road was rerouted to haul troops between Marshall and western Louisiana. Later, port declined. Steamer "Mittie Stephens" on Feb. 11, 1869, burned near Swanson's Landing with loss of 69 lives.