A Quibble about the Arkansas River

[Ol' Choctaw]

I know the game a bit long in the tooth and the map is not going to change.

Most of the research is much above par. I won’t argue about canals to the Great Lakes. I will stick to what I know.

The Arkansas River was regularly navigated by Steamboats well above Fort Gibson.

In 1824 The 60 ton steamboat Florence brought up 100 recruits for that post.

Perhaps some of the confusion occurs because Ft. Smith was where many goods were loaded onto flatboats going up the tributaries or shipped overland but Ft. Gibson was an important port.

In 1828 The Facility, 117 tons, became the first steamboat to ascend the Verdigris. It brought Creek emigrants and departed with 500 barrels of pecans.

In 1829 The James O’Hara, 200 tons, the biggest recorded steamboat to have plied the Arkansas (dimensionally), brought recruits and 100 Cherokee to Ft. Gibson. That same year the Sam Houston arrived at Three Forks, near present day Muskogee, OK.

In 1832 the Congress granted $15,000 for snag boats to maintain the channels as far up as the mouth of the Grand (Neosho) River.

In 1833 there were 17 steamboats docking at Ft. Gibson regularly.

In 1837 The Chickasaws came up river to Ft. Coffee and trekked on to there homes in the western Choctaw lands.

There is only one year (1850) that boats could not reach Ft. Gibson, due to low water levels.

After the war steamboats were docking at Arkansas City, Kansas and you had flatboats above there.

So, why is it that from 1861 to 1866 we can’t go beyond Ft. Smith?

There is a note that in 1868 River traffic in the Indian Territory and lower Arkansas began to decline but in 1870 there were still 20 steamboats, averaging 300 tons of cargo, docking at Ft. Gibson.

Did this get overlooked or is there some other reason why the river isn’t usable above Ft. Smith?

I sure hope there is a ACW2 in the works and this might be fixed.

Any thoughts?

[Longshanks]

My thought is that I like to read the results of your research. Keep it up!

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Ol' Choctaw]

Thanks Gray.

I am working on a post for that thread. I just worry it could be a book by the time I am done with it, and then being too long, no one will read the darn thing.