The Sun Has Riz

“The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here we is in Texas yet.”

~ Old saying

Joel Bowman, with today’s Note From the End of the World: Jefferson, Texas...

“What’s the good word, sir?” we inquired of a tall man at the bar with a long white mustache. 

He raised his eyebrows, then his glass. “Trump’s alive.”

“Only by a whisker...” we ventured, carefully. 

The tall man slaked his thirst. “Right about how close this country came to another civil war.”

Our cheerful interlocutor did not strike us as the kind of man to mince his words. Nor was he the only patron in the bar sporting a MAGA hat. 

“There but by the grace of God,” he raised his glass once more. 

We’re out on the open road, wending our way across the great southern states. This here is Republican country. Deep red. We’re getting to know some of the locals. The waitress brought over our drinks. On her shirt: Gun Powder and Girl Power. 

At one point, back in the mid-1800s, Jefferson was a key port city here in Texas. A long jam, 100 miles long and known as the Great Red River Raft, raised the levels of the nearby Caddo Lake such that commercial riverboat travel was possible from ports as far away as St. Louis and New Orleans via the Mississippi and Red Rivers. The Caddo Indians, who had ceded the land, reckoned the raft had always been there...

The River Turns

At its peak, Jefferson was the sixth-largest town in Texas, home to some 30,000 souls. Story goes that, over the years, attempts were made to clear the Great Raft, to allow the river its natural flow. But it wasn’t until the discovery of nitroglycerine when, in 1873, the Army Corps of Engineers was able to get the job done and, in doing so, change the course of the river.

Only, once the raft was cleared, the level of the Caddo fell... as did the fortunes of Jefferson. No longer able to support commercial river traffic, business in the town soon dried up. A few years after the Great Raft was gone, Jefferson’s population had dwindled to barely 3,000. Today, it’s home to 1,875 people. 

Some townsfolk say it was Jay Gould, the railroad magnate, who was secretly behind clearing the Great Raft. He had wanted to build his railroad through the town, but the people refused him a permit, owing to their riverboat business. Others say that’s all just legend, tall tales. 

Rivers turn. Men meddle. And history runs its course.

Which brings us to your Notes from the End of the Week…

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And as always, stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…

Cheers,

Joel Bowman