ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS - Brit - Botanical Research ...

CADDO LAKE/INTRODUCTION 151
culture that had at one time built ceremonial mounds widely in the eastern U.S. (Newcomb
1961; Phelan 1976; Smith 1995). Such mounds can still be seen today in some parts of East
Texas (e.g., Caddoan Mounds State Historic Site in Cherokee County). It is from the Caddos
that Texas derived its name. The Caddoan word Techas or Tayshas, meaning allies or friends,
was mispronounced by the Spanish as Tejas and eventually came into English as Texas
(Bolton 1908; Phelan 1976; Smith 1995). According to Dahmer (1995), the Caddos used the
word so often that early explorers thought it was the native name for the area.
The political control of the Caddo Lake region has been marked by change—it was
first controlled by the Caddos, then claimed by both Spain and France, and with Texas
independence, at least a portion of it was considered part of that separate nation. With
Texas statehood in 1845, the Texas-Louisiana boundary was drawn approximately down
the middle of Caddo Lake (Dahmer 1995; Mallory 1997).
Caddo Lake, with its extensive areas of bald-cypress (Fig. 82) festooned with Spanish
moss and with the water sometimes completely covered with a green carpet of floating
aquatic plants, has caught the imagination of both local residents and those only newly
introduced to the area. According to Dahmer (1995), a long-time resident and one of the
most knowledgeable authorities on the lake, “Caddo Lake is the most beautiful lake you
will ever see.” Often stated to be the only natural lake in Texas, it is the largest naturally
occurring body of freshwater in the state (Dahmer 1995). Rather than a single lake, Caddo
Lake is actually a complex series of lakes and swamps interconnected by a maze-like series
of channels. Among the most striking aspects of Caddo Lake are the bald-cypresses
(Taxodium distichum) which dominate most views. These extremely water-tolerant, swollenbased
trees not only line the margins of open portions of the lake and its channels, but also
occur as isolated individuals in areas of shallow water.
Despite previous ideas about the origin of Caddo Lake (e.g., formed by earthquakes in
1811–1812—Weniger 1984b), recent consensus recognizes a different mechanism of formation.
It is now thought that Caddo Lake is a drowned floodplain resulting from the Great
Raft. Originally, Caddo Lake was probably a low “system of creeks, ponds, lakes, and
swamps interspersed with islands and hillocks of dry ground. In the rainy season there
were good-sized lakes; in the dry season it was a large swamp” (Dahmer 1995). Just to the
east of Caddo Lake, the Red River flows south through an area where for millennia it has
frequently changed course, as evidenced by such structures as oxbow lakes.
Around 1800, a huge series of log jams 120 km (75 miles) long called the Great Raft
obstructed the main channel of the Red River, forcing water into side channels and backing
up tributaries, including Twelve Mile Bayou, which drained the Caddo Lake area. While
the exact cause of the Great Raft is not known with certainty, one widely held theory is that
“flood waters from the Mississippi River engulfed the mouth of the smaller Red, forcing
large amounts of driftwood up stream” (Vaughn-Roberson 2004). Once a portion of the
Red River was so blocked, large amounts of debris washing downriver would presumably
have continued to build up. Alternatively, logs and other material from upstream could
simply have accumulated in the very meandering channel and blocked the river. Whatever
the cause, a number of swamps and lakes, including Caddo Lake, was the result of the
Great Raft (Barrett 1995; Dahmer 1995; Keeland & Young 1997; MacRoberts et al. 1997;
Van Kley & Hine 1998; Texas Parks and Wildlife 2002c). Caddo Lake, in the early 1800s
sometimes called Fairy Lake (or misspelled Ferry Lake—e.g., Kendall 1845—Fig. 84), is
thus a drowned floodplain formed when water from the Red River was diverted into the
naturally low area around Big Cypress Bayou and adjacent streams (Barrett 1995; Dahmer
1995; Van Kley & Hine 1998).
During the time of the Great Raft (indicated on a map in Kennedy 1841), river steamboats
could travel up the Mississippi to the Red River and eventually through Caddo Lake
upstream as far as Jefferson, Texas (e.g., Smith 1849, published in 1970). As a result,
Jefferson was the most inland city in the region reachable by navigable waterway, and by