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

the 1850s it entered a period of prosperity. Steamers arrived at Jefferson by the hundreds,
commerce flourished, and it became the largest town in northeast Texas, with a population
of 12,000 in 1870 (Maxwell & Baker 1983). However, once the Great Raft was removed (in
1874— Kleiner 1996), Caddo Lake began to slowly drain and revert to its original swampy
state. Thus, steamboat traffic to Jefferson came to an end by the end of the 1800s (Dahmer
1995; Van Kley & Hine 1998) and the city declined (recently because of its historic significance
and the beautiful nineteenth century buildings, Jefferson has experienced a revival as
a tourist destination). By 1912, most of Caddo Lake was covered by less than eight inches
of water (Texas Parks and Wildlife 2002c). Oil was discovered in the region shortly after the
turn of the twentieth century and the hauling of equipment and other oil operations were
very difficult in the now swampy Caddo “Lake.” Apparently, lobbying by oil interests resulted
in the construction of a small dam near Mooringsport, Louisiana in 1914, with the goal being
to restore “enough depth of water in Caddo Lake to permit barge and workboat operation of
their oil well activities” (Dahmer 1995). Caddo Lake thus became one of the first locations
where oil exploration was done underwater, and many basic underwater drilling techniques,
soon to be used all over the world, were developed there. Subsequently replaced in 1971, the
dam at Mooringsport stabilized the lake and preserved the associated wetlands vegetation
(Barrett 1995; Dahmer 1995; Van Kley & Hine 1998).
Presumably the vegetation of Caddo Lake at the time of European contact was similar
to that found in relatively undisturbed areas of the Caddo Lake region today (Hine 1996;
Van Kley & Hine 1998) and in other areas of the southeastern U.S. The animal life, however,
was much different, and today’s fauna is merely a remnant of the large and diverse
animal populations previously found widely in the Pineywoods. More information on the
Caddo Lake ecosystem can be found in Caddo Lake Institute (2001a), Texas Parks and
Wildlife (2002c, 2002d), Van Kley and Hine (1998), and Van Kley (2002).
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF CADDO LAKE
PRESENT AND FUTURE OF CADDO LAKE/INTRODUCTION 153
Today, Caddo Lake covers 10,850 hectares (26,800 acres) (Giggleman et al. 1998) and is a
“maze of channels, meandering bayous, and sloughs” (Hine 1996). Much of the area is
technically Semi-Permanently Flooded Swamps (Fig. 85; see also page 104), with a diversity
of other vegetation types in the immediately surrounding watershed. There are six
major plant community types present in Caddo Lake State Park and Wildlife Management
Area: Rich Mesic Slopes, Mesic Bottomland Ridges, Bottomland Oak Flats, Cypress-Water
Elm Swamps, Closed-Canopy Cypress Swamps, and Deep Water Cypress Swamps (Van
Kley & Hine 1998). A good first-hand introduction to the ecosystem is easily accessible at
Caddo Lake State Park.
Caddo Lake is particularly valuable as a natural area both because of its size and
because of the diversity of communities—few forested wetland landscapes of its scale
remain today in all of the southeastern U.S. (Van Kley 2002). As the largest naturally occurring
body of water in Texas, as a biologically valuable resource, and as an area rich in Texas
heritage, it is clearly a conservation priority. Indeed, several areas have been protected,
including Caddo Lake State Park (484 acres [196 hectares] in Harrison County) and Caddo
Lake Wildlife Management Area (7,681 acres [3,108 hectares] in Harrison and Marion
counties obtained by Texas Parks and Wildlife in 1992 with the help of the Nature
Conservancy). In 2000, the 8,500 acre (3,440 hectare) Caddo Lake National Wildlife
Refuge was approved. It occupies the area of the now closed Longhorn Army Ammunition
Plant. The majority of the Refuge’s land was turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife