Color your own power maps from 1601 and 1478!

This Belgian Map from 1825 of the Red River of the South leaves more questions than answers.

The Louisiana Purchase gave way to five territories along the Red River. Here are links to some of the congressional papers.

Until the 1830s, the Disputed Territory along the Red River, where Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana meet, was a "no man's land."

St. Anne's Church in Natchitoches Parish may be the church with the oldest congregation in the state of Louisiana.

A lot of shenanigans and the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 established the Red River as the southern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

For Thomas Jefferson, the most important Corps of Discovery in the Louisiana Purchase was the expedition up the Red River of 1806.

In 1805, Dr. Sibley took the testimony of Francis Grappe about French settlements along the Red River in New Orleans Territory.

The census of Native People of New Orleans Territory included descriptions of tribal languages, places, and affiliations.

Campti lies in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, just up the road from the Grand Ecore.

A 1656 map shows villages like Naguatex, which were described in the 1557 book, Gentleman of Elvas, about the de Soto expedition.

According to Jacques Marquette in 1673, this is the "First Map of the Mississippi River."

Between 1810 and 1813, John Maley journeyed up the Red River and visited Natchitoches twice, but didn't enjoy either visit.

A Hamlet-Style Transaction between Tishomingo of the Chickasaws and the Choctaws, as related by a French writer in 1749.

This French map from 1783 combines European claims and native America.

The "Old Southwest," which is dominated by the Red River, is a political rather than a cultural designation.

Mercer's Colony in northeast Texas received permission in January of 1844 to form a separate land grant process from Peters Colony.

One of my favorite maps of the Red River is Nicolas de Fer's illustrated map published in France in 1718.

The bones of the Natchez warriorss could be seen there years afterwards at Lake Sang pour Sang — "Blood for Blood."

Stephen F. Austin traced a Mexican map of the Province of Texas from 1818 and painted it with water colors.