I'm here to rant that loop highways and bypasses are stupid ideas.

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."

What are these "earth pimples" (acne!) as some researchers have described the circular mounds that appear in all over the Red River Valley?

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.

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

he Western Interior Seaway of the Mesozoic Era is the reason that the Red River Valley of the South is extremely rich in fossils.

S.A. Bolton explained living in a dugout in Harmon County, Oklahoma Territory to a WPA worker during the Great Depression.

Two maps of the Missouri Territory were either made with a time machine, or one of them is a wee bit older.

The northwestern portions of the Ozark Trail were subsumed by the federal highway project designated as US 66, aka the original Route 66.

A map about an unrealized future, drawn to indicate where the Texas & Pacific Railroad would pass once it was built west of Shreveport.

The Index Line stretched all the way from Logansport north to the Red River.

Several years ago, I took a road trip and found myself at Indian City, USA. I'm glad I did, because Indian City, USA is no more.

In the 1950s, salty Estelline Spring at the Prairie Dog Town Fork released 300 tons of the mineral daily into the Red River.

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.

This photograph depicts "part of Satanta's Kiowa Band at Sutler's Store, Fort Sill, Indian Territory" by either Soule or Bliss.

The Caddo structures were so numerous that Europeans who came to the Red River labeled southwestern Arkansas "Mound City."

Zebulon Pike's journey to the Red River was beset with problems and intrigue.