Explorations of the Red River
Palo Duro Canyon, the source of the spring-fed Red River of the South.
While the people native to the Red River Valley knew the river and its environs well, they did not necessarily "explore" in a European sense; they knew it based on the locations of their food sources, cultural centers, trading partners, and enemies, not because they sought treasure.
​
Today, we call treasure "resources," but it's very much still a colonial concept of hoping to become rich based on exploitation. To find bounty that can be turned into portable cash, European-based colonizers had to first understand where these might be. The French, Spanish, and Americans used their expeditions to document the people, animals, and landscape; their actions introduced the Red River of the South to the historical period. The impressions they returned with became the "explorations" that became journals, sketches, and maps. Following are some of these expeditions.
​
And check out the gallery below for some ingenious uses of the petrified forest that once dotted the western reaches of the Red River Valley!
During his trip, Marcy recorded a "chrystallized" cottonwood forest - a petrified forest that would be used by settlers for building material, like this former gas station in Stoneburg, Texas.
The Melish map of the United States (here, an 1816 version) was changed over the years to add more details, but continued to be used well into the 1850s.
The birthplace of the Red River is Palo Duro Canyon south of Amarillo. When Marcy came to this section, he buried a message in a bottle between the Salt Fork of the Red River and the Canadian River. The bottle's coordinates are: 35°35'03.0 N x 101°55'00.0 W However... since the second in command, George McClellan, broke the compass during the journey, the readings may not be very accurate.
During his trip, Marcy recorded a "chrystallized" cottonwood forest - a petrified forest that would be used by settlers for building material, like this former gas station in Stoneburg, Texas.
