Red River Update: July 30

Running the Kiamichi

Monday, July 30, 2001. Monday was a rest day for the Red River Project crew.

The Red River Project uses a small outboard-powered motorboat to set buoys and dredge lines, to maneuver the work platforms and to move crew members back and forth from the work platforms to the bank. The boat cannot be left on site, so it’s launched and recovered every day.

The boat crew sets out at 7:30 every morning, a half-hour before the other crew members leave by van for the site. They launch the boat at a ramp on the Kiamichi River, several miles upstream from the wreck site. The ramp is a steep one, and crew members suspect the river there may have claimed several trucks whose brakes failed there at an inopportune moment.

The run from the ramp to the wreck site covers about eight miles and takes upwards of an hour. The interesting thing about it is that during that entire time, the crew members in the boat often don’t encounter any other signs of human habitation - no houses, no boats, nothing. It’s very easy to imagine that one has been transported back to the Indian Territory of the 1830s, because there’s nothing to break the illusion.

The four-mile run down the Kiamichi is a fast one. Although the river is narrow, it’s straight, deep and almost completely free of obstructions. Progress slows at the mouth of the Kiamichi, though, where it empties into the main body of the Red River. This area is full of sandbars and snags, not unlike those that brought the steamboat to grief so many years ago. During this part of the run one crew member watches carefully from the bow, pointing out obstacles in the boat’s path. The boat moves from one bank to the other, always trying to find the clearest channel. Occasionally the motor’s tone will drop noticeably, accompanied by the appearance of a light-tan billow of water at the stern. This is the tell-tale sign of the propeller’s cutting through the bottom, and the driver corrects his steering to find another way through the sand.

Finally, after about three miles of weaving down the Red, the first indication of human activity reappears. It is an unmistakable sign, the bright-blue lavatory set up on the bluff above the wreck site. This humble landmark was immediately dubbed "Point Port-a-Potty" by the crew. Beneath it, a long wooden stair leads down to the shore and the work barges. Even as the motorboat approaches the landing, a white van carrying the rest of the crew appears over the edge of the bluff. It’s time to go to work.

This update is sponsored by the PAST Foundation and the Oklahoma Historical Society. It may be freely redistributed without modification for non-commercial purposes.

John Davis and Howard McKinnis, both of the OHS, make an early morning run down the Kiamichi River.	This stretch of the Kiamichi runs straight and deep, making for a quick passage.	The confluence of the Kiamichi and Red Rivers is partially blocked by sand bars, which must be negotiated carefully.	A private plane passes low overhead as crew members load the boat at the wreck site.