Red River (Mississippi watershed)

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Map of the Red River Watershed

The Red River is one of several rivers with that name, and of two rivers with that name in the United States. It rises in two branches (forks) in the Texas Panhandle and flows east along the border of Texas and Oklahoma, and briefly between Texas and Arkansas. At Fulton, Arkansas, the river turns south into Louisiana to empty into the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers. The total length of this journey is 1360 miles (2189 km). The river gains its name from the red-clay farmland of its watershed. Since 1943 the Red River has been dammed by Denison Dam to form Lake Texoma, a very large reservoir of 89,000 acres (360 kmĀ²), some 70 miles (113 km) north of Dallas. Other reservoirs serve as flood control on the river's tributaries.

Much of the river's length in Louisiana was unnavigable in the early 19th century due to a collection of fallen trees that formed a "Great Raft" over 160 miles (257 km) long. Captain Henry Miller Shreve cleared the logjam in 1839, and now the river is navigable for small craft north of Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Due to a cartographic error, the land between the north and south forks was claimed by both the state of Texas and the federal government. Originally called Greer County, Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it belonged to the federal government, which at the time oversaw the Oklahoma Territory. That territory later was later incorporated into the state of Oklahoma, whose southern border now follows the south fork.

That southern fork, which is about 120 miles (193 km), is now called the Prairie Dog Town Fork. It is formed in Randall County, Texas near Canyon, Texas by the confluence of intermittent Palo Duro Creek and Tierra Blanca Creek. (The names mean "Hard Wood" and "White Land", respectively, in Spanish.) It flows east-southeast, through Palo Duro Canyon in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, then past Newlin, Texas to meet the Oklahoma state line. From there eastward, it is usually referred to as the Red River, even before meeting the north fork.

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