Caddo Prairie Crossroads

During the early decades of the 19th century, this area in north Caddo Parish was a crossroads of navigable bayous, a Caddo Indian Trail, an early settlers' road, and the first cotton plantations in what was then called Caddo Prairie. Its importance led the United States Government to establish an Indian Agency House there from 1825 to 1831 for the Caddo and other Indian groups. The U.S. Government also improved navigation on Black and Red Bayous by clearing them and developing a canal between the two waterways under Lt. Washington Seawell, allowing small steamboats and other watercraft to bypass the Upper Red River Raft north of Shreveport. Although Captain Henry Miller Shreve cleared the lower Red River Raft during the 1830s, the Upper Raft remained. From the 1820s to the 1840s, early settlers and landowners in the area included Larkin Edwards, James Shennick, Jacob Irwin, Angus McNeil, John Sewall, Sturgis Sprague, James Herndon, and James Erwin, and many were among the original founders of Shreveport.

Gilliam, Louisiana · United States