Jefferson Turn Basin was a wide, deep lagoon in Cypress Bayou used to turn around ships in the Gulf-Red River trade. The first steamer to reach it was the Lama in 1844 by way of the Red River, which for 200 miles above Shreveport was clogged by a raft of debris that had begun forming about 1529. Cypress Bayou therefore became the best travel route into Oklahoma, western Arkansas, and north Texas. Until the Federal government removed the raft in 1873, Jefferson was the Southwest's greatest inland port, and this basin was its business center. The last steamer operated here in 1903.