A trading post on Bayou Boeuf known in the early nineteenth century as White's Landing became an important shipping point, but the bayou's fluctuating water levels and narrow, twisting passageways made transportation unreliable for planters trying to get crops to market. Ralph Smith Smith, an area engineer with railroad-building experience, recognized the settlers' shipping problems and around 1840 built the first railroad west of the Mississippi River from Alexandria to White's Landing. Known as the Red River or Ralph Smith Smith Railroad, the 16-mile line was crudely built and very slow, but it could make one round trip a day and operated for more than twenty years, helping settlers in the Bayou Boeuf Valley move their crops more efficiently. White's Landing then became known as Smith's Landing, and in 1854 the landing was renamed for the famous racehorse Lecomte. The railroad was destroyed in 1864 during the Civil War, and in 1881 Smith sold his railroad to the New Orleans Pacific Railway Company. The Smith railroad track bed and relics were later discovered in Lecompte during work on Jefferson Highway.