Started By
Message

Why does the Red River suddenly just name change to the Atchafalaya River?

Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:39 pm
Posted by Meauxjeaux
102836 posts including my alters
Member since Jun 2005
45508 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:39 pm
It doesn't join in or fork with another thus taking on that river's name? It just goes from Red to Atchafalaya.

Is this an artifact of the NLA/SLA coonass split?

Like cajuns have to be special in everything all time time? Can't just let a river run through with it's origin name?

Help me out here...
Posted by Harry Caray
Denial
Member since Aug 2009
20029 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:41 pm to
Posted by W2NOMO
Member since Jul 2025
1470 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:42 pm to
Yeaux kneaux why…
Posted by soccerfüt
Location: A Series of Tubes
Member since May 2013
72545 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:42 pm to
Why do the birds keep on singing?
Posted by el Gaucho
He/They
Member since Dec 2010
58287 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:42 pm to
It’s the Native American Skin Tone river now
Posted by LSUballs
RayVegas LA
Member since Feb 2008
39797 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:43 pm to
Because the Old River Control Structure calls the shots. You got a problem, take it up with the ORCS.
Posted by theGarnetWay
Washington, D.C.
Member since Mar 2010
27122 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:44 pm to
quote:

It’s the Native American Skin Tone river now


Commander River.
Posted by Meauxjeaux
102836 posts including my alters
Member since Jun 2005
45508 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:48 pm to
So shouldn't it go back to Red River after the cut?

Or been Upper Red and Lower Red from the start?

Awesome jpg thought
Posted by Bama Bird
Pittsburgh, PA
Member since Mar 2013
22541 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:49 pm to
Naming rivers is more philosophical than scientific, but in this case, they're distinct rivers. Red River would naturally join the Mississippi and Atchafalaya was its own thing. I feel like every Louisianan should know about this considering the potential disaster situation
Posted by Harry Caray
Denial
Member since Aug 2009
20029 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:53 pm to
quote:

So shouldn't it go back to Red River after the cut?

Probably easier to just keep what the maps written in the 19th century already had down
quote:

Or been Upper Red and Lower Red from the start?

Well that's no fun
Posted by slidingstop
Member since Jan 2025
1609 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:56 pm to
cause its Acadiana T!!
Posted by PANTHER
Bunkie
Member since Oct 2004
2389 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 2:57 pm to
My family has been fishing there before the ORCS was built. This picture always amazed me
Posted by CarRamrod
Spurbury, VT
Member since Dec 2006
58263 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 3:02 pm to
quote:


So shouldn't it go back to Red River after the cut?

Or been Upper Red and Lower Red from the start?
but its not red after Old River.
Posted by Harry Boutte
Louisiana
Member since Oct 2024
3338 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 3:10 pm to
Yeah, and what's up with the Black River? Can't they just let the Ouachita go all the way to the Red? I'm telling you, the Black River confluincing with the Red River is just flat out miscegeny.
Posted by habz007
New Orleans
Member since Nov 2007
4679 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 3:15 pm to
quote:

So shouldn't it go back to Red River after the cut?


Atchafalaya name predates Red River. So what are you “going back to”?

And it predates the Cajun arrival. Choctaws and other natives were in the region first.
Posted by Shorty_price
Member since Oct 2018
375 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 3:20 pm to
The Chattahoochee turns into The Appalachicola at the Fla / Ga line.
This post was edited on 8/8/25 at 3:21 pm
Posted by kingbob
Sorrento, LA
Member since Nov 2010
69165 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 3:21 pm to
The two rivers used to be separated.
Posted by cbree88
South Louisiana
Member since Feb 2010
9467 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 3:22 pm to
In a prior millennium, the Red River and Mississippi River were separate, parallel rivers running to the Gulf.

The Mississippi River meandered to the west and intercepted the Red River, cutting it in two. The upper Red River became a tributary of the Mississippi River, and the lower Red River became a distributary of the Mississippi River.

The lower Red River came to be known as the Atchafalaya River after European settlement in North America after all of this had already happened since they appeared to be separate rivers at that point.

The Atchafalaya River gradually gained more and more of the Mississippi River’s flow in the following centuries. It would have become the main channel of the Mississippi River by the end of the 20th century if left unchecked and so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Old River Control Structure to keep the Mississippi flowing in its current path through Baton Rouge and New Orleans. When they built the Old River structure, they reconfigured the Red River to flow into the Atchafalaya again like it did over a thousand years ago.
This post was edited on 8/8/25 at 3:42 pm
Posted by cbree88
South Louisiana
Member since Feb 2010
9467 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 3:24 pm to
quote:

The two rivers used to be separated.


Correct, but they were together as one river before they were separated into two rivers. See my post above. The Mississippi meandered to the west and intercepted the Red River and broke it in two.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers connected the two rivers as one again when they built the Old River structure in the 1950s.
This post was edited on 8/8/25 at 3:28 pm
Posted by RichJ
The Land of the CoonAss
Member since Nov 2016
4913 posts
Posted on 8/8/25 at 3:33 pm to
Ouachita & Black Rivers say "Hold my Beer"...
first pageprev pagePage 1 of 2Next pagelast page

Back to top
logoFollow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News
Follow us on X, Facebook and Instagram to get the latest updates on LSU Football and Recruiting.

FacebookXInstagram