Natchitoches Parish - "The Prairie"

Liberals aren’t welcomed here. Have a shitty day

could it be the remains of the steamboat the "Prairie" that was destroyed in the Natchez Hurricane in 1840?

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The Natchez hurricane, on May 6, 1840, swept over the Southern part of Natchitoches Parish, coming from the Southwest, originating in the Gulf of Mexico. The day following, May 7th, another followed, in the identical path of the other. Unparallelled was the destruction of this hurricane. For miles the view was unobstructed, the timber was all destroyed, and at Pierre La Butte Bluffs the top soil was all blown off in places for several feet. The matter in the soil that supplied the arborescent fibre was blown away or destroyed, and the timber to this day, is a stunted diminutive growth, although it.has been 80 years since the storm occurred. The violence of the storm passed about half a mile below the mouth of Cane river, and its path crossed Red river. Eli Du Bois and Landry Carasco were blown across river, and lodged in a thorn tree, unhurt. A cart and yoke of oxen were blown across the river, and were unhurt. The track of this destructive hurricane, crossed Iatt Lake and Suoffords Creek, and the effects of it are visible today. At Natchez the destruction was awful. Several steamboats were destroyed. The “Hines” was blown out into the river, and capsized, and the crew and all the passengers were lost, except four. The wreck of the “Hints” was afterwards found at Baton Rouge, with 51 dead bodies on board, 48 males, and 3 females. Among the latter was a little girl of three years. The “Prairie” just arrived from St. Louis, the whole upper deck was blown off, all passengers and crew were blown into the river, and drowned, among the number four ladies. The wharf boat and two hundred flat boats sank, and many lives were lost. Four hundred people were known to have been killed.

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LINK

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Liberals aren’t welcomed here. Have a shitty day

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Great. Go find one and then frick off.

On a 1949 topo I looked at, it is labeled the Prairie and looks like it was most likely a wet depressional prairie wetland prior with a much smaller pond in the middle.

Labeled as “open prairie” on old arse 1800’s official us survey plat baw.

I’d reckon the Raft had an effect at some point.

Pretty much every tournament I have ever fished there was won in the prairie.

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A lot of that area contained blackland prairies Still a few remaining in that area mostly on the Winn District of the Kisatchie but a few scattered here and there on private.

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Interesting shallow rabbit hole.

I knew the prairie Indians would burn the prairies every so often for the buffalo, but did not realize they had some of those in central Texas and Western La.

Cool.

It shows up on the map as just pure blue lake. It's basically just a marsh land?

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Hmm. Doesn't seem so, but maybe??!!

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m
It isn’t

Not much to be found on the ole interwebs, but between what others have said here regarding old maps, and the fact that a dam was built between Black Lake/Clear Lake and Saline Lake in the 1930s (below "The Prairie"), I'd say the area was historically a prairie that was flooded when the reservoir was created.