On the Caddo

My An Arkie's Faith column from the September 19, 2018, issue of The Mena Star.

Our area was forecast to receive two to four inches of rain. My son-in-law is an avid river rafter and was excited to see the possibility of a good rainfall. He made plans to visit over the weekend so that he could go rafting. Thursday came and went without any significant rainfall. Friday had very little rain. Friday afternoon he drove up from Louisiana with a rubber raft and an inflatable kayak. He was hoping for enough rainfall on Saturday to be able to go rafting on Sunday.

On Saturday, the rains didn’t come. We enjoyed the rain-free day and spent the afternoon walking on the paths around the lakes on the University of Arkansas Rich Mountain campus. My son-in-law regretted bringing the raft and all the equipment needed. He was disappointed that after all of that work we would not be able to go rafting.

Saturday evening as he sat at the computer checking the area river levels, he saw that the Caddo River was rising. The Caddo Gap and Glenwood areas had received an inch of rain, and it was enough to raise the river so that we could float it. The rafting trip was back on.

Sunday morning as we prepared to head out to Norman where we would put into the Caddo River, we made one last check of the river level. The river levels had dropped almost as dramatically as they had risen. It looked like there would be just enough water flowing for us to make the trip.

After pumping the raft full of air and preparing it to float, we shuttled a vehicle to the takeout point at Caddo Gap. When we returned, we were finally able to get on the water. It was a beautiful day; cloudy and overcast so that we were not in the direct sunlight, and not too hot. As we floated down the river, I drank in the amazing scenery. You can see the beauty of nature while floating a river that you can’t see any other way. I drank in the serene tranquility and peacefulness of my surroundings. The river has a relaxing, hypnotic quality. It is as if the normal everyday life doesn’t exist while you are floating a river.

We were alone on the river. We saw no other rafts, kayaks or canoes, but we were surrounded by wildlife. Twice we saw bald eagles soaring just above the treetops. There were egrets, herons, and ducks too numerous to count. As we came around a bend in the river, we were surprised to see a flock of wild turkeys flying low from one bank of the river to the other. On a side note, a flock of wild turkeys is referred to as a rafter. The rafters floating down the river saw a rafter of turkeys.

After eating our lunch on a lovely little sand bar next to a beautiful green pasture, we were back on the water. Because of the low water conditions, my granddaughters were often able to get out of the raft and swim along in the slow flowing river. They were excited to see three deer splash their way across the river just ahead of us.

Although the low water made for a calm and easy float without much whitewater, it wasn’t without problems. Numerous times we became stuck on the rocks. Often, we could dislodge ourselves by pushing on the rocks with our paddles and spinning off the rocks. If that didn’t work, my son-in-law and oldest granddaughter would get out of the raft and by pushing and pulling be able to get the raft free. Several times we had to all get out of the raft to be able to free the raft after getting stuck on the rocks in very shallow areas.

Although we had a great time, everyone was excited when we finally saw the takeout in Caddo Gap. We were tired and hungry, and it was starting to rain. By the time we deflated the raft and loaded everything into the van we were wet and cold. But a good hot meal at Little Italy in Glenwood revived everyone’s spirits.

As I drove back home, I thought about the promises that God has made to protect us during difficult times. He says, “when you face stormy seas I will be there with you with endurance and calm; you will not be engulfed in raging rivers. If it seems like you’re walking through fire with flames licking at your limbs, keep going; you won’t be burned.” Isaiah 43:2 (VOICE) But what about the times when the river is not raging but is so low that we have to get out and drag the raft?

We can know that God will be with us whether the storms are raging, or the drudgery of life seems to overwhelm us, “because He has said, ‘I will never leave you; I will always be by your side.’” Hebrews 13:5 (VOICE) God is with you when you have to drag yourself out of bed to face another day just as much as He is with you during the troubled times in your life. Florence Nightingale wrote, “the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs while the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.”

Many of us can relate to the lyrics of Jackson Browne’s song, The Pretender. “Gonna pack my lunch in the morning and go to work each day. And when the evening rolls around, I'll go on home and lay my body down. And when the morning light comes streaming in, I'll get up and do it again.” Does God care about such mundane things as our daily work schedule? He has given us a wonderful promise in Joshua 1:9 (NIV), “do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Gentle Reader, life can become routine, and we can get tired of the monotony of it. But in Hebrews 10:36 (NLT) we are told that “patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.” Don’t get discouraged when you have to drag your raft over the rocky shoals of life. Remember that God is with you even in the routine things in life.

Caddo Lake

We spent last weekend in Uncertain, Texas on the shores of Caddo Lake.  It was so eerily beautiful and relaxing.  We rented a lovely house on the lake shore called Hoot n Holler.

Caddo Lake is on the border of northeast Texas and northwest Louisiana.  It includes one of the best examples in the southern United States of a mature bald cypress forest, and is one of the largest cypress forests in the world.  The moss-draped cypress groves makes it look like a Louisiana swamp.

The lake is a maze of bayous and sloughs, and is the only natural lake in Texas. It is the largest natural lake in the south, approximately 33,000 acres of water.

Before 1800 the Caddo Lake area was a series of bayous, creeks, ponds and low lying areas that flooded often and held water for sustained periods of time during the rainy seasons. Around 1800 a chain of natural events changed the landscape of the cypress valley and became what we know as Caddo Lake.

A huge log jam on the Red River that was called The Great Raft created the modern Caddo Lake. The Big Cypress Bayou is the main tributary that feeds Caddo Lake. After it leaves Caddo the Big Cypress Bayou flows into the Red River where they merge in North Louisiana. The point where these two tributaries meet was blocked by this huge log jam known as the Great Raft and Caddo Lake was formed.

The US government commissioned Henry Shreve to remove the huge log jam. Shreve was a steam boat captain and builder. Many of the government engineers did not think that the removal of the Great Raft was feasible or even possible. Shreve took on the challenge and by 1835 had removed enough of the log jam that it opened up the way for steamboats to enter into the Cypress bayou and then into Caddo Lake and beyond.

Various ports and landings were soon established along the waterways along the Big Cypress Bayou and Caddo Lake. Cotton became an important commodity and was shipped by boat to New Orleans and other destinations. In 1845 some businessmen got together and decided to establish a port as far up stream on the Big Cypress Bayou as could be possible for navigation, to be known as Jefferson Texas. Jefferson flourished and quickly became the second busiest port in Texas.

In 1873 the log jam that created Caddo Lake was finally and totally removed. With the removal of the log jam the water levels slowly fell to a level that made steamboat passage impossible. With the removal of the log jam and the arrival of the railroad, Jefferson and the Caddo Lake area were no longer a transportation hub.

Although Caddo Lake never went totally dry, it did get very low and was not navigable by larger boats. In 1914 a crude earthen dam was built on Caddo Lake that help raise the water back to levels near where they were at when the log jam served as the dam. It is now a large maze of interconnected waterways, with over a hundred miles of clearly marked boat roads and more primitive boat roads that are not so easy to navigate.

While we were staying at Caddo Lake we met Dale who lived next door. He is a paraplegic who has lived in a houseboat on Caddo Lake for the last 17 years. He took us out on the lake in his pontoon boat. It was an amazing experience and Dale is one of Caddo Lake's most knowledgeable guides. It was too cold to see alligators, but we we able to see a mink running along the shore.

My daughter and her family we able to spend a day with us while we were at the lake.  My grand daughters loved it.

The sunrise from over the lake from the boat shed was amazing.  It was as beautiful as any sunrise that I have ever seen.

I'm looking forward to the time we will be able to return to Caddo Lake.

Water

W is for Water.  As in too much water.  In our area on May 30th there were severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and heavy rain.  My wife and I were on our way home from Little Rock when we encountered the storms. We stopped in Hot Springs and waited in a Walgreens store for about an hour until the Tornado Watch expired. As we traveled home we saw where a tornado had crossed Hwy 270. Crews had cut trees so that traffic could pass but power lines were still down.  We listened to the scanner and heard about tornadoes in our county. When we reached Mt. Ida we were under another tornado watch, so we stopped at the Dairyette to wait out the storm. I took this video of the heavy rain from the front door.

We arrived home safely, but not before seeing tornado damage near Oden.  The next day we learned that the heavy rains had caused flooding in the Y-city area and that there had been loss of life. In the early morning hours, Scott County Sheriff Cody Carpenter and Arkansas Game and Fish Officer Joel Campora lost their lives in the line of duty. Both men died attempting to save the lives of helpless people trapped in a flooded home.

Last weekend we drove up to Y-city and saw some of the damage that the flood caused.  A gas station was damaged and a church had floated off of it's foundation.

The May 30th flood was not the first time that I have been in close proximity to a flood that caused loss of life.


Thursday evening, June 10, 2010, I traveled to Glenwood to pick up a load of windshields. As I traveled I was watching the weather because there were supposed to be storms on the way. It was raining lightly but I had returned home before the it started raining harder. After I had made it home, the sky turned a green color and we were a bit nervous, but when we checked the TV and internet we found that we were not under any watches or warnings. Soon after I got to work Friday morning, My wife called me and told me that there had been terrible flooding at the Albert Pike Campground with many dead and many missing. The Caddo and Little Missouri Rivers had flooded during the night.


The Albert Pike Campground is located about 45 minutes from Mena over gravel roads deep in the heart of the Ouachita Mountains. Twenty people including eight children lost their lives in the flood caused by up to nine inches of rain that fell in the early morning hours, catching many campers at Albert Pike Campground off-guard.



The park is situated in a valley between two heavily forested hills, near the Little Missouri River. The "Little Missouri" usually has a water level that is so low, it looks more like a creek. People can easily wade across the river. That fateful night the Little Missouri got hit with 8 to 9" of rain within a very short period of time. The water level went from 3 feet to 23 feet from midnight to around 3:00am.





A U.S. Forest Service spokesman stated that it would have been impossible to warn everyone at a the Albert Pike campground that a flood was coming because cell phone service is spotty and there are no sirens in the sparsely populated area. Some parts of the valley are so steep and craggy that the only way out is to hike downstream. Any hikers who had taken cars to the campsites would have been blocked at low-water bridge crossings that are inundated when the rivers rise.


The raging torrent poured through the valley with such force that it peeled asphalt off roads and bark off trees. Cabins dotting the river banks were severely damaged. Mobile homes lay on their sides.


The first time that I was close to a tragic flash flood was on July 31, 1976, while we were living in Loveland, Colorado. A violent rainstorm sent a rampaging wall of water through Big Thompson Canyon. The massive flood killed 144 people. My wife and I along with my family had been picnicking along the banks of the Big Thompson River that afternoon. When it started to rain we packed up and drove home through heavy rain. We didn't know there had been a flood until the next morning.


Events such as these floods always bring questions to my mind. Why do these terrible things happen and why have I been spared? I don't have the answers as to why so many tragedies happen. I do know that ever since sin came into this world through Satan there have been terrible tragedies. I suppose that Adam and Eve asked "why" when Cain killed his brother Abel.

The only promise that a Christian has in this life is that there will be trouble. Our trouble free existence will be in Heaven where God will wipe away all tears.

Why do bad things happen? Because we live in a sinful world. I know that's not the kind of answer we like, but there is no better answer available.

I am eagerly looking forward to the day when "God will wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there will be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away".


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