Why the Red River?
The Red River is the geographical boundary between Texas and Oklahoma and a physical as well as a cultural link to the Mississippi River. The towns, landscapes, and people that surround the river from beginning to end help to create a “snapshot” of disparate yet interrelated regional and national histories. What history? The states that claim the river have a very interesting historical relationship to one another. Before the Civil War, the Red River served as a kind of beacon of freedom for slaves who managed to run away from the plantations to seek refuge in Union-controlled Indian Territory (this was a false beacon, however, as many runaway slaves were caught and sold in Indian Territory under the Fugitive Slave Acts). Southeastern Native Americans found new homes along its watersheds. Anglo American settlers took advantage of the fertile opportunities in the uncontrolled lands around the river. And the last vestiges of the South – the plantations, cotton fields, and the antebellum
