Sabine River?

Question

I've been told that many years ago this river was much larger than its current size. Is this true, true enough for large ships to navigate the river? How did the river downsize if this is/was the case?

Answer 1

The Sabine River continues to be of importance. From before Newton County became an independent county, the river has controlled a part of its destiny.

In the fall of 1843 the steamboat Sabine, with Capt. John Clemmons at the helm, made the first trip on the Sabine River. Being a sturdy craft, she made several trips up and down the river successfully.

"Often the steamboats were small compared to present-day standards, which ran on the East Texas Rivers were not new having been bought from the Mississippi trade where five years was the usual life of a boat. There competition was keen and the traffic rough on the boats. Transportation on the Mississippi was big business and the owners could afford the best. These secondhand boats, when kept in repair might have many good years left in them when run on smaller rivers.

About 1858, a steamboat bearing the name of Biloxi came up the Sabine from Biloxi, Mississippi, and unloaded several dozen slaves. The landing where they unloaded became known as Biloxi. For awhile it prospered. Then it became a ghost town and vanished, as many of the river towns did when the railroads came and the steamboat era ended.

The Attacapa Indians were the first to probe the backwaters and sloughs of the Sabine and the Neches-Angelina, in their swift pirogues for no one knows how long. Then exploring LaSalle and the Spaniards came, and in the year 1817 Jean Lafitte, the notorious pirate, anchored his ships in the harbor at Anahuac and made Galveston a rendezvous for his pirate crew. They then proceeded to establish a slave colony of Shackle foot far up the Sabine, a slave station at the mouth of the river, and a slave plantation on the Brazos

--> http://www.toledo-bend.com/newton/history/index.asp?request=sabineriver

Archeological evidence indicates the valley of the river was inhabited as far back as 12,000 years ago. Starting the 8th century the Caddo inhabited the area, building extensive mounds. The Caddo culture flourished until the late 13th century, but remnants of the Caddo were living along the river when the first European explorers arrived in the 16th century. The river was given its name in 1716 by Domingo Ramón and appeared as Río de Sabinas on a 1721 map. The river was used by French traders, and at various times, the river was claimed by both Spain and France. After the acquisition by Spain of the French territory of Louisiana in 1763, the capital of the Spanish province of Texas was established on the east side of the river, near present-day Robeline, Louisiana.

The geography area remained one of the least understood in the region, with various Spanish maps containing errors in the naming of the Sabine and Neches, and sometimes showed them flowing independently into the Gulf of Mexico. After the Louisiana Purchase by the United States in 1805, this indefinite nature of the boundary between the U.S. and Spain led to an agreement on November 6, 1806, negotiated by Gen. James Wilkinson and Lt. Col. Simón de Herrera, to establish a neutral territory on both sides of the river.

The indefinite boundary was resolved by the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, which established the river as the boundary from the Gulf to the 32nd parallel. The Spanish delay in the ratification of the treaty, as well as the 1821 independence of Mexico, re-ignited the boundary dispute. The United States claimed for a while that the names of the Sabine and Neches had been reversed, and thus claimed the treaty established the boundary at the Neches. The first American settlers began arriving in the region in the 1820s, soon outnumbering the Mexicans by 10-to-1. After the independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in 1836, the boundary between the U.S. and Texas was firmly established at the Sabine in accordance with the Adams-Onís Treaty. The river served as the western boundary of the United States until the Texas Annexation in 1845.

In the 1840s, river boats began navigating the river. During the American Civil War on September 8, 1863, a small Confederate force thwarted a Union invasion of Texas at the Second Battle of Sabine Pass, fought at the mouth of the river.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the middle course of the river became the scene of widespread logging. The discovery of petroleum at nearby Spindletop led to the river basin becoming the scene of widespread oil drilling. The lower river saw the development of many oil refineries and chemical plants, leading to a degradation of the water quality, which in turn lead to on-going efforts to restore the quality of the river.

The lower river south of Orange, Texas to Sabine Lake forms part of the Intracoastal Waterway, carrying barge traffic.

--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_River_(Texas-Louisiana)#History

Answer 2

There is also a second Sabine River in New Zealand.

Answer 3

how long is the sabine river

Answer 4

river is the best place cought of fish