Exploring the Edges of Texas

11. Exploring Bear River

ChaPTEr 11 Exploring bear river When the bear got scarce we didn’t quit hunting. We’d hear of one over here, one over there, go hunt it and kill it. They’re all gone. It was the greatest sport on earth! Carter Hart, quoted in Campbell and Lynn Loughmiller, Big Thicket Legacy on DECEmbEr 17,1718, two bound men awaited their fate aboard a boat anchored in the Mississippi River not far from New Orleans.On the opposite side of the vessel, other men held ropes that led under the hull to the prisoners. Pushed overboard, the accused men were pulled under the boat, across the keel, and up the far side. Bénard de la Harpe dutifully recorded the event in his journal: “The 17th, I had keel-hauled from on board the vessel of M. Bellanger two mutineers of my troop.”1 The French government had ordered La Harpe to establish a trading post on the Red River near present-day Texarkana. He knew the journey ahead would be long and dangerous. Only strict discipline would keep his men in line.The two mutineers probably survived their punishment, but from that moment on, Bénard de la Harpe was the undisputed, ironwilled leader of this expedition into the wilderness. Through the rest of December, La Harpe’s crew struggled to paddle their pirogues and row their two bateaux, loaded with six tons of merchandise and supplies, up the Mississippi–against the current. They passed isolated French plantations and numerous Native American settlements. Jason and Jacob Scurlock on the Sulphur River ChaPTEr 11 { 154 } On January 10, 1719, the expedition reached the mouth of the Red River. Persistent rain dampened spirits, and chronic food shortages added anxiety to the fatigue of travel. Hunters of the Avoyelles nation took pity on the Frenchmen. La Harpe recorded their generosity:“They killed for me ten deer and a bear, a number of bustards, some duck, some hares and several squirrels; they caught also many fish for me; I made a present to them of two muskets.”2 In the years that followed, war and disease decimated this once proud and generous people. By 1805 only two or three women remained.3 Similar tragedy befell every group La Harpe met on his journey upriver. Crewmen fought against the relentless current for every foot of progress. Rain increased the flow.They encountered rapids. At times the men shipped oars, threw a tow line to shore, and pulled the heavy boats by brute strength closer and closer to Texas. Their immediate goal was an island in the middle of the Red River–a place called Natchitoches named for the Caddoan Indians who lived nearby. Fort Saint John the Baptist, built there just four years earlier, was the westernmost outpost of French Louisiana. Unfortunately,the closer La Harpe’s flotilla got to the fort,the harder it was to proceed. Believing the island to be near, a Frenchman fired his musket and was answered by a shot from Natchitoches.Shortly thereafter the expedition ground to a halt. Leaving the vessels, La Harpe walked the short distance to the fort and secured help to clear a path through log jams that clogged the river. It took a local chief and thirty of his men four days to cut away the timber. When the exhausted crew tied up at Natchitoches on February 25, they had been fighting their way upstream for two months and eight days. The shake-down cruise was over. The real adventure was about to begin. Exploring bear river { 155 } J Isabel and I, inspired by La Harpe’s vivid portrayal of his journey, decide to retrace a portion of his route by canoe. He crossed into Texas by way of the Sulphur River near the northeast corner of the state. However, our journey begins 450 miles to the west. We have come to the opening of an art exhibit at the Panhandle-Plains Museum, where we meet a woman from Texarkana. When we mention our proposed trip to her part of the state, Linda Scurlock, with a twinkle in her eye, says we must meet her husband. Linda and Bill Scurlock are the editor and publisher, respectively, of Muzzleloader magazine. They live and work in Nash, Texas, on the outskirts of Texarkana and just happen to own a piece of the north bank of the Sulphur River close to the Arkansas...