(Published in the Fall 2016 issue of the Jefferson county Historical Quarterly.)
Family Photos from Fifty Years Ago:
The Free Bridge and Arkansas River
By David Trulock
This article connects Arkansas River
history with my family history by showing a few photos taken in the
fall of 1966 by my father, Walter N. Trulock, III. Besides showing
Jefferson County’s Free Bridge (1914-1972) in the background, the
photos are significant because they were taken two years before the
first stage of the McClellan-Kerr system of locks and dams was
completed.
The notable features of the river
are the small whirlpools that indicate a swift flow, even for this
fairly low-water stage, and the large sandbars on both sides. Without
the modern riverbank
reinforcements, the transmission line tower, and the bridge itself,
the river in these photos would
look much like it did to the
Native Americans who fished and hunted here for hundreds of years
before European explorers arrived.
It’s also clear from these photos
why dredging and “snagging” were commonplace activities along the
river, starting in the early days of steamboat traffic in the 19th
century. The unpredictable depth of the water caused by shifting
sandbars and the equally unpredictable location of new and possibly
submerged obstructions were constant problems for riverboats. The
river was the “highway” for commerce and mass transportation, so
shoring up the riverbank and keeping the channel open for navigation
were necessary activities.
Besides the problem of keeping a
channel open during low water stages, the river also posed the
problem of economic and physical disaster when there were major
floods. The federal government cooperated with cities and
states—though sometimes not as much as local citizens hoped for—by
financing river maintenance and improvement projects, many of which
were related to flood control. The projects were, and still are,
under the authority of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The
River in Modern Times
According
to the online Encyclopedia
of Arkansas
article on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, work
on the first lock and dam in Arkansas started in 1958 at Dardanelle,
and the first stage of system, from the Mississippi River to Little
Rock, opened on October 4, 1968, with the first commercial barges
docking at the Port of Little Rock on January 4, 1969. The entire
system of seventeen locks and dams between the Mississippi River and
Catoosa, Oklahoma, opened on December 30, 1970.
Besides the problem of keeping a channel open during low water stages, the river also posed the problem of economic and physical disaster when there were major floods. The federal government cooperated with cities and states—though sometimes not as much as local citizens hoped for—by financing river maintenance and improvement projects, many of which were related to flood control. The projects were, and still are, under the authority of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
What about the Port of Pine Bluff? In the fall of 1966, when my father took the two family photos shown here, Pine Bluff’s port was being planned, and excavation had been done on Boyd Point Cutoff a year earlier that resulted in its becoming the permanent navigation channel of the river.
James Leslie, in his book Pine Bluff and Jefferson County, A Pictorial History, described the situation this way: “Because of the Boyd’s Point cutoff, Pine Bluff has the only slack water harbor on the Arkansas River. The body of water formed by diverting the main stream of the Arkansas River east of Pine Bluff was named Lake Langhofer after G. A. Langhofer, a former Port Authority Member and resident Army engineer, who selected the site and drew the port plans in 1966.”
What about the Port of Pine Bluff? In the fall of 1966, when my father took the two family photos shown here, Pine Bluff’s port was being planned, and excavation had been done on Boyd Point Cutoff a year earlier that resulted in its becoming the permanent navigation channel of the river.
James Leslie, in his book Pine Bluff and Jefferson County, A Pictorial History, described the situation this way: “Because of the Boyd’s Point cutoff, Pine Bluff has the only slack water harbor on the Arkansas River. The body of water formed by diverting the main stream of the Arkansas River east of Pine Bluff was named Lake Langhofer after G. A. Langhofer, a former Port Authority Member and resident Army engineer, who selected the site and drew the port plans in 1966.”
The phrase “diverting the main stream of the Arkansas River east of Pine Bluff” refers to the large-scale excavation of Boyd Point Cutoff in 1965, during construction of the McClellan-Kerr System. The name “Boyd Point Cutoff” was chosen by the Corps of Engineers (as shown on their navigation chart below) rather than the historical name, “Boyd’s Point Cutoff,” used by James Leslie.
One possible point of confusion needs to be addressed in regard to the cutoff. This area of land—which was called a cutoff because it was a “shortcut” the river would take during times of high water—was opened up to the flow of the river during the 1908 flood, when a Corps of Engineers’ levee across it was illegally dynamited, but the river was only temporarily diverted.
After the 1908 flood receded, the river’s main flow, and also riverboat traffic, continued to follow the bend of the river at Pine Bluff. As time passed and the river became less meandering, the bend itself moved further away from the city. Now named Lake Langhofer and containing the Port of Pine Bluff, the old river channel is about three and a half miles from downtown.
My family’s occasional visits to the sandbars near the Free Bridge in the 1960s were due mainly to the fact that my grandparents, Walter N. Trulock, Jr., and Frances Andrews Trulock, owned farmland along the river in that area. Our sandbar outings were like trips to the beach for people living near an ocean, except for the fact that the river then was too dangerous for swimming.
After the locks and dams began operation in 1969-70, the river in this area became more like a lake, and we began using it for swimming, boating, water skiing and fishing—except, of course, during times of high water and dangerous currents. A photo taken this year at approximately the same place as the 1966 photos shows how much the river changed here as a result of the construction of the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System.
My family’s occasional visits to the sandbars near the Free Bridge in the 1960s were due mainly to the fact that my grandparents, Walter N. Trulock, Jr., and Frances Andrews Trulock, owned farmland along the river in that area. Our sandbar outings were like trips to the beach for people living near an ocean, except for the fact that the river then was too dangerous for swimming.
After the locks and dams began operation in 1969-70, the river in this area became more like a lake, and we began using it for swimming, boating, water skiing and fishing—except, of course, during times of high water and dangerous currents. A photo taken this year at approximately the same place as the 1966 photos shows how much the river changed here as a result of the construction of the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System.
David
Trulock with Nosey, the family beagle. The fishing pole is another
sandbar improvisation, probably without an actual hook and bait
attached. Note the turbulence of the water, the large sandbar on the
other side of the river, and the use of granite boulders—not native
to Jefferson County—to stabilize this sandbar. Due to the use of
revetments and pile dikes as seen in these photos, the free-flowing
river in 1966 was subject to more human control than the ancient,
untamed river known to Native Americans.
Jeff,
Steven, and David Trulock playing an improvised baseball game, with
an improvised bat (a BB gun) and improvised ball (probably found on
the sandbar). The Free Bridge is in the background. (See below for bonus photos not published with article.) 
A recent photo taken from approximately the same place as the 1966 baseball game photo. As shown on the Corps of Engineers’ navigation chart below, this is about halfway between Mile 75 and the Jack Bradley Bend Light at Mile Marker 75.6. The tops of pile dikes shown in the 1966 photo can still be seen. The bridge is the one that replaced the Free Bridge in 1972.
Part
of a 1990 McClellan-Kerr System chart showing our modern-day Boyd
Point Cutoff. The revetments and levee (non-overflow structure) at
Yell Bend divert the river into the cutoff and form the northwest end
of Lake Langhofer. McClellan-Kerr Navigation System charts are viewable online. The chart for this area of the river is #62.
An Acknowledgment and a Correction
I thank Scott McGeorge, president of Pine Bluff Sand & Gravel Company, for an educational conversation about revetments, pile dikes, and the McClellan-Kerr project. I also need to correct
an error in my previous article, “100 Years Ago: The Free Bridge, the Dollarway, and Arkansas Roads, Part V.” (Summer 2016 issue, page 25.) The old Fort Smith Free Bridge had unused train tracks down the middle, but the streetcars that ran alongside these tracks were not “rubber-tired streetcars,” they were regular streetcars with tracks of their own. – D.T.
More sandbar 1966 family photos
Nosey, Arch, and Betty
Nosey, Greg and David
David
Greg
Arch
