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In a 2007 article in Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine, Barbara Rodriguez called Caddo Lake ?The Invisible Lake.? Despite its size and its local lore, she said, the lake remains mysterious, inaccessible and somewhat unknown. ?For all practical purposes, until you are in boat-launching distance, the lake remains invisible,? Rodriguez wrote. ?The appeal of the lake is as much about its inaccessibility ? free public access is limited to two ramps ? as it is about its mysterious history.? Caddo Lake guide Danny Dupont said the best bass fishing in this area is on Caddo Lake. ?It?s so much better,? Dupont said. ?Caddo gets the trophy fish. The bass grow larger in Caddo.? Guide/photographer Paul Keith said, ?I think the No. 1 reason [visitors come to Caddo] is just its beauty, the mystique, the look of it, the cypress trees in the water and the Spanish moss ? just the kind of mystical, prehistoric look to it.? Rodriguez described that look like this, ?As elusive as El Dorado, Caddo has never been a ?drive-your-Chevy-to-thelevy? lake, serviced by scenic overlooks and paved parking. Its devotees work hard to ensure it never will be.? That goal may be hard to maintain with residents opting for close-to-home summer getaways. Recreational options are available from exploring antique stores and fishing to water sports, camping, walking, biking and more. On an historic note, there are sites that, while familiar, make an educational outing for all ages. Caddo?s history is as murky as some of its cypress dappled coves, and according to tourism officials, Texans are more familiar with the lake than their Louisiana neighbors. That is the case even though there are plenty of opportunities on the east side of the state line if you check sites like www.explorecaddolake.com. The mystique is heightened by the legends about how the natural lake was formed. One claims, in the early 1800s, the earthquakes in the New Madrid area of Missouri lead to the pooling of water in the area. Another attributes the lake to the Great Raft Capt. Henry Miller Shreve dislodged in the Red River. Some of the cypress specimens surrounding the lake, however, exhibit ages of 400-600 years. Since cypress only grows along steady water supplies, this would indicate the lake might have been there that long. Caddo Lake historians point out half the nearly 25,000acre lake is in Texas and half in Louisiana and sprawls within 20 miles of southwest Arkansas. Four watersheds supply Caddo: Little Cypress Bayou, Big Cypress Bayou, Black Cypress Bayou and Jeems Bayou. The Caddo Indians were the first settlers on the lake, and they hunted, fished, made pottery and the like. In 1835, the U.S. government paid the tribe $80,000 for the land around the lake, and within a year, the Caddo Indians were moved away.
continued on page 8
INSIDE:
'Welcome, Global Strike Command'
NEWSWEEKLY
June 24, 2009 Vol. XXI, Issue XXXIX
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