1931 Free Bridge Controversy
Denison, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As a result of late 1920s legislation in Texas and Oklahoma, the two states cooperated on a project to build free highway bridges spanning the Red River to accommodate rapidly increasing highway traffic. One of these bridges was near Colbert Bridge, a toll bridge descended from the mid-19th century Colbert's Ferry. When the Free Bridge was ready to open in early July 1931, the Red River Bridge Company, operators of Colbert Bridge, obtained a federal restraining order against the opening of the Free Bridge until contractual payments had been made to compensate the company for their anticipated loss. Texas Governor Ross Sterling complied, but Oklahoma Governor William Murray, who was not a party to the contract between the Texas Highway Commission and the Red River Bridge Company, asked Governor Sterling to join him in protesting the injunction. Sterling refused. Murray ordered the removal of barricades erected by the Texas Highway Commission. For twelve hours, traffic flowed freely across the bridge. By July 17, Texas Rangers guarded the southern side. Oklahoma highway crews rerouted traffic from Colbert Bridge to Preston Bridge several miles away and dismantled the approach to the Colbert Bridge from Oklahoma. As tensions came close to breaking in the summer heat, the injunction was suspended; the Texas Rangers opened the bridge on Labor Day, 1931. It served until 1995, when it was replaced by a new structure. A portion of the Free Bridge was placed in a park in Colbert, Oklahoma, about two miles north. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Texas and Oklahoma jointly built a free highway bridge over the Red River in 1931, the toll-bridge company that operated the nearby Colbert Bridge won a federal injunction to keep it closed. Texas Governor Ross Sterling complied, but Oklahoma's William Murray ordered the barricades torn down and traffic flowing—prompting Texas Rangers to guard the southern approach. The standoff eased when the injunction was suspended, and the Rangers opened the bridge on Labor Day.
Why it matters
The 'Red River Bridge War' captures a colorful moment when two governors nearly came to blows over free public roads, marking the shift to state-built infrastructure in the automobile age.
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Related people
- · Ross Sterling
- · William Murray
Related events
- · Red River Bridge War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Colbert's Ferry
Denison, TX
Established around 1853 by Benjamin F. Colbert, this Red River ferry carried thousands of immigrants into Texas during the 1850s. From 1858 to 1861 it served the Southern Overland Mail Line, whose stagecoaches linked St. Louis and San Francisco with mail and passengers. The crossing endured until 1931, when a highway bridge finally spanned the river.
Lake Texoma
Denison, TX
Completed in 1944, Lake Texoma was formed when Denison Dam impounded the Red River, creating one of the largest reservoirs in the nation for flood control, power, and recreation. Its creation was championed by Congressman Sam Rayburn, the long-serving Speaker of the House, and it flooded historic sites including Preston, once the Red River crossing of the Butterfield Stage. Straddling Texas and Oklahoma, it drew millions of visitors and gave its name to a nearby state park honoring President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Joseph G. McCoy, Promoter of Chisholm Trail
Denison, TX
An Illinois livestock broker, Joseph G. McCoy (1837–1915) opened the first workable market for Texas cattle by securing rail cars and building loading pens at Abilene, Kansas — turning $5 longhorns into beeves worth $25 or more up north. He had part of Jesse Chisholm's trail surveyed and marked to guide the great drives through Oklahoma, over which some ten million cattle moved between 1866 and 1884. When the railroad reached Denison in 1872, McCoy moved here and helped launch a refrigerating company to ship dressed beef.
W. B. and Ella Munson Home
Denison, TX
William Benjamin Munson helped conjure the town of Denison out of the North Texas prairie in the 1870s, partnering with the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy) railroad to buy the land the new rail town would rise upon. A banker, rancher, and civic booster who gave the city more than 200 acres for parks, he built this stately neoclassical home on Morton Street in 1912, its curved ionic portico and clay-tile roof announcing the prosperity a railroad could bring. The house stayed close to the Munson family for generations, earning its Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation in 2013.