The Red River
Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for the red soil across which it flows, the main stream of the Red River is 1,360 miles long, and for 440 miles the river forms the Texas-Oklahoma boundary. For years, this was an international boundary. The 1819 treaty with Spain established the course of the Red River to the 100th meridian as part of the boundary between the United States and New Spain. Until after the 1845 annexation of Texas, this river did not lie entirely within the United States. During the Spanish Colonial period, the waterway and the crossing here became a main gateway into Texas. In the mid-19th century, brisk steamer traffic went on at the eastern end of the river. A military expedition under Capt. Randolph B. Marcy in 1852 explored the river to its upper reaches in land held by Native Americans. In 1921, the Burkburnett oil boom here led to a dispute between Texas and Oklahoma over ownership of the valuable river bed. The Supreme Court in 1921 and 1923 upheld the south bank as the Texas border. This site is 25 miles west of the important old Fort Sill crossing on the major military road that once linked the Oklahoma fort to outposts on the Texas frontier. The bridge here, opened to traffic in 1927, is the second free bridge to span the Red River. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Named for the red soil it carries, the Red River runs 1,360 miles and forms 440 miles of the Texas-Oklahoma line — once an international boundary set by the 1819 treaty with Spain dividing the United States from New Spain. It served as a Spanish-colonial gateway into Texas and drew steamer traffic and Captain Randolph Marcy's 1852 exploring expedition into Native-held lands upriver. The 1921 Burkburnett oil boom sparked a Texas–Oklahoma fight over the riverbed that the Supreme Court settled at the south bank.
Why it matters
Few rivers have worn so many hats — international border, invasion route, oil-boom prize and interstate line — making the Red River a running record of how the southern plains passed from Spain to the United States.
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Related people
- · Randolph B. Marcy
Related events
- · Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819
- · Burkburnett oil boom
- · Oklahoma v. Texas
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Town of Iowa Park
Iowa Park, TX
Iowa Park was one of countless towns that leapt up ahead of the rails crossing Texas in the 1800s, born in 1885 as "Daggett's Switch" on the Fort Worth and Denver City line. Union Pacific builder Gen. G. M. Dodge promoted the townsite, and land agents recruited Midwesterners — many from Iowa — laying out a plat full of parks in 1888. Two decades of farm prosperity gave way to frenzy in 1918 when oil was struck nearby, sending speculators and land prices soaring until the boom burned out by 1925 and a steady farm economy returned.
Samuel Burk Burnett
Burkburnett, TX
Samuel Burk Burnett came to Texas from Missouri just after the Civil War and, partnering with his father-in-law, founded the famous Four Sixes (6666) Ranch in 1875. He grew into one of the state's most powerful cattlemen and a leading force in Fort Worth business. By tradition, the town of Burkburnett was named at the suggestion of President Theodore Roosevelt after a 1905 wolf hunt with Burnett.
Near Homesite of Mabel Gilbert
Burkburnett, TX
A Tennessee-born steamboat captain who reached Texas in 1837, Gilbert built mills and was among the first to navigate the upper Trinity River before filing for land here in 1856. He raised his cabin by a spring, dug a trench to fend off buffalo herds, and endured repeated raids that drove his family away and back again; his daughter Hettie, born in 1860, is remembered as the county's first known white child, and the peach trees he planted long guided arriving pioneers.
Receiver Bridge
Burkburnett, TX
When the Burkburnett oil boom sent drillers into the bed of the meandering Red River around 1920, it reignited an old question: exactly where did Texas end and Oklahoma begin? The U.S. Supreme Court placed the disputed land under federal control, naming Frederick A. Delano — uncle of future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt — as receiver. To reach the derricks he ordered a one-lane wooden bridge built to midstream; the boundary was fixed at the river's south bank in 1923, and a 1935 flood later wrecked the span.