In its mid-nineteenth century heyday, the Northeast Texas town of Jefferson was a bustling inland steamboat port that rivaled Galveston and New Orleans in commerce and sophistication. Beginning in 1845 and continuing for nearly forty years, steamboats laden with passengers and every conceivable item of merchandise or supply bound for Texas unloaded at the Jefferson dock on Big Cypress Bayou. On the return voyage, they carried beef and timber to ship out of New Orleans. Everyone came to Jefferson: The names of presidents and actors, riverboat gamblers and robber barons can be found on historic hotel registers. Commerce and tourism were the mainstays of a thriving economy in a city known nationwide for its luxurious hotel accommodations, fascinating entertainment, and shops that stocked the most up-to-date fashions.

Jefferson came by this largesse naturally, when a huge logjam on the Red River sometime in the late-eighteenth century caused water to back up into Cypress Valley, covering miles of forest and forming Caddo Lake. Settlers began moving into the area in 1835 to grow cotton, a crop that demanded a reliable trade route to New Orleans and on to England. A portion of the logjam dam was removed to make the river navigable through Twelvemile Bayou and into Caddo Lake. Further excavations to Big Cypress Bayou in 1844 made the emerging village of Jefferson the northernmost port for merchandise and supplies bound for the North and West. It grew to be a busy, active port city of more than 30,000 people, second only to the gulf port city of Galveston in size and glamour. Jefferson remained so until the logjam on the Red River was completely removed by the U.S. government in the 1870s, lowering the water level over a period of years until the bayou was no longer navigable.

By that time railroads were replacing steamboats anyway. Railroad baron Jay Gould attempted to purchase right of ways to bring his Texas & Pacific line through Jefferson. Locals were cool to his proposal and he left town in disgust, leaving an ominous prophecy in the Excelsior Hotel register that said "The end of Jefferson." With the Texas & Pacific skirting the city and the loss of both steamboat and railroad commerce, Jefferson's economy suffered.

"The Garden Club had the last laugh on old Jay Gould, though," Jimmie Ruth told me with a wink. "They found one of his personal luxury cars abandoned in a field and had it brought back here on a truck." The club refurbished the car and turned it into a unique museum whose proceeds helped finance the restoration of the Excelsior House, Jefferson's most famous inn. The fourteen-room hotel boasts a register signed not only by the infamous railroad mogul, but also by President Ulysses S. Grant and writer Oscar Wilde. The garden club purchased the Excelsior in 1961 when it was sold to satisfy creditors. At the time, a Dallas Morning News headline proclaimed, "Clubwomen Tackle Man-Size Job," and some folks described the project as simply a "hobby" for the garden club gals. Little did they know....

JEFFERSON'S PAST : : WHERE TO STAY : : DINING/ENTERTAINMENT
OUTDOOR/CADDO LAKE : : NEARBY JEFFERSON : : LINKS/LISTINGS : : INTRODUCTION