The Washita River ( / ˈ w ɑː ʃ ɪ t ɑː / ) is a river in the states of Texas and Oklahoma in the United States. The river is 295 miles (475 km) long and terminates at its confluence with the Red River , which is now part of Lake Texoma ( 33°55′N 96°35′W / 33.917°N 96.583°W / 33.917; -96.583 ) on the Texas–Oklahoma border.
17-528: Washita may refer to Washita River Washita County, Oklahoma Washita, Arkansas , Montgomery County, Arkansas Washita, Oklahoma , Caddo County, Oklahoma Washita Battlefield National Historic Site Washita National Wildlife Refuge , Custer County, Oklahoma Battle of Washita River Fort Washita , Bryan County, Oklahoma Little Washita River , Grady County, Oklahoma Washita tribe of Native Americans from northeastern Louisiana along
34-566: A career soldier from Virginia who was active in the Indian Territory for the last thirty years of his life. Shortly before his death at Fort Smith, Arkansas , from cholera, several detachments of troops under his command had established an outpost to protect the California road, on Wildhorse Creek in present-day Garvin County, Oklahoma . The post was then named Fort Arbuckle in his honor. Though
51-679: A limestone gorge 300 feet (91 m) deep. The Washita's river bed is made up of unstable mud and sand, and its banks are composed of steeply incised and erosive red earth. This makes it one of the most silt-laden streams in North America. Along its path, the Foss Dam impounds the Washita River in Custer County to create the Foss Reservoir . Several reservoirs in the Washita River valley hold
68-630: A result of the karst topography , standing water is rarely found atop the Arbuckle Mountains, the water seeps through fractures and planes of separation in the limestone bedrock, dissolving the rock to produce a network of caves and solution conduits throughout the limestone formations. Organizations such as the Arbuckle Karst Conservancy and Arbuckle Mountains Grotto of the National Speleological Society actively study
85-563: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Washita River The Washita River forms in eastern Roberts County, Texas ( 35°38′N 100°36′W / 35.633°N 100.600°W / 35.633; -100.600 ), near the town of Miami in the Texas Panhandle . The river crosses Hemphill County, Texas and enters Oklahoma in Roger Mills County . It cuts through
102-748: The Arbuckle Group , the Simpson Group , Viola Group, and the Hunton Group . Uplift , faulting , and folding occurred during the Wichita Orogeny , followed by erosion . Underlying the Arbuckle Mountains is the Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer , housing freshwater which emanates at springs to provide the base flows of the Blue River and Honey Creek, which flows over Turner Falls south of Davis . As
119-637: The Faux Ouachita (False Ouachita). The name was later referred to by English-speaking American settlers as False Washita. After the American Civil War , Americans referred to the river as the Washita. In 1842, General and future President Zachary Taylor established Fort Washita near the lower end of the river to protect resettled citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, who had been removed from
136-703: The Oklahoma counties of Roger Mills , Custer , Washita , Caddo , Grady , Garvin , Murray , Carter , and Johnston before emptying into Lake Texoma , which is the modern border between Bryan County and Marshall County . The river bisects the heart of the Anadarko Basin , the fifth-largest natural gas formation area in the United States. When the river reaches the Arbuckle Mountains , it drops 30 feet per mile (5.7 m/km) as it cuts through Big Canyon,
153-760: The Arbuckles date back to the Precambrian Eon some 1.4 billion years ago which were overlain by rhyolites during the Cambrian Period. The range reaches a height of 1,412 feet above sea level. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): The Arbuckles contain the most diverse suite of mineral resources in Oklahoma: limestone, dolomite, glass sand, granite, sand and gravel, shale, cement, iron ore, lead, zinc, tar sands, and oil and gas; all these minerals are, or have been, produced commercially. The Arbuckle Mountains are
170-644: The Ouachita River. See also [ edit ] Ouachita (disambiguation) Wichita (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Washita . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Washita&oldid=921720191 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
187-660: The Southeastern United States, from the Plains Indians inhabiting the area. The fort was about 19 miles (31 km) above the confluence of the Washita and Red rivers. During the later Indian Wars , the Battle of Washita River (also known as the Washita River Massacre) occurred at dawn on November 27, 1868. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer ’s 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle ’s Cheyenne village on
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#1732851406809204-596: The Washita River near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma , killing many inhabitants. Capt. Wyllys Lyman's wagon train was besieged by Indians near the Washita in Hemphill County on September 9–14, 1874. Arbuckle Mountains The Arbuckle Mountains are an ancient mountain range in south-central Oklahoma in the United States . They lie in Murray , Carter , Pontotoc , and Johnston counties . The granite rocks of
221-478: The karst features of the Arbuckle Mountains to preserve the biological ecosystems and groundwater resources. The organizations currently maintain databases of more than 1,000 caves and springs in the Arbuckle Mountains. The Arbuckles have gradually eroded to their present heights of 300–500 feet above the surrounding terrain or 1300–1400 feet above sea level. The range is approximately 35 miles (56 km) east-to-west and 10–15 miles north-to-south. The main part of
238-661: The oldest known formations in the United States between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains. They contain a core of granite and gneiss that date back at least 1.4 billion years. The core is overlain by a 1,500 feet (460 m) layer of Cambrian period rhyolite that is about 525 million years old. Atop the rhyolite is about 15,000 feet (4,600 m) of folded and faulted limestones, dolomites , sandstones, and shales deposited in shallow seas from Late Cambrian through Pennsylvanian time (515 - 290 million years ago). They were named indirectly for Gen. Matthew Arbuckle (1778–1851),
255-517: The post was abandoned in 1870, the name had already transferred in common usage to the nearby hills. Geologically the Arbuckles are an elongate anticline structure with an orientation or strike of west-northwest. The core of the structure consists of Proterozoic extrusive and intrusive rocks, the Colbert rhyolite porphyry and the Tishomingo granite (age dated at 1374 Ma), which are overlain by
272-399: The range is located in northern Carter County and southern Murray County , approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Ardmore and 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Davis, Oklahoma on Interstate 35 . The eastern flank of the ridge is approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Sulphur on U.S. Highway 177 . Popular recreation areas in the Arbuckle Mountains include Turner Falls Park ,
289-577: The waters of small tributaries, including Fort Cobb Lake , Lake Chickasha, and Arbuckle Reservoir . French explorers encountered the Washita River in the early 18th century while traveling upstream on the Red River and thought it was the same stream described by friendly Choctaw tribesmen as the Ouachita River . They soon found that it appeared very different from descriptions of the Ouachita, and named it
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