Before the quarry near today's boat ramp existed, a man named Gibson built a fine house on the "first bluff upstream of Rockport" and brought race horses to the area. All that is left of the Gibson house and estate now is Gibson Cemetery, located on the left side of the road up to the new water plant. Author Edgar Allen Poe stayed with the Gibsons at least once.
The first bridge built over the Ouachita River at Rockport was paid for by the State since it was carrying Military Road. The year was 1846 and the $20,000 bridge was operated as a toll bridge. How much was the toll, you ask?
5 cents for a man walking
15 cents for a man riding a horse
10 cents for a man leading a horse
75 cents for the mail stage and a "4 wheeled pleasure carriage"
$1.00 for a 4 wheeled carriage or wagon if drawn by 4 beasts
Unfortunately, the bridge washed away about two years later in December of 1848.
A ferry probably operated until 1874 when bridge no. 2 was built by the Ouachita Falls Lumber Company (name of the company varies with references). It was a timber truss affair with a covered span adjacent to the east bank where the lumber company was located. It burned twenty years later. I'll bet it burned at night when no one was around to put out the fire. Could the corrupted youth of 1894 have been responsible?
Photos of the first two bridges are not available, but they are depicted in engravings (artist's conceptions). Here is one that does not show a bridge, but shows the lumber company. The "Falls" are shown with uniform crest, so there is probably a weir in place, especially since the Falls were blasted before bridge no. 2 went in. The height of the Falls looks to about as tall as a man. The Falls could not have been that tall or uniform since Dunbar and Hunter poled a riverboat load of supplies upstream past Rockport in the early 1800s.
The weir is depicted in another engraving as the Mother of All Strainers. Logs poke skyward at a 45 degree angle towards downstream, and there is a space about a log wide between each upright log. Text with the engraving said the lumber company collected logs from the weir, logs that had been cut upstream and floated down.
An interesting fact about the Ouachita is that locks were constructed on it up to Camden around 1910, long before the current Corps locks were built. Photos exist of the original lock construction project. Maybe some day in the future paddlers will discover old photos of the first few whitewater parks built in the Rockport area!
Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan
