Caddo Lake NWR, Karnack, TX Sept. 16 - 23, 2013

Our visit to Caddo Lake NWR in the NE corner of Texas was short, but very sweet and enjoyable. This is a surprisingly lovely part of the state and this refuge is loaded with fascinating history, incredible scenery and a fabulous staff that is doing a lot with their resources.

The highlight of our visit was an afternoon spent canoeing on Caddo Lake. It was a sunny, warm Saturday afternoon and, as you will see, the lake provided a gorgeous setting at every turn we took in our boat. We did not see any gators but, believe me, we were watching for them!

Looking back at the boat launch as we set sail!

Although you would never know it by looking at these photos, Caddo Lake NWR was an Army ammunition plant and self-contained city from 1941-2000. This land has been transferred to the FWS and is now protected and managed as a wildlife refuge. There is more info on this interesting history further down in this blog post.

Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in Texas and one of the largest natural lakes in the south. It contains the largest cypress growth area anywhere and is 25,000+ acres sitting on the border of NE Texas and NW Louisiana. On our afternoon canoe outing, we saw a very small fraction of this large body of water.

Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge was established in 2000 on portions of the approximately 8,500-acre Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant in Harrison County, Texas. The refuge was established for the purpose of migratory bird and other fish and wildlife management, conservation, and protection.

Here is an interesting piece of history from the Caddo Lake website: Texas got its name from the Caddo Indian word "tay-shas," meaning "friend" or "ally." Not far from the present day Caddo Lake NWR, the Spanish were the first Europeans to encounter the Caddos. They mistakenly thought that tay-shas was the name the Caddos gave to their lands and transcribed it in Spanish to "Tejas," which subsequent Anglo-Americans pronounced "Texas.

Another wonderful part of our visit to Caddo Lake NWR was the adorable small town of Jefferson, TX, about 15 miles from the refuge. It looks much as it did when it was a bustling 19th century river port and the history in the town is well recorded as you walk around its brick streets.

Back at the refuge, we were productive and able to actually finish the work of scanning, preserving and archiving the files deemed most historically relevant by the staff. This is the area right around the office.

This is our "office" for the week: the conference room where we had space, access to the files, and great light.

Jason is the manager at Caddo Lake and was super-great to work with. He was ready for us when we arrived, available for questions, and had all of their files organized and prepared to be archived. Jason and his crew are working hard to develop this land and transition it to a wildlife refuge.

This is Lee, a scientist from Texas A & M, charged with tackling the big problem of Salvinia, an invasive weed/plant that is taking over the waters of Caddo Lake. It is a shame and a real issue as the plant replicates itself quickly and is near impossible to kill. One solution is to breed and implant the Salvinia Weevil on the plant. This critter eats the leaves of the plant, which ultimately kills the plant. The silver incubators below hold the weevil which are then taken to the lake and placed on the plants. Caddo Lake NWR is a partner in this project and provides Lee with this office space and other access and support on and around the lake and the refuge.

This is the lobby/reception area of the Caddo Lake NWR office. Look at how many wildlife refuges there are in Texas!

Here I am with Gary, the go-to guy at the refuge, the person who knows all about everything happening at Caddo Lake. He, of course, was helpful during our stay and pointed out a few things that we needed to see while in the area.

Here is Oliver with Paul, the refuge biologist, but also the person who has been there even before the land was transferred from the Army to the FWS. Paul knows the history of the refuge because he was at the table, a part of the conversations, from the beginning and even today. He was very generous in his knowledge (and passion) for the refuge and we tried to soak in as much info from Paul as we could manage. This is truly a gem of a place within the NWR system.

This is the firehouse at the refuge. It now serves as an office for the maintenance crew and for John, the refuge forester. It is also the refuge bunkhouse and where we stayed during our visit. It was an actual firehouse when the Army functioned on this land. It was a unique lodging experience and one that we really enjoyed.

This is the firehouse kitchen and dining room. There was an internet connection in this room, so we spent time in the evenings here eating and catching-up on emails.

This is the garage area that separates the kitchen/office area from the living area.

The lodging side of the firehouse had this room with some limited TV stations. We are always happy to have access to an actual TV, so we enjoyed watching some sports and news during our visit.

Oliver's room.

My room (much messier than Oliver's!).

The hallway on the bunkhouse side of the firehouse. 

This is the visitor's center at the refuge. It is just down the road from the office, which is inside the main gate at the refuge. It is loaded with info on the habitat on the refuge as well as some cool video tapes of some of the history of the land on-which the refuge sits.

Caddo Lake and the refuge are one of only 26 sites in the U.S. to be recognized as a Ramsar Wetland, “Wetlands of International Significance” under an international treaty signed by over 150 nations. This impressive declaration is well-documented and explained at the visitor's center.

On the final Friday of our visit, Paul kindly took us out to some of the back roads of the refuge to show us some of the old Army buildings that still exist on the grounds. It was pouring rain that afternoon, which is a good thing for the area - much needed - but made for a wet tour. Paul was full of great information and really knows the complete history and continuing evolution of this transition from Army town to national wildlife refuge. Some of the remaining cement walls and foundations may be retained to preserve some of the history of the land.

The History of the Longhorn Ammunition Plant, from the Friends of Caddo Lake Website: "After World War II broke out following the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, the U.S. Army moved quickly to expand the production of munitions to support the war effort. A young Congressman named Lyndon Baines Johnson, who hailed from the Hill Country of Central Texas and had already established himself with President Franklin Roosevelt and House Speaker Sam Rayburn as an up-and-coming legislator, saw the opportunity to persuade the Army to build one of the new ammunition plants in an isolated, rural area adjacent to his wife Lady Bird’s home town of Karnack, Texas.

LBJ moved quickly and so did the Army, which acquired 8,493 acres of land adjacent to Caddo Lake approximately 4 miles from the Louisiana-Texas border. In October, 1942, Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant was established to produce trinitrotoluene (TNT).

Over the succeeding 55 years – except for a 7 year period when it was maintained on stand-by status -- the Longhorn plant manufactured a variety of munitions ranging from incendiary devices to rocket motors.

At its peak, the facility included 451 buildings, operated its own power and water treatment plants, and was interlaced with rails for the movement of raw materials and finished product."

On September 9, 1988 The Longhorn Ammunition Plant played a significant role in history when it was the site where the first U.S. missiles were destroyed as a part of the U.S. and Soviet INS (Intermediate-range Nuclear forces) treaty, the beginning of the end of the nuclear arms race between the world’s atomic age superpowers. The then VP George Bush Senior was present for the event. These structures, still on the refuge, are where the missiles were disarmed. 

The refuge is designed to protect one of the highest quality old-growth bottom land hardwood forests in the southeastern United States. There are miles of paved roads throughout the refuge, leftover from the days when this was an ammunition plant. Now most of these roads can be used to explore the beautiful grounds.