Caddo Lake

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One of the most unusual geographical features in the entire state of Texas is also one of my favorite retreats.  Caddo Lake straddles the Texas-Louisiana border, just a little bit north of Shreveport.  Just looking at it on the map, it looks like any of the other hundreds of lakes in Texas.  You have no idea how unusual and just downright “strange” this place is until you spend a little time exploring around it.   

Pull into the little town of Uncertain, Texas, and you feel like you are arriving at a place that time forgot.  It’s as if you are showing up at the party many hours after it has died out and all the people have somehow dissolved from sight.  You know that people are still there, you just can’t quite figure out where they are, who they are, and what they spend their time doing. 

Uncertain seems to be the center of activity (what little activity there is) in the Caddo Lake area.  You’ll find a few fishing camps, although there are fewer now than the last time I visited.  There are a couple of small restaurants, the kind that cycle through owners, menus and name changes on a regular schedule.  Just as one place dies due to lack of business or lack of interest, another owner with a new fried batter recipe or some other new idea, shows up to paint on a new name and give it a whirl. 

Over there is the “Church of Uncertain”.  I have to laugh whenever I see that sign.  And parked over beside the fellowship hall, sits their custom-built, trailer-mounted barbecue smoker, which I’m sure has presided over many a church fund-raiser or social event.  Hanging from the cooker’s smoke stack, someone has proudly hung a sign that exclaims “Smokin’ for Jesus!”.  I love that!

There are homes here, all along the water’s edge.  Some are brand new and luxurious, if perhaps a bit out of place.  Some are newly remodeled after the floods that hit some of the area earlier this year, while some haven’t been touched since the floodwaters receded.  Some are just old, abandoned, and lifeless, falling further into decay as each year goes by. 

There are many fine old “lake houses”, the ones that, in their heyday, were used each weekend between May and October by large, loud families coming over from Dallas or up from Shreveport.  So many of them look run-down and deserted, starved for attention.  As we floated by these once-stately lakefront homes in our rented boat, I could envision the scenes of summers past…folks sitting around in the lawn chairs, Uncle Tiny tending the brisket smoking on the barbecue pit, the kids swinging as far out out over the water as they could on the rope swing before flipping off with style into the cool water.  But paint fades, families age, folks die off, kids grow up, rope swings rot, lawn chairs and barbecue pits rust.  There are a lot of “fix ‘em ups” in and around Uncertain.

The march of time which seems so evident and severe to me in this place, is really nothing to this old lake.  It was named after the Caddo Indians who roamed the area until they were “placed elsewhere” by the white man in the 19^th century.  Although Native Americans have lived along the Big Cypress bayou for thousands of years, the Caddo’s claimed that the lake itself was created by a large earthquake that happened in 1811.  Others believe it was created when the “Great Raft” a 100-mile long log jam blocked up the Red River downstream from the lake near Shreveport.  Caddo Lake is one of Texas’s few non-oxbow natural lakes, and is the 2^nd largest naturally occurring lake in the southern United States.

It is the natural uniqueness of Caddo Lake that I love the most.  The tall, stately cypress trees are the predominant feature around the lake.  Their large trunks bump up beside each other, while the gray beards of Spanish moss flow in the breeze from their limbs.  Their knobby knees stick up out of the water haphazardly around the trunks, like cartoon figures dancing around in some random animation known only to the trees.  The backwater boat trails that lay within these cypress walls can be so dark and confusing to the average boater, especially at dusk, that there’s even a marked boat trail system, complete with signs, to help you with navigation.  I can tell you from experience that when the sun goes down, the owls start hooting, and other, unnamed creatures start making noises, you don’t want to be out there!  Why, even Bigfoot has been spotted hanging out on Caddo Lake!

On this particular trip, I enjoyed capturing the colors of Fall with my camera and my drone.  The lake is typically just a mass of green and grey, but in October and November, the cypress trees find their colors, and the skies at sunrise and sunset can be spectacular.   Caddo Lake is truly a place of beauty and mystery.

If you’d like to see a collage of my recent Caddo Lake videos and photographs, go to the video section by clicking HERE. I hope you enjoy!