Introduction: Coarse-looking men -- Great sagacity and tact -- Mud to the axles -- An honest oilman -- The first casualty -- Cheese and sody crackers -- So much legal gobbledygook -- A layer of anger -- Midnight bulldozers -- Very much disturbed -- Ready to go killing -- Hold the fort -- If it takes all summer -- Cross another creek -- Put away the soldiers -- Epilogue: Historical markers
Summary
At the beginning of America's Great Depression, Texas and Oklahoma armed up and went to war over a 75-cent toll bridge that connected their states across the Red River. It was a two-week affair marked by the presence of National Guardsmen with field artillery, Texas Rangers with itchy trigger fingers, angry mobs, Model T blockade runners, and even a costumed Native American peace delegation. Traffic backed up for miles, cutting off travel between the states. This conflict entertained newspaper readers nationwide during the summer of 1931, but the Red River Bridge War was a deadly serious affai