From the Annals of the Rivers –  In 1838, the keelboat David Crockett, arrived at the head of the raft on the Colorado River.  The “raft” was an enormous logjam caused by the river’s slow current and meandering course.   By the late 1830s, the raft blocked the river ten miles above its mouth at Matagorda. The Crockett, reputed to be the largest craft to attempt to navigate the Colorado, had averaged more than sixty miles a day, but was forced to stop  at the head of the raft, where its cargo of cotton was unloaded and carried by wagon to Matagorda.  Incredibly, the raft remained in place until the 1920s.  Removal of the log jam  caused the development of an enormous delta that reached across Matagorda Bay to the Matagorda Peninsula. In 1936 engineers dug a channel through the delta, but Matagorda gradually became landlocked.