In 1833 Captain Henry Miller Shreve began clearing the Red River channel from Alexandria in Central Louisiana northwest to Shreve Town, the village he established in 1836. His crew devoted three years of grueling effort to clearing the River of its “Great Raft.” Channels cut earlier through alluvial soil deposits had exposed the River’s banks to rapid erosion that resulted in undesirable backwater swamps and spring floods.

Before the raft was cleared, passage on Red River was impossible for commercial steamboats: only pirogues, canoes and keel-boats could thread their way through. The clearance of a deeper, navigable channel and subsequent drainage of backwater swamps led to rapid settlement and expansion of agricultural and commercial enterprises along the River. Many backwater swamps were transformed into flourishing plantations such as Sunflower Plantation—the area now occupied by C. Bickham Dickson Park. Between 1880 and 1898, steamboat lines operating on the River made frequent stops, including one at Sunflower Plantation.

Many shipwrecks occurred along this channel. Among them, records tell of a sinking at Devil’s Elbow—a bend in the river near the present Park site. In the early 20th century, railroads gradually replaced steamboats as the dominant means of transportation. Nevertheless, records of the Red River Line still listed Sunflower Plantation as a landing place in the early 1900’s. Part of the plantation was called Sunflower Point, a peninsula bordered on three sides by the Red River as it curved back on itself.

Rivers change course. When they do, meanders are frequently by-passed in favor of a more direct route. This occurred at Sunflower Point in 1945 when Red River forged a new path through the remaining neck of land and established its present channel. The remaining river meander silted in at its junctures with the new channel and ultimately became the oxbow lake known as Old River Lake.
In the early 1960's the site of the present park was leased to Tom Murrell who managed it initially for cattle grazing and later for horse stabling, horse rentals and leased vegetable garden plots.

When the federal Red River Navigation project resulted in the installation of downstream locks by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, river conditions changed once again. Simultaneously, rising interest in environmental education and research led to a re-evaluation of the site. As a result, in 1980 the City of Shreveport and the State of Louisiana jointly purchased the current park site and named it after C. Bickham Dickson, a Shreveport citizen dedicated to environmental issues and the previous owner. It was a controversial purchase at the time because most citizens did not foresee the potential value of the seasonal floods at this site. Few understood the critical role wetlands play in maintaining the quality of surface water.

Tom Murrell continued to lease the site until 1983 when the City completed construction of an equestrian center, picnic areas, a fishing pier, roads and parking in accordance with a park master plan. Subsequently, the equestrian center was operated by contractors, but in the mid 1990's it became apparent that periodic flooding precluded this kind of activity. Concurrently, faculty at LSUS, whose campus is adjacent to the Park, began conducting biological research at the site and offering related courses to students. It was then that the unique value of the Park began to be broadly recognized. Today, the park continues to offer splendid opportunities for outdoor recreational activities such as boating, fishing, & nature walks. In addition, the Park provides a unique laboratory for environmental research, water quality monitoring and both formal and public education about the significance of the Red River Watershed.