The Gainesville Daily Register
Monday, December 22, 2014 Residents Recalls Stories of Delaware Bend - a Community now under Lake Texoma Dexter - Hal Dick turned 90 years old on Friday - he is a former resident of Delaware Bend still living - one of the last. Much of Delaware Bend was claimed by Lake Texoma in the early 1940s and families were relocated of the land....His father, Jule Richard "Torte" Dick grew cotton on the land in the Bend...."The only way to go to town was with a load of cotton ," Hal said. "We went to Whitesboro to the cotton gin to sell the cotton, then with the money we'd go shopping." There was a bridge on the main road from Whitesboro to Dexter to the Delaware Bend ferry on the Red River and nearby town of Orlena. It was located on the property settled by James G. Bourland in the 1850s...The concrete abutment on the north bank is still intact along with the approach road with local stone retaining wall. The south concrete abutment has collapsed and the approach road and retaining wall are scattered in the creek bed. The road meandered on down past small farms and houses. Then it continued past more houses, some businesses, and finally to the ferry and the river where it ended. The road was several miles long and went through the heavily populated area of Delaware Bend before Lake Texoma was constructed...Orlena was another name for Delaware Bend. And the main road through the upper bottoms was Orlena Road....The ferry was well used by as people traveled to Marietta, Oklahoma, which was the closest town located right across the river... The Bend was originally a Native American settlement before white settlers arrived in the 1840s. Trading posts were built and military roads connected the various settlements. Men led expeditions to control raids on the settlers that included Col. Young, who served as a U.S. Marshall for a term and Col. James Bourland, military commander for the Confederacy. Young and Bourland are best known for their participation in the events that led to the "Great Hanging" in Gainesville. James Bourland's son, W.W. Bourland died in 1907. He is buried close to the Bourland Bridge that is now overgrown with trees, weeds and brambles. Eventually the Indians were pushed north across the river into Indian Territory and the area increased in population. Outlaws ranged through the area and could escape any law enforcement by crossing the river into Indian Territory. ...Hal's great-grandfather, Rube Dick, settled in the Bend sometime after the Civil War. Handed down through the family are stories of buffalo crossing the Red River at the low river crossing. Area ranchers would drive cattle to the river once a day for water, because there were no hand dug ponds. 
Remnants of the Bourland Bridge Remnants of the Bourland Bridge can be seen off of CR 103 north of Dexter. Residents of Delaware Bend used the bridge to travel to Whitesboro before it was washed out in in 1935. 
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