Hello,
Does anyone know how a person would cross the Red River during the 1850s? The person would be traveling from Texas to Oklahoma.
Thank you.

I don't know any specific points, but they would likely have been in the Chickasaw Nation [probably near present-day Marietta] and the Choctaw Nation.

I know that by the 1870s, there was a ferry in operation near the present I-44 Red River Bridge located south of Lawton, OK and north of Burkburnett, Texas. There was also a stage station that was a waypoint for freight and passenger haulers running the route between Henrietta, Texas and Fort Sill, I.T. in the 1880s. This was located a few miles north of the Red River in the Kiowa, Comanche, & Apache Reservation.

Anyone else have anything more specific?

Just thought of something else, there was likely another one farther west of the K,C,& A Reservation in what was Greer County, Texas [present-day southwest Oklahoma]. This may have been at or near the site of Doan's Crossing which was a crossing for the Western Cattle Trail in the 1870s. It may have existed prior to the 1870s.

Thank you, Diron for your help. I do appreciate it.

It would depend on the conveyance, the reason for travel and the designation they hoped to reach. There were multiple crossings on the Red River. The most frequently used in the 1850's was Colbert's ferry south of present Durant. The Butterfield Stage in the late 1850's took this route. There was another often used crossing east of there near old Ft. Towson, a few miles east of present Hugo. Another existed under present Lake Texoma. One was near where Mud Creek enters the Red--it was a cattle trail going northeast to connect with the Shawnee Trail and I believe the military had a branch road at this crossing to old Ft. Cobb and the Wichita Agency. The Chisholm crossing is just west of that one. The Chisholm crossing by the way was not in common use until 1867.

This is a late reply, but there was another crossing in use in the 1880's called the Illinois Bend, near the present town of Leon, OK.

Illinois Bend is presently a community in North Texas, on the county line between Cooke and Montague Counties and is directly west of Leon. There is also an Illinois Bend locale on the south side of the Red River west of the Mud Creek entrance to the Red. Back in the 1880's there was a oft used river crossing there.

I see by your original post you're interested in the 1850's use of a specific river crossing. This one was in use as early as 1854 as part of the Marcy road leading from Ft. Arbuckle to West Texas military posts.