Twin Blends History Corner - The Red River freeze

Mark and Mike Mangham
·1 min read

Red River Freezes Over!

The best pictures you have EVER seen of the Red River and Cross Lake frozen over from December 1983!!

Our buddy Roger S. Braniff Sr. posted these photos in 2021 and we had to share with everyone!

Roger shared these memories of 40 years ago, 1983, when our Shreveport temps dipped around 5 degrees and remained there for several days.

According to Roger “a freeze unlike most of us had ever experienced. Along with my two sons, my brother and nephew, we took time to visit Cross Lake, at the then old Smiths Cross Lake Inn pier, where here in my photos, you can see them actually able to stand on the frozen lake. We then ventured downtown to view and photograph the frozen Red River. At one location it was frozen all the way across, where some people were actually making their way out on it a little way”.

Thanks Roger! In addition, here’s some photos we found at the Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS!

Twin Blends: Northwest Louisiana History Hunters

Twin Blends, the Northwest Louisiana History Hunters, show us Roger S. Braniff Sr. photos of the 1983 freezing on Cross Lake.
Twin Blends, the Northwest Louisiana History Hunters, show us Roger S. Braniff Sr. photos of the 1983 freezing on Cross Lake.
Twin Blends, the Northwest Louisiana History Hunters, show us Roger S. Braniff Sr. photos of the 1983 freezing of the Red River.
Twin Blends, the Northwest Louisiana History Hunters, show us Roger S. Braniff Sr. photos of the 1983 freezing of the Red River.
Twin Blends, Northwest Louisiana History Hunters, show us photos of the of the 1983 freezing of Cross Lake.
Twin Blends, Northwest Louisiana History Hunters, show us photos of the of the 1983 freezing of Cross Lake.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Twin Blends show us photos of the 1983 Red River freeze