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Youree and the old road to Texas from Louisiana
You'll have to launch the boat for this one. I'd go ashore north of the cache. A quick launch to get to this cache would be the Orange public boat ramp (Corner of Simmons and Park).
History
This area contains one of the oldest crossings into Texas from the east.
Part of the Old Spanish Trail, this was route was a vital lifeline for equipment and supplies.
One of earliest crossings was Ballew's Ferry. This ferry actually crossed the Sabine River approximately 10 miles up river from Orange near Deweyville. As traffic through the region increased and with development of a national highway system plans were drawn up for a bridge to cross the river to replace the Ballew's Ferry.
The Sabine Memorial Bridge had a swing bridge design with a center pivot. The two main spans of the bridge were permanently mounted to a center drive mechanism. To "open" the bridge for boat traffic the bridge would "swing" and turn on a central column.
'Ma' Ferguson, governor of Texas, was on hand for the November 11, 1927, dedication of the new swing span bridge across the Sabine. Its opening broke the last traffic bottleneck on the Old Spanish Trail, officially known as Highway 90, and eliminated a typical hour-long wait to cross the river between Texas and Louisiana. With the completion of Highway 90 between Orange and Lake Charles, the west was at last easily accessible from the east, and vice versa".
With the opening in the early 1950's of the IH10 river bridge a mile up river, and due to some questionable politics the Sabine River Bridge was removed in the early 1960's. Very little physical evidence remains.
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