Remembering the Reeking River Regatta
25 Feb
Would you want to paddle on something called the Reeking River?
Luckily, back in 1969, according to THIS Houston Chronicle story, 120 paddlers chose to do exactly that at the first annual Reeking River Regatta, a canoe race down Houston’s Buffalo Bayou. Organizer Wayne Walls started the event in an effort to clean up the river and halt an Army Corps of Engineers plan confine the river within a paved corridor.
At the time, Buffalo Bayou was clogged with debris and fouled by fecal bacterial counts that exceeded safe boating standards by more than 100-fold, the Chronicle reports. The event continued and grew through the years and slowly the river rebounded. The Corps plans to “pave” the channel were scrapped.
Since 1990, the event has been called the Buffalo Bayou Regatta and draws hundreds of paddlers and spectators. The 2009 edition is set for March 7.
