Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad Articles

The following is a "company collection". Thus it is long and somewhat out of order.

The Winnfield Depots
While looking for some history on the Natchitoches Railroad, I happened upon the locations of the three depots in Winnfield, a mystery to me while up there. I did guess at the location of the L&A depot and was right.

Winnfield, Louisiana Railroad Stations, 1945:

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific = Front St. and East Main (location of the moved L&A depot building)

Louisiana & Arkansas RR = South end of Jones Street.
I was right, it is near where the boxcar was.

Tremont and Gulf Railroad = 601 Front St.

The map below is of the Winnfield rails situation, probably in the 1970's.
I have placed the locations mentioned near those addresses.
The blue lines are my rambling in town. Click the map to expand it.
The big surprise is that the moved L&A Depot, now a museum, is at the Rock Island
location. I thought those rails were Tremont's. He may have the T&G and CRI&P mixed up?
The information comes from "Louisiana: A guide to the State" by the Louisiana Writer's Project, 1945, which does not guarantee accuracy. CLICK HERE to go to that great old book.

Click the map to read it.



Packton to Ferriday
History books tell of things that were. Many folks accept them as the final statement on a subject. Not Al and me. James R. Fair's "The Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad, The Story of a Regional Line" is a history book. Of late, History Hunts has been, off and on, an amateur's attempt at supplementing that write. Fair has led me on many an expedition. From those outings I've added a few pictures to coordinate with his tales. This will be another one.

From Fair's book:

"The Jena extension was completed at the end of 1903, except for the 180 foot steel-truss bridge across the Little River near Georgetown. (This was the first bridge of any consequence to be needed by the L&A.) High water during the spring and summer of 1904 delayed completion of the bridge, and through service from Packton to Jena could not be provided until February 1905. The terminal point, Jena, was an old settlement that had become little more than a country post office in the midst of a dense pine forest; but Buchanan now owned most of the forest and proceeded to build up Jena to the point that it was incorporated in 1908. Estimates of lumber yield from the Jena area ran as high as 250 to 300 million board feet per year, for at least twenty five years. To exploit this lumber potential, Buchanan located three mills in the vicinity, one of which, at Trout (three miles west of Jena) survived until the 1940's.

The L&A issued an attractive brochure in 1904, designed to tell the world about the railroad and its geographic region. It claimed that the mill at Stamps was the largest in the region, shipping some 82 million board feet of lumber in 1903. The brochure described a seemingly inexhaustible supply of trees for lumbering, yet serious attention was being given to the reuse of cut over land. The railroad boasted that it was being constructed to rigidly high standards, with an eye toward freight traffic interchanges at several points. This sanguine attitude of management appears to have been justified; on June 8, 1904, the Louisiana Railroad Commission made an inspection of the property and reported:

The roadbed and track of this road are splendidly constructed, ballasted with gravel and laid with heavy rails on cypress ties, and are unusually smooth for a new road. The depots are all frame structures , but are constructed along modern plans, and in each there are water coolers, and ample provisions for their proper heating. The closets are located at a convenient distance from each depot.
Construction of the Alexandria extension began in early 1905, departing from the Winnfield-Jena line at a a station named Packton. On July 1, 1906, 30.46 miles of railroad were placed in operation between Packton and a connection with the Iron Mountain at Tioga, Louisiana, 8.2 miles north of the joint Iron Mountain -T&P) depot at Alexandria. Trackage rights were secured from the Iron Mountain and T&P, which included a bridge over the Red River and use of the joint passenger station in Alexandria. Separate freight facilities and yard trackage were developed by the L&A.

The survey of the L&A route into the Alexandria area called for a direct line from Tioga to Alexandria through Pineville, utilizing the Edenborn bridge (of the Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company, the new name of the Shreveport and Red River Valley, to cross the Red River. William Edenborn refused to grant such rights to the L&A, keeping alive the old rivalry between Buchanan and himself; hence the arrangement with the Iron Mountain and the T&P.

Me shortening the last passage:

At about this time the Rock Island.... was moving south through Winnfield and agreed to use the L&A tracks from Packton to Tioga. Buchanan extended tracks to the Edenborn Bridge, with a connection at Pineville Junction to the LR&N. Edenborn allowed the Rock Island trains to cross his bridge. For many years only the RI used this short stretch of the L&A rails.

It was like a splinter that would not come out. I needed to see it all. Even Al put on an air of interest. We were off. (You decide the interpretation of the last statement.)

Unlike Fair's book, this will also be a travelogue of our attempt at being in the places where determined industrialists had not only taken great steps for themselves, but for the economic future of a region. Those guys didn't do it alone. They did it on the backs of the working man. Without that catalyst they would have been powerless. I walked several tracks imagining the hammers whaling in the humid Louisiana heat. I later realized it was my throbbing heat swollen head inside my full coverage black helmet. Al suggested I take it off for the next stroll. He does have his moments.

Enough dry truthful history, it's time for embellishments.

Late again, Al showed up sporting a new t-shirt Bootsie had given him. You ask, what happened to Tilly? They are the same person, Bootsie is Tilly's middle name which she now prefers because it reflects what Al gets if he doesn't behave. After 15 minutes of the t shirt explanation, I finally ushered him to the bike and said, "ride".

BTW, Bootsie, the fig cake is wonderful. Thanks you.

I'll pick up the ride above Porte Barre on La. 103 as it leaves town headed for Washington, LA. Remember, this is a travelogue site. We'll get to the RR stuff eventually.



Next was La. 359.



La.359 is another example of the basic La. road configuration, bayou on one side, fields slanting to back swamp on the other. Find a road like this and you have found some fun. Our bayous meander, a lot. It was 9 AM.

Next, US 71 at LeBeau and the Masonic Temple.



Exiting 71 a little above LeBeau....



It was time for more bayou chasing. Bayou Petite Prairie was our rabbit.



Spring Bayou and Bayou Rouge pick up where Petite Prairie leaves off.



We rode through Evergreen and found that the old Victorian is now occupied and slowly being brought back to life. I had talked to the owners niece a while back and she had said that "things will be looking up". Indeed they were.

I took Al by the previously shown antique farm implement exhibit a local has on display. Sorry, no recent shots and the old ones are buried somewhere. We were next on La.115 headed into Hessmer, named by Edenborn, mentioned above. The KCS article has more about Hessmer and Edenborn.

We crossed a bridge and I wildly shot and hit.



From time to time I shoot to shoot. I shot again. To this point all of the pictures were taken on the move. No dear, both hands remained on the bars. Don't ask how. Obviously, the next one wasn't taken on the move.



I stopped at the old feed store in Hessmer which was also a fruit and vegetable warehouse. Yes, Al knew all about it and pointed out the sign on the wall I'd missed when doing the KCS write. There are a lot of entrepreneurial Roys in Mansura, also.



"Earl Roy Produce Fresh Fruits and Vegetable Market".
Al had dealt sweet potatoes with him.

We crossed the Red River. The next page, when it is written, will begin my intensely serious examination of the historical places of which I spoke. It will be so boring it will make you cry, but all the words will be spelled correctly, a big bonus. Between tears, there will of course be the comedy afforded by two old _arts wandering around deliriously, wearing black helmets in 100F heat, one step ahead of being taken off to Pineville's famous sanitarium for the mentally afflicted.

Page 2

Page 2, leaving Moncla, we crossed over the Red River on a new bridge which was required by the Corps of Engineers when the river was deepened for larger ships. The old Moncla bridge fell just like Edenborn's railroad bridge had fallen in Alexandria, at the hands of some some grand scheme which I'm not sure ever amounted to much. I might spend a day at one of the locks and just count the traffic. The loss of Edenborn's RR Bridge is discussed in the KCS ride report.

Back to this page:

Some places you just feel obliged to photograph. The Red River is a mystery along much of its course*. Not really, but the part below the La.107/115 Moncla Bridge is. Well, at least to me. The bridge is the final spanning of this great river that began west of Palo Duro Canyon which is south of Amarillo, Texas. I'll give you a moment to soak that in.

*(That's a sentence I learned from watching National Geographic Specials)



Ready?

Now?

OK.



Here's looking down the levee at the new Moncla Bridge.
Bits and pieces of the old Moncla Bridge can be found up and
down Bayou Boeuf south of Alexandria. I think it was cut up and sold
by some getterdone entrepreneur. One section now crosses
the Boeuf and leads to the falling down Red River and Gulf Depot
at LeCoumpte. One bridges the Boeuf at Barbreck Plantation. One crosses
behind a historial cemetery along La.29. Another long span is above LeCompte
behind LaMurie. I had wondered where all these fine bridges had come from.
Here. The hand is Al's attempt to be in every picture.



That thing could be an alien space ship for all I know?

Here are 2 more wild shots taken while crossing the bridge.

Downstream



Upstream



This is an abridged map of the ride featuring some of the major
rivers. I chunked that in since there are river people who
read this thing. The yellow line is us.



I once did a ride report that I called "Louisiana's Mystery Land".
The LML is bordered by the Mississippi, Black and Red Rivers. It really
isn't a mystery if you know about it. The fact that you don't know
about it may be a mystery to some. It's all in one's perspective.

We followed 107 up to Pineville. Along the way I took a side road to the paper mill.
The reason I did this is because one of the spurs that leaves the old L&A,
the present KCS, goes to the mill. I also took it because Marion collects IP Mill pictures.
I'll send you the large versions, Marion.





I wanted to go in and see the local engines which belong to the plant,
but we had 300 miles to go and it might have taken a while proving
Al was not a terrorist.

Marion got the shot and wrote this back:

Many thanks for the picture of the Pineville mill.The building you are looking at is a Recovery boiler/power generator house. After the chips are cooked, the cooking liquor is strained out of the pulp, water is evaporated out of the liquor until it is a thick dark brown semi-liquid. This liquid contains the lignin (the glue that holds the wood fibers together). This liquor is heated and sprayed into a boiler where the lignin burns and produces heat which makes steam which is used to heat water and / or dry the paper on the paper machines. It sounds complicated and it took many years to evolve, but it is now standard, every day practice for all paper mills. This is where we recover and recycle our cooking liquor.

Marion is my go to guy on anything mill related for obvious reasons.

We next tried to find the wye that left the main line and came to the mill.
Hey, we were bored.

On our first try we found some ducks. They were OK but the owner started
firing at us. Al began wildly firing back because he though someone was trying to
harm his newly adopted ducks. I had to convince him, from the nick on my helmet,
that the shooter was aiming at me. He again wanted to fire back but I explained,
while behind a tree, that we really should go and if one of those bikes took
a bullet, we'd be stuck here. He said he liked it there, especially the gun play.
I gave up and left as he ripped off another round. I soon heard Al roaring up
behind me firing his gun into the sky. I knew he was mad at me. I held the GPS
up high and he quit. Sometimes I have to pull my "big gun"which is knowing where we are.
Al has one Achilles Heel, being lost. Seeing the result is not a pretty sight.

Al requested that I show you "his" ducks.



Probably more important to this write than the duck episode is the location of
the wye that goes to the mill. It is also the area known as "Pineville Junction".
Remember? That was where Buchanan's L&A rails were allowed to intersect
Edenborn's LR&N, but the L&A could not cross Edenborn's bridge. The Iron Mountain
had trackage rights, having piggybacked from Packton. The L&A and T&P used another
bridge.

If I got all that right, it's a wonder. If not, you can research it. Suddenly I feel a
vacuum as all leave to check the facts.



Above is the wye to the mill "Y". [it heads southeast through "Church" on the map.

Al, having shaken off his mad, said I should have taken the shot from the split toward the arm of the wye going east to the mill. I did it backwards which is so unlike me.



Looking the other way you can see Al yelling at me to take his picture where
the rails depart for the mill. Actually, I had cut my way across the tangles and
trudged though mud. He had simply taken the trail but was a bit late in pointing
that out. Al is quite an asset, if not a delayed asset. That fact would be reinforced
later. I never jump his case on the road, but I can from a distance and these writes
afford that opportunity.



When he wasn't looking I took a better shot.



The line on the left is the one to Packton by way of Tioga, Buchanan's 5 miles
that he couldn't use but the Iron Mt. could. The games big boys play.

Next we went up behind Louisiana College where I'd been on the last Pineville tour.
We needed a break and there was a patch of shade there. We were trying to follow the rails to Tioga and here we were. I remarked to Al that it was about time for a train to show up but realized that probably one wouldn't. Run, go get the kids.



Yes sir, about that time the warning signal started clanging.







No, not the same shot, look again.



There were two.
No, three.



And a dump car.



And that was it.
Seen closer in this shot.



This all seemed a little inefficient. Then a guy jumped down
and turned the switch.





Then he began walking away from the engines.



They began to move backwards pushing the car onto a siding.





Above is proof that the same picture can be used twice which is efficient.

They dropped the car off and pulled forward. The switch man
returned the switch to its usual mainline position. That prevents
surprises.



If confronted, the engine wins. Remember that.



Obviously there has been no progress in this realm of railroading in 150 years.
Is this a sign of union power? Are there still firemen? Seems strange to have to manually switch.
But, he did wave to us after Al let go a sound that resembled an Indian war cry after being shot.

Had, in fact Al been shot back at the duck deal? He never complains much, I just choked. I should have said that he doesn't complain like normal people do. He's more reactionary. Maybe he wasn't yelling to the switch man? I'll have to ask him.

Reflecting, this may have been the high point of the ride. Al and I have yet to discuss high points.

The three engines with no cars left.............



..........satisfied they had completed their goal.



Ok, Darlene, those are soccer goals and that was a joke. Notice
the switch guy riding on the side of the engine. Why. I'll sleep on it.



We headed for Tioga where I remember being told there was an old depot. I remembered that 5 miles past Tioga which meant we had to U turn and come back down US 167 to where you see "C". The "KCS UP X" thing signifies where the Union Pacific, coming from their Red River bridge, crosses the Kansas City Southern tracks coming from Pineville Junction. There appears to have been a large yard there at one time. The cross track seems to be below the 167 bridge. I forgot to look being intent on staying alive on a real highway. When we got back to Tioga we found this.
Click it if you can't read it.



Here we have the Iron Mountain part of the puzzle mentioned.
I believe the Iron Mountain was bought out by the Missouri Pacific?
Or was that the Rock Island? I can't keep them straight and it's not my job to do so.
Edenborn allowed the Iron Mountain, and later the MP to use his bridge. So maybe so?
But the Rock Island had ridden the L&A to this point from Packton. I'm confused.
Don't look for things to get any clearer.

Here's looking around the Commissary Museum area.



Yea, he was still mad and muttering about ducks.
I told him this was his last picture if he didn't let it go.



The next thing I heard was that Indian again.
He had found a caboose and was waving to the imaginary engineer
to pull forward.



He told me to completely document the caboose.










It had five "lights on behind". "Well, the blue light was my baby and the red light was my mind".



Here it is in Illinois in 1984.



Seems like it was built in 1966 "at the Centralia Shop".
The real caboose could have been built in 1966 BUT.....

All I could find regarding the Centralia Car shop [at first] were links for model trains.
This caboose, evidently, is a model for a model which explains the weird pictures below
which are really drawings found on Flicker.
Virgil, you know anything about this?





IC is Illinois Central RR. ICG is Illinois Central Gulf RR.

But there's more, Centralia is a real place. This from Here.

"In 1853 the Illinois Central Railroad laid out Centralia proper. David Oxley was the master mechanic at the Centralia I.C. shops from 1854 until 1890. Through years of experiments, he developed coal-burning locomotives to replace the old wood burners. The name, “Centralia” was given the new town in honor of the Illinois Central by John W. Merritt, the newspaper publisher at Salem, the county seat. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy first reached Centralia in 1882. In 1887 the Louisville, Evansville and St. Louis Railroad (the Air Line), which was part of the Southern Railroad system, ran through Centralia to Mt. Vernon. In 1893 the Centralia and Chester line ran between these two towns and in 1896 was extended to Salem. It was later to become part of the Missouri Pacific system. To local citizenry it was the Mike and Ike".

That made me dizzy. Can you repeat any of it? I can't. That was a pure case of info overload. I did that one time giving directions on a ride. That jerk is still lost.

Read IC History Here. That's enough on the caboose.

We were at the "Control Point, South Tioga". I've started a collection of "Control Point" pictures, want to trade? The big ones are awesome.



There was more stuff on the grounds.







Steam Stuff and an old barber shop. There were a few more
less impressive buildings.



Al was strolling down the porch, often called a gallery.



He was muttering again.



Something about "just like Angola Prison".

I looked closer and they were mail boxes with the names still attached.



I don't know what that is behind the boxes.



Leaving, we headed north. We passed this house and it
sure did look like an old school. If not, pretend.

Next, we headed to Bentley. More later. We still have 290 miles to go.



OK, after a very bad night with a sick dog, my plans to attack Monday have shifted to a more defensive position. I'll see if I can flank the day by writing one more page and then do my best General Forrest imitation at conquering the enemy.

By the 4th page of these historical railroad ride reports, I should be getting request for more information on the varied routes, personalities and rail layouts. That not happening, I will shift my emphasis from the academic to a more mundane, yet spirited, approach, one that I'm more comfortable with, anyway. Evidently, Al's suggestion that I make a big deal out of the caboose has fallen into a void of none interest. [actually Virgil just wrote and said the two weird pictures of the caboose were indeed weird and he knew the source, a program that lets you enter a Matrix type world and become an engineer. I wonder if you can face the real world after that?]

I was sure that a whole discussion group could have been elevated around the caboose subject. No problem, that was just another fishing trip on the web. Sometimes not catching is better than catching. A Mz Panhead on the end of the line and I'd have to cut it after shooting her. As a result of the above, fold your wings back because we are getting ready to fly through this one. I'll add the previous pages on the L&A route at the end. From here on out it's just frivolous journalism. Well, I did get bogged down a little.

We headed north after putting the bikes on an abandoned hand driven rail scooter.
Al finally got the knack of the seesaw drive. I never imagined one of those things
could really do 60 mph. It put "hearing the rails sing" in a whole new light.





At Bentley, we left the scooter and headed east on La.8 from US 167 to look for possible depot locations. All the signs and more were there. But, first we saw what appeared to be an attempt at a tourist trap . Too bad it didn't work out because it seemed to have some valuable historical artifacts.













This one, above, looks suspiciously RR.



Evidently, it all was a "Louisiana Adventure" gone bad. I can relate.
Nice try, though. Al said there was a functioning RV campground nearby.
Give them a try.




Bentley was named after a rather interesting person. I'll see what I
can find real fast. If not, you are on your on. BTW, Mr.Bentley was
my great grandfather's boss. He worked as a surveyor for Bentley
out of Zimmerman, another mill town. I just found something that
shed a whole new light on my g.grandfather. CLICK HERE.
It seems that Henry Wilson was more than just a surveyor to Bentley
and Zimmerman.

Also, you will see Julius Levin mentioned again. If you read the historical
marker on the last page, you'd know we were at the location of Levin's mill in Tioga,
the place where the caboose was. I love it when a story comes together.



This is Henry Wilson, my great grandfather, in action.
In the car picture below, the hats match. Could it be?


Extracted from that article:
Joe Bentley's Place in the Rapides' Lumber Industry

Unfortunately, there are those who have branded Joe Bentley as the “Paul Bunyan” of the south, and the man who built his hotel because another, lesser hotel, refused him when he applied for service. This type of aggrandizement detracts from a creditable legend. While local tradition puts some faith in the second claim, where he was probably looking too much like Paul Bunyon, the first is based primarily on someone’s fantasy. Further, to say that Joseph Bentley and E.W. Zimmermann introduced Rapides Parish to the lumber industry is a gross misstatement, but their place in the history of the local lumber industry is well established. Actually, they came on the scene late in the 19th century, around 1892. It was William Waters, and Levi Wilson, on the other hand, who first cut in the pine forests, formed logs into rafts, and pushed those rafts down the Red and Mississippi Rivers to build a major part of 19th century New Orleans. This was around 1815.

Joseph Bentley with his driver, 1910-15

In post Civil War Rapides, the man to first enter the lumber business in a big way was Julius Levin. He had moved directly from Prussia to Alexandria in 1853. After several years as a merchant, Mr. Levin studied and became interested in the lumber and building materials businesses. He manufactured and/or dealt with brick, cypress shingles, doors, lumber, and pine cisterns. One of the earliest Levin ads in the Louisiana Democrat about his large lumber business appeared in 1879, about 15 years before Bentley and Zimmermann arrived. By 1887, his Alexandria Mills had produced so much lumber, that 800,000 feet of the stuff was stocked on his large loading dock. It was stocked there because available railroad cars couldn’t transport sufficient product to fill the demand. Levin was shipping lumber all over the country and into Mexico. Unlike Bentley and Zimmermann, however, Levin’s material came mostly from independent sawmills, four Pineville-side mills in particular. His own timber holdings were relatively modest. His plant not only included a large sawmill, but the largest of the early planning mills in Rapides Parish, and he had transportation facilities by either rail or river that couldn’t be matched.

Joe Bentley and E.W. Zimmermann, originally from Pennsylvania, arrived in Rapides Parish around 1892, directly from the saw mills of east Texas. They had purchased a sawmill from Frank and Don Peak of Orange, Texas, in 1892. Presumably, they left this mill.in operating condition. Henry Wilson came with them; he was the negotiator in the purchase of standing timber and timber land in Rapides Parish, as well as the surveyor. Although he was offered a partnership he refused.

The first large plant was the J.A. Bentley Sawmill north of Boyce. A company town was established named after E.W., and eventually the plant was widely known as the Zimmermann sawmill. At its peak, the Zimmermann community included 118 houses and a population of 500 or 600 persons, half black, half white. The community had its own fire department, utility system, post office, and railway express agency; household goods and clothing could be purchased from the company commissary. Also available was candy for the children and soda pop bottled by Joseph Baker's company in Boyce. About fifteen miles from the mill and the mill pond was Zimmermann Camp, home to the loggers and their families.ⁱⁱ The company amassed 90,000 acres of virgin pine, (including the holdings of Frank and Don Petty near Cotile), stretching from Rapides into Vernon Parish. It built a private thirty-mile tram railway for transporting the timber into the mill, originally on a narrow gauge 52” track. However, the railway became inefficient by 1949, and it was replaced with trucks.

The acreage was stripped bare by 1962. It is approximated that over a billion board feet of timber went through the mill during its seventy years of operation. At its production peak it was processing twenty-two million board feet annually, but over the years it averaged 15 million. This annual production was sufficient to build 1,000 to 1,500 three-bedroom houses. Upon the death of Bentley in 1933 and Zimmermann in 1938, the property was inherited by relatives. Operation of the mill continued into the 1960's when the supply of timber was exhausted. E. C. Johnson who joined the company in 1947, became general manager, an he was the man to close it down in 1962. The T.L. James Company leased and reforested the entire 90,000 acres.ⁱⁱⁱ

By July of 1903, J.A. Bentley, Paul Lisso, and D.F. Clark had selected the site for the Enterprise Lumber Company to locate its huge $300,000 sawmill in Alexandria. It was located on Experiment Plantation, in the Enterprise addition, where Bayou Rapides was crossed by both the T & P and Iron Mountain railways. It included a 20-acre tract of land that was used as a millpond. In the previous month, the company had purchased 21,000 acres of prime pine timber land from Carpenter and Company of Michigan for $500,000. Enterprise had an annual cutting capacity of 30,000,000 feet, or 82,000 feet per day. It estimated its timber holdings sufficient to supply its demands for another twenty years. Bentley was president of the company, and his partner at the Zimmerman sawmill, E.W. Zimmerman, was vice-president. Paul Lisso served as secretary/treasurer; S.F. Sharpe was general sales agent; E. Beuhler was general superintendent; H.H. Turby was cashier, and R.A. Waitz was the stenographer. It was projected that operations would begin December 15, 1903, with 125 employees.^iv

Back at the tracks there was so much to imagine.







And the Control Point picture. There were rails running everywhere.



Here's the gem, the Bentley Depot, taken in the early 1900's.



From Here.

Page 5

Dry Prong to Packton






From Bentley, we rode busy 167 north to Dry Prong.
Al bolted from his bike and..........



I heard the Indian yell again.



Al had donned his Keith Richards autographed shades.
Was that rail ballast dust in his beard?



What next? He was having a hard time figuring out how to get down.



He finally got down and we both read the Historical Marker.
We were firmly established on the L&A.



I didn't spend enough time in Dry Prong. You can understand what
ate what I had. Al wanted to become a hobo. He really had
his mind set on it. I had to convince him that the bike was not going to
ride itself.



Next stop was Williana. I wanted to show Al La.472. It's a pretty nice bike road in its upper reaches. It follows the rails for a while then they veer more toward 167. Between the two roads is the Kisatchie National Forest with great gravel roads for those who like that scene.



The above picture is an example of pure laziness. Mine.
I could have gotten a better picture very easily.
It says, "Control Point South Williana".

Time for a map.


The yellow line is our tracks. I realized that when we got to La.500
we had to go west to Packton. I was not going to pass up the junction of
the Jena line and the Winnfield to Tioga line. Yes, my old software has
the old line on it that follows La.500 from Packton to Trout, then Good Pine and Jena.
Trout and Good Pine were Buchanan mill towns. Jena had a mill also. They were the
fruit on the branch. To set things straight, the Winnfield to Jena stretch was the "mainline"
The Alexandria stretch was a "branch". Of course that changed later on.

Back to 472, here we go. We parked and walked out to the tracks. 2 perspectives.





Turning west on 500, I aimed for the first rail crossing on the way to
Packton.



Looking down the line I can see these folks will be having ghost trains
coming through their bedroom all night. I think I'd have planned differently.



On the north side, the side going to Georgetown, evidence of the
railroad is passing quickly. Our forest eat history.



Next would be a long anticipated moment.



From this point on, it got intense.

Here comes the first "boring to tears page". To add to the misery
I'm starting on a half tank of gas due to spending the whole
morning's writing session trying to guide Al through the ordeal of
barbecuing steaks for a large group. The only reason
I did is because I feel his pain. Barbecuing steaks for a large
group is an impossible task. That's why most chefs get drunk
during the experience. Al doesn't drink because he thinks it
makes him crazy. Well...... I could go down that road but I
won't because he reads this thing. The other reason he doesn't
drink is because he's a control freak. Remember me mentioning
the fact that his Achilles Heel is being lost. That's a symptom
of his problem. Asking me how to barbecue steaks is another
symptom. I could see he was approaching one of his shaking
episodes so I had to at least give him some guidance even if I
am totally unqualified to do so. That's why this page will be a
dirge instead of a march through boring to tears hell. Maybe
I should have put this as a footnote. No, the plain truth has to
be out front. While I'm at it, all the information on this page
was stolen along with most of the pictures. I may be worn
out but at least I have a clear conscious. Also, this page will
not be published until after his barbecuing trial. If he knows I gave
him unqualified information he'll be at best muttering, at worst,
you never know. Oh, to save on putting another footnote, all the
information on this website is UNQUALIFIED. When history
leaves a void I fill it. Imagine History Hunts as a pothole pocked
Louisiana highway.

Back at the ride we were finally at Packton, the actual start
of this History Hunt. I am at a teetering point right here.
I could include all my research or none of it and suggest you
do your own. But, you wouldn't. Being there is the "push you
over the edge" incentive that is needed to spend hours hunting
down lost names of places and trivial moments in the past.
Most of us are way too concerned with the present, rightfully so,
to attempt that investment which in the end is pointless. My
only analogy is a crossword puzzle. Indeed the stretch from
Packton to Vidalia is a puzzle to me. There are conflicts in the
info I've been able to find. That later.





Al and I de-biked at the railroad, corner of the KCS line, Winnfield to Tioga, and La. 500.



I first looked south and imagined the wye going to the east.
I didn't walk down there as it seemed a bit out of reach. Look
at the dark place just before the rails touch each other.

On the north side of the road there was immediate stuff to ponder.
Yes, I figured out what those old rails were. Wow.



These large cement supports could have been the base for a water or oil tank.



Had they been moved to the side or was this their original positions?



I say they were moved seeing their disarrangement and teetering.

Next, I walked toward the north wye arm.



I cannot express my excitement. If I had known what I do now
it would have been doubled, maybe tripled?



Here's the all important "Control Point" sign and an active switch.
Was this part of the old wye to Jena sometimes used? Was
the proximity of the "lake" an issue? Did it supply water for
the tank? I think the line was pulled up in the mid 1980's.

One more.


Next, I walked down the wye to see how far the rails continued.



I'd say the rails were not used past this point. They were headed
to the highway where they crossed and joined the other arm coming
from the south side of the road. I turned toward the main line and shot
walking back up.







I walked back to where Al was patiently waiting. He doesn't like
walking and often just surveys the parking areas. Be forewarned.

I saw another spur coming off the west side of the main line and wondered. I wonder no more.



Get out your crying towel, here it comes.
First, the mystery spur. Some of these excerpts come from
Railroad Commission books documented in the early 1900's.

What you are looking at is the abandoned Rock Island Line
coming from Winnfield. My source said it was abandoned prior to
1924, but my sources are vague. It was once part of the Rock Is.'s
main line to Eunice, La. It paralleled the L&A from Winnfield and maybe
further until it's usefulness was deemed unnecessary. I further found
out that this point is called L&A Junction. I assume that the Rock Island
did not again ride its own rails until Alexandria or south of Alex at LaMourie.
But that's a whole other discussion.

Here are a couple of those Railroad Commission findings.
Click these if you can't read them.







Now I have a question. Besides being a junction, what importance did Packton have?
And, how large was it to rate two stations? BTW, Willow Glen is on the south side of Alexandria
which does not jive with my assumption that the RI did not have its own track until LaMourie.
I think in the KCS write Mike had pointed out that they did have their own right of way.

At this point I'm stopping and assessing my bootie.
The boring stuff is far from over. I just need to figure out how I'm going to present it.
The naming of the article, "Packton to Jena" is way too limiting. We'll take this thing
into Ferriday before leaving it. Along the way much confusion will be presented. I'll start
by leaving you with this. Al, if we hadn't come home, we could have ridden to Hope, AR.
What is really important, below, is the mentions of Wildsville, inferring that it was the end
of the L&A branch. What confuses me is the fact that the Ferriday site says that residents could
take the L&A out of town. Ferriday is east of Wildsville. Hang on. this will get exciting.

Click below to enlarge.



Speaking of bootie, here is mine from Packton:



Of course you recognize the spikes. The other deal you may not,
but my wife did. It's a brake airline hose, what you see connecting the
cars on a train. This one had a problem and was disposed of track side.
The spikes were found pushed up in the ballast away from the rails.
The Smithsonian is calling, got to go. More later. Keep that crying towel handy.
Oh, the red mug is my coffee cup. Now you understand what it takes to write these things.
And what it takes to read them. Beat you to it.

Before we move on down the line you really need to read some history.
This is from Fair's book.

If you can't read these, click them and they will open
larger in a separate window. Hit your back button to
return here.



Of Note: As of 1902, a contract had been let for a
38 mile mile extension east from Winnfield to Jena.



Of note: The line from Packton, on the Jena extension,
to Alexandria was being surveyed. 8-10 wheeler steam engines
were on order.



Of Note: Important passage: The extension to Jena,
with the ultimate objective of Natchez.... was motivated
by Edenborn's competition. I'm not interested in Edenborn here.
I'm wondering where the L&A's reach actually ended.
Hang on to that Natchez statement.



Of note: The bridge at Georgetown is way cool and still there.
1905: through traffic from Packton to Jena. Trout and Good
Pine were two noteworthy lumber mills. Buchanan owned the forest.



Of note: 1905, construction began from Packton. June, 1906,
the 30 miles of rail were in place between Packton and a
connection with the Iron Mountain at Tioga (where thecommissary was).
This point was 8.2 miles north of the joint Iron Mountain
and Texas and Pacific depot across the Red River in Alexandria.
Here's some confusion. Edenborn had forbidden Buchanan and the'
L&A from using the Edenborn Bridge. Yet, above it says, " Trackage
rights were secured from the Iron Mountain and T&P, which included
a bridge crossing of the Red River and use of the joint passenger station in
Alexandria. Separate freight facilities were developed by the L&A. So,
it is obvious that the L&A used the north bridge, shown in the KCS article.
That bridge is still in use by the Union Pacific. The Rock Island having ridden the L&A in,
used Edenborn's bridge by way of the 5 mile extention from Tioga to Pineville Junction.



I think I got it right!



Of note: The final constuction extended eastward from Jena "toward Natchez",
not "to Natchez". The work began in 1911 and had as its destination a connection
with the Natchez and Western (formerly Natchez, Red River, and Texas) on the east
bank of the Black River. This involved two large bridges at Georgetown and Jonesville.
Yes, I have pictures but you'll have to wait. The connection was made at Wildsville Junction with
the N&W. The N&W was a sub of the Iron Mountain which would become the Missouri Pacific.
Thus the MP's navy at Vidalia. That's another story.



So, the Packton to Natchez stretch was a BIG DEAL.

I don't want to strangle you with too much history right now so
I'll stick a pic in.



On the next page we'll travel from Packton to Jena. All aboard.
At the bottom of the page you'll find links to read the whole thing and other L&A/KCS rides.

Please: Click the files if you can't read them, larger versions will unfold.
Please: If the sentences are not lined up, pull your browser wider.

For some reason I've become nervous like someone is watching me. I'm also very nervous because I have so much information that I'm afraid I'm going to forget something. The next stretch is between Packton and Georgetown. Georgetown was so confusing as I wanted to be at the point of the cross tracks of the L&A, later the Louisiana Midland, and the Missouri Pacific which was the Iron Mountain, and is now the Union Pacific, but, there is a big road construction project going on there and I was afraid of getting run over by one of those big old graders. Even Al retired from the field. That scene depicted later on this page.

La.500 goes through some of the Kisatchie forest. There are gravel roads that intersect the old right of way. If we had had more time I would have suggested we visit the ROW from the highway. But I didn't, having a very good sense of time and space. We did visit one spot. Al remarked that we needed to come back in the winter when we could actually see something and the snakes would be sleeping. From time to time Al is really encouraging. Ah, now I get it, I had just offered to let him use the red cold weather riding outfit Mark had given me and he was already planning a ride. Nothing "slow" about Al, well, except showing up on time.

Here's the forest stop east of Packton.



Visualizing trains here is a stretch. Visualizing my 4 wheeler
here is not a stretch.

Here's the cross track area, speaking of stretches of the imagination.
The almost invisible rail is the UP was MP was IM is confusing.



At Georgetown you are met (me introducing you) with the realization that this
stretch is about 2 railroads, the second being the Louisiana Midland.
The La. Midland is no longer around and seems a sad story to me.
But, then I'm emotional. Looking at these pictures brought back
a line I had read about the Missouri Pacific removing the diamond
that connected the Midland to its rails. Possibly that was its demise? Possibly
my memory stinks.

Here's a few more pictures while I look up what I've found on the La.Midland.

Here you see the Union Pacific (was MP) looking north. You can see the arms of the diamond
connector rails launching from either side.



Seems the UP is still using an "arm" as a storage track.
The L&A/LM /and Iron Mountain/MP cross track, was at the approximate location of
the bridge in the background and was the location of the Georgetown depot according to
something I read on Abandoned Rails written by a Mr. Rambo who I think is really
Sheriff Rambo possibly related to the famous politician, State Senator or Representative Rambo.

Any connection to the movie is unknown but could be fabricated. Roaming these woods
you learn stuff. That tidbit is just the tip of the iceberg.

Looking east, the L&A/ LM heads out of town.



On an earlier visit, I had hit it right. There's not a whole
lot of Georgetown. I've been warned to watchmy P's and Q's
when visiting.



This is from a Wiki Page. Click Here to view it.
It is a little of the history of the LM.

The First Louisiana Midland (LM) was formed on January 1, 1946 by H.H. Holloway,Sr. Mr. Holloway owned a gravel pit at Rhinehart, LA on the Louisiana & Arkansas Railway's (L&A) main line. When the L&A made plans to dispose of the branch Mr. Holloway knowing without the railroad his gravel pit operations would ultimately fail. The LM would consit of 76.7-mile branch line from Packton, Louisiana to Vidalia, Louisiana from the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway. Passenger service was discontinued in 1953. On April 28, 1967, the Illinois Central Railroad absorbed the Louisiana Midland as part of its absorption of the Mississippi Central Railroad.

On April 28, 1974, the Louisiana Midland resumed independent operations, being controlled by Craig Burroughs' Joliet, Illinois-based Trans-Action Associates, Inc. The Louisiana Midland operated first with three ALCO RS-1 locomotives and later with three ALCO RS-3 locomotives.

In the 1980s, through freight service was discontinued between Packton and Ferriday, Louisiana because of poor track conditions and lack of demand, reducing the Louisiana Midland's operations to switching service at Packton and Ferriday. Traffic at the time included pulpwood, wood products and general commodities.

Operations ceased in July 1985. On July 1, 1986, the property was sold at a sheriff's sale.

Abandoned Rails has a couple of good pages on the LM. Click One Click Two
Virgil sent me this link. It's pretty awesome, also. Al, it has big pictures. CLICK HERE

The next big attraction going east is the Little River Bridge.







The 180 ft steel truss bridge was built in 1904 and completed in 1905.
In Feb. of that year, traffic to Jena began.



Toward the end, crews would let the trains cross in "low" with no one on board. They would catch the train on the other side after a pickup ride across the La.500 bridge. I wonder if
they ever got stuck in traffic creating a little problem down rail.

Past the bridge, Al skidded to a stop. I had told him we were going into his namesake parish.

C.Alfonso de LaSalle beamed with pride. Understandably, "de"LaSalle Parish was reclaimed for France once again bringing home the bacon for the de LaSalle family and making the King of France very happy. [He's holding a gun on me] Al's g....... grandfather is THIS GUY.
Added later: Al is possessed among other things.



More a little later. This is Al's Paw Paw. See? Next page link below.



This is getting to be another double digit page write. I'm feeling enduro fatigue coming on
so I'll be pacing myself. Ferriday will be the grand finale and I want to be pumped for that.

After claiming [de] LaSalle Parish, Al was renewed. He rigged a flag staff on the back of his bike allowing the Fleur d' Leis to wave proudly down La.500. I requested that he fold it when we reached US 84 [El Camino Real] which I explained was owned by the very powerful Spanish, an ally of his King's. If that didnt' retract the flag, I knew I'd have to explain the "US" part of the road number. Following the old right of ways with Al along takes on several dimensions.



I figured it was time to step back and get a better look at the route.
It is hard to believe I'll have to start posting more maps, but I will.
Right where you see the "Hwy500" label is where that highway
reaches 84. Soon you come to a hard left turn that rides the north
edge of Catahoula Lake, where the three mills belonging to Buchanan
had been built keeping the railroad humming.



On the Natchez to Jena ride, I'd tried to find the location of the
old Jena depot. I'm convinced I did.





Here's an old picture of it. Added: New pictures are not available.



Engine, maybe? Rail car, maybe?

Jena was up to her old tricks. None of the stop lights on US84 were timed.
The bank's electronic sign said 1ooF. We were wilted. we found an air conditioned
sitting area inside a convenience store and sunk into our chairs nursing cold drinks.
Dante's Inferno awaited us. Actually, it wasn't that bad. You know in Louisiana, it's
a dry heat. Once on the road, Hot Jena was completely forgotten.

Soon a private exhibit appeared which I'd seen before. Al drives an Edsel, so I figured he'd like
seeing it. Here are a few pictures.









Al's is sort of like that one.



I think the paint was donated. Or possibly the painter was on drugs having painted it in the 60's?
Seeing a psychedelic pink antique tractor with spiked iron wheels coming at me would be a unique nightmare.

Moving on down the line, the rails moved away from US 84.
On the Trout ride I'd ridden up into the hills and found Rhinehart.
I believe I read that it was a temporary end of the line at one time.
I found where the rails had crossed La.8. It was not a memorialized
location.



From Jena to the Little River, the rails follow the stream beds
to keep the grade as close to level as possible.



Go ahead and click the file below to enlarge.



This is where I wanted to visit in Jonesville.











What I get from the above is that the L&A crossed the Black
River on its fine bridge and proceeded to Wildsville for a big
party where it met the Natchez and Western ( a sub of the
Iron Mountain that became the MP) The 24 mile extension
is from Jena, I checked it. It's about l.8 miles from the bridge's
east entrance not 1.6. The next is confusing, "and 2.o miles
east of the end of the Natchez and Western at the town of Black River".



This the only way I got 2 miles to work out. Had there been a spur up there
that was part of the Natchez and Western? I'll wake up at 2 AM, suddenly
clear on this confusion. I'll call you immediately and let you know.

But, I got ahead of the ride. That's what happens when I obsess on something.

Back to the ride:
I tried several approaches to reach the bridge location. I finally got "on track"
and came down the line with anticipation pegging.

Ahead, what the heck was that?





Was the name of this art object, "The Hills", or were "The Hills"
the artist? And, what could be its name?

Ahead lay the levee of the unpredictable Black River, the
sum of the Tensas and the Quachita where they join above Jonesville.
I heard the noise of an approaching steam engine. The thing follows me.



Indeed, we were hooked up.

The site did not give up much because I did not try hard enough.
There are supports still in the water. There are still support post
visible in the ground. They will be gone soon. Eagle Eye Al found them.
I did not find the supports in the water until we were crossing the car bridge.
He lamented that we were probably the last people on the face of the
Earth to know what they were if they are actually ever seen again.



With that poignant thought, I'll sign off for the night.

Where do I start.
Ferriday's rail history is......well... like describing its great musical heritage. The famous ones are all gone.

I'll jump right into it and then back off so you can read another description.
First a map. There will be many and probably repeats to keep you sharp. More than what I can claim. All get bigger when clicked. Hit the back arrow to return.

Al and I wandered into town. Seems I've said that before.


We more ore less ended up here:

This is a picture of Concordia Junction (above). Al and I just happened
to happen upon it. A few blocks after passing through it he said,
" I saw some rail ties in the dirt back there. We were then in a
place we needed to leave and I couldn't chance going back.
You can venture into danger, but don't linger.
I'm going to have to talk to him about blowing his horn when
he sees something important. He has a visual gift, but doesn't
realize it. I will try to remain patient, but that was the
second time that day he'd done that. I don't want to be too
harsh or he won't tell me at all until the post ride conference.
Then, I may take his gun and beat him with it. Lately he's
been thinking he's Lt. Dave Robicheaux in J.L Burke's books.
This phase may be distracting the rail sleuth I once relied upon.



This train was coming in from in from Vidalia/Natchez. (in a dream)
The picture seems to be taken from the L&A /Natchez and Western wye.

The progression of our ride through Ferriday simulated what
you'd expect of a couple burned out geriatrics after 300 miles
of riding in the sun. Few pictures were taken as I think I forgot
why I was there.

These tank supports were in that area. For some reason I felt compelled to shoot them. I can offer no explanation.



The following comes from a write on Ferriday's history, credited below.
I"m going to hand copy it because I want even the lazies to read it.
This is not all of it, but the part that applies where I want it to. At this
point I am as write fatigued as I was ride fatigued in Ferriday, so I guess
this deal is in sync.

Here we go, several questions asked along the way are answered here which is pretty cool.
I guess I could have read it earlier but I didn't, so here it is, and we can read it together.
You first Johnny:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The railroad era in Concordia began when the Vidalia & Lake Concordia Railroad & Steamboat Company reached the vicinity of Ferriday's plantation in 1876. The narrow-gauge route, extending from the wharf along the Mississippi River at Vidalia to Concordia (a rural location near the southern tip of Lake Concordia), was oriented primarily toward serving agriculture. In 1878, it was sold to the newly created Natchez, Red River & Texas RR. The new owner completed a 25 mile extension to the Trinity (Black River) in 1886.

{I measured from the tip of Lake Concordia to where Black River is marked on my software and only come up with 17 miles. Something is missing}

Residents of the parish came to depend on both the services of this railroad.........
A second railroad, the New Orleans & Northwestern Railway, completed a 77 mile route between Natchez, MS and Rayville, LA in 1890. This standard gauge carrier laid its tracks through the heart of Ferriday's plantation and depended on ferries to move freight and passenger cars across the Missippi River.

With rail service now available on a pair of routes, the economy of Concordia Parish flouished. In 1894 the New Orleans & Northwestern Railroad extended its line north to Bastrop, Louisiana, making it part of a new long distance route. These tracks shouldered an even heavier traffic burden after representatives of the Iron Mountain bought the carrier eight years later.
{Here you have the MP's heritage}

These developments laid the groundwork for an ambitious plan prepared by the Iron Mountain in conjunction with the Texas & Pacific Railway to create an entirely new community serving both existing and proposed rail lines. This railroad town, to be built on the Ferriday plantation, would support a system of routes linking both Natchez and New Orleans with Little Rock, Memphis, and other cities. Proponents of the plan believed that such a system would be able to effectively compete with the Illinois Central RR and the various steamboat companies, the dominent transportation providers between the lower Mississippi River Delta and Memphis at the time.

The plan moved forward on an expeditious timetable. By the end of 1903, the Texas and Pacific had laid its tracks north from Addis, Louisiana, to the newly created town of Ferriday. The Memphis, Helena & Louisiana RR (an Iron Mountain sub) simultaneously extended its rote south from the Arkansas boundary to Clayton {remember the bridge I mentioned}, a junction on the Iron Mountain, 5 miles north of the town site. For the first time, freight could move by rail over a direct route on the western side of the Mississippi River, the entire distance from Memphis to New Orleans.

These and other improvements pushed the old narrow gauge line {to Black River, probably the Jonesville vicinity} rapidly toward obsolescence. The Iron Mountain began operating this line through a subsidiary (Natchez and Western?) and converted the tracks west of Concordia Junction (one mile south of Ferriday) to standard gauge in 1906. It abandoned the remaining narrow gauge segment east to Vidalia the following year, operating trains instead over the parallel Iron Mountain route and then leased the segment west of Concordia Junction to the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway in 1913.

{Bingo!!!!!. The L&A had trackage rights clear to Concordia Junction. That mystery has caused sleepless nights}

By the time the Iron Mountain became part of teh Missouri Pacific system in 1917, Ferriday was a mature community with a downtown several blocks long. It had a hotel, dry goods store and cotton compress establishing Ferriday as a prominent center for the cotton trade.

The MP freight yard was a particularly busy place. The carrier interchanged cars with the T&P in Ferriday and with the L&A at Concordia Junction. Northbound trains shared a common track to Clayton where some trains diverged toward Winnborro and Collinston (on the former New Orleans and Northwestern) while others headed toward Lake Providence (on the former Memphis, Helena & Louisiana). At Vidalia, southbound trains on the MP, as well as those of the L&A, turned freight cars over to the Natchez and Louisiana Railway Transfer Company, a subsidiary that transferred them across the Mississippi to Natchez.

The routes through Ferriday apparently never handled a significant amount of Memphis to New Orleans business as originally conceived, but they did become important transportaion thoroughfares. In 1928, passengers could depart the Ferriday vicinity on any ofo eleven trains each day except Sunday . MP's passenger trains operated to Memphis daily by way of both Helena (via Tallulah) and Little Rock, (via Winnsboro). Travelers heading to Memphis via Little Rock had the advantage of Pullman sleeping car service. Passengers could also book passage from Concordia Junction on the Louisiana & Arkansas, which was by now a prominent route linking eastern Arkansas to the Mississippi River.

Operating rail lines in the Mississippi Delta had long been a problem for the railroads of Concordia Parish. Not only was ferrying rail cars across the river a heavy financial burden, but chronic flood damage added greatly to the maintenance of way expenses. In 1940, Texas and Pacific abandoned its flood prone route to Ferriday. {That route parallels our ride back on La.15}

During the summer of 1988, the MP (MoPac) received approval to abandon the entire route between Vidalia and McGehee, AR, a distance of more than 170 miles. The townspeople felt a sense of loss when their spirited campaign to save the former MoPac depot from demolition failed.

Prospective rail operators considered acquiring portions of both the MP and Louisiana Midland lines. The Dixie River Railroad sought to buy the MoPac route from McGehee, AR, to Ferriday and even purchased locomotives, but it could not obtain financing. The Delta Southern Railroad, a short line, purchased and resumed service over the portion of this line north of Quimby, a small town near Tallulah, in 1989. It could not be persuaded, however, to purchase the more southerly portion.

The tracks were pulled up leaving a scar across the town. The area where the freight yard, roundhouse, and other railroad facilities once stood remains vacant.

Portions of the former freight yard area have been developed into the Ferriday Depot Park.
Visitors will find little more in Ferriday except vacant property to remind them of the towns heritage as a railroad center. A strip of track encrusted in concrete at the former Louisiana Railway facility and a dilapidated former MoPac building near the old roundhouse site offer a shadowy reminder of transportation years ago.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That was almost completely copied from HERE Please consider this an ad Joe:
When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line ......
By Joseph P. Schwieterman seems to be a pretty good book. There ya go.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, on with more of our ride around Ferriday. My last visit here netted some great pictures of the warehouse district as I've already said, but, they are not the most important to this L&A write. The lumber mill south of town, which was on the L&A's leased tracks, is what I had missed last time. It blew me away.

The minute I saw the water tower I knew I was on the trail. Joe, in the article above, must have missed it as a remnant of "railroading times". It's a knack, Joe.



Flashes of Long Leaf hit me. (Southern Forest Heritage Museum)



That's the best shot. The rails ran out there somewhere,
or possibly they were behind me at this point as they crossed
the road at some point.



Now the sad shots.



I was surprised to see lumber just laying about. Al though
some work might be going on. Who knows, maybe ghost?



Here's an old picture that could have been taken right here.
The car is full of lumber.



Here's a few shots from the last time I was here. I really
did not understand the layout and completely missed Mill Rd.
But, I did catch the warehouse district pretty well, as he repeats himself.
The railroad which headed north was a sub of the Iron Mountain, later the MP.
By the way, there is a swing bridge at Clayton, 5 miles north, I need to visit.


Ferriday today or in May, rather. I've been there often it seems. It's a blur:

Looks like the Arcade Theater, reported as closed by Joe, may be reopened for some use.



Here's a warehouse on the north end of what I believe was the exchange area between the Texas & Pacific and Iron Mountain/ MP. That's a complete guess. There will absolutely be no further research concerning this subject, ever.







Was this a large cotton warehouse? Your turn.



And, to close it out, here's the shrine to the 3 cousins, Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley. They are the other big 3 here that are no longer with us. They are only a sampling of our diverse music and personality. (La.Tourist Bureau)



Here's a quote from the Ferriday Chamber of Commerce :

The Delta Music Museum is presently the home of exhibitions and Hall of Fame for fifteen Delta musicians and two non-musical celebrities born in Ferriday, news commentator Howard K. Smith and Hollywood's legendary hostess Ann Boyer Warner. Celebrity musicians include Ferriday native cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley and Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, along with Conway Twitty, Percy Sledge, Aaron Neville, Irma Thomas, Gov. Jimmie Davis, Pee Wee Whittaker, Clarence "Frogman Henry," Johnny Horton, Al Harris, Dale Houston with Grace Broussard, John Fred Gourrier & The Playboys, and Fats Domino. For more information, the website for The Delta Music Museum is http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/delta.

More later. The ride home was awing. My camera held together for the grand finale. It had been on for 10 hours, then quit for the final 2 hours. Stay tuned for that great page which will be written somewhere in the purple haze. Wait, it's not over yet.

Check out what is below or CLICK HERE to go to the next page.

As an added treat, here's a discussion of the Natchez rail ferry.

This is from a public forum or Google was a member and told it all. I will cut the last names of the speakers as a courtesy and I will correct their spelling. Tank yew. None of what you read on this site can be considered the truth, speaking for myself and them too. Take it away boyz:

He's addressing someone. That's the last help I'm offering. Remember, who knows what these guys are saying is true. Right off the bat the first guy gets shot down.

The article you are looking for is called MoPac's Navy and is an in depth article about the car ferry operation between the Missouri Pacific and the Mississippi Central railroad later the (ICG) Illinois Central Gulf. The Photos show the idler cars and the float operation from the MoPac side of river. The locomotive used were GP18 and SW1200 and in Vidalia Mopac also had a small car shop. They also connected with the LOAM Louisiana & Midland railroad (bridge line) which connected with the Louisiana & Arkansas part of KCS. The IC-GMO merger did away with the car ferry along with the Mississippi Central and the Louisiana Midland (abandoned). The traffic was directed over the ICG bridge at Vicksburg and the car ferry operation was also abandoned.
The east side of the river or Mississippi Central side was dangerous due to erosion from the river and a saw back if not mistaken that allowed it to get over the bluffs. The car ferry was an old converted river boat or something it was just another reason for MoPac and ICG to end this little navy operation.
Bill E


The IC-GMO merger had nothing to do with either of these two events. The MP transfer between Vidalia and Natchez operated until the early 1980's about ten to twelve years after the IC-GMO merger. It was the barge built from one of the old river ferry's needing replacement that caused it to be uneconomical to replace. The Louisiana Midland (LOAM) was the fourth operator of the line between Vadilia and Packton. Originally it was a branch of the Louisiana &
Arkansas, then sold to a group of former L&A officals as the original Louisiana Midland (LM). This was operated as the Natchez route offering through service between Hattisburg(?), MS and Dallas Texas over the Mississippi Central (MC), L&M & L&A. When the IC bought the MC, the LM forced the IC to purchase it also. The IC sort of ran the line for several years then sold to a third party. Around 1980, two things happened that killed the LOAM, 1. the MP removed the diamond at Georgetown severing the LOAM main track. 2. The approaches to the bridge over the Black River at Joneville, LA burned making the LOAM into three sections. At the end the track had been allowed to deteriorate that it was hard to get a train across even before it was severed. Actually, the LOAM made more money by leasing its main tracks for the storage of cars during a down turn in business in the early 1980's.

The barge was made from the hull of the Ste. Genevieve that had been operated by the Missouri-Illinois between Thomure, MO and Kellogg, ILL. according to page 288 of "MOPAC Power" by Joe Collias.
George S.
Dry Prong, LA

The railroad barge was the hull of the former Missouri-Illinois transfer ferry St. Genevieve which was stripped down to the hull. The barge/towboat combination replaced the stern wheel steam towboat James Y. Lockwood (blt. 1896) and her barge. If you ever get a chance to see the TV mini series "Centennial" There is a scene in one of the early segments of two of the stars traveling down the river and a "steamboat" passes them. It's the Lockwood. This is the only footage I have seen of this boat. Interestingly, Capt Frederick Way, Jr. in his book Way's Steam Towboat Directory says that upon retirement, the Lockwood traveled under it's own power up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to Chicago where it became a restaurant named Sara S. from 1961 until 1970. In 1970 she was towed to Buffalo, NY and named Showboat. About 1985 she
was transported to Lelystan, Netherlands and renamed yet again, this time Mark Twain.
Hope the above is of interest to someone besides me. ;^)
Bill H

It is to me Bill. I never thought of a steamboat directory before.
Interesting history.

Capt Way spent his life on the river as a clerk, steamboat owner and river pilot. His books Piloting Comes Naturally and The Log of the Betsy Ann are good fun reading. He was also in charge of moving the Delta Queen from San Francisco to the Mississippi River when it was purchased by the Greene Line (towed by an ocean going tug.) His last works were the towboat directory mentioned before and Way's Packet directory 1948-1983, a listing of Mississippi
River packets, ferrys and transfer boats. Both include references of MoPac, T&P and M-I boats as well as the Cotton Belt's transfer boats that ran out of Gray's Point, MO.

For those who look at the pictures that Greg sent the URL to, the colors on the boat sides were white with a gray wainscot and black hull. Wheel was red - of course. GOT to finish a model of the one of these boats. I have started models of the MoPac's transfer barge Dixie and the towboat Gillespie.
Bill H

The IC/GM&O merger was in 1972; while this pretty much killed the Louisiana Midland, the Natchez branch continued until the early 1980s after which it was embargoed. The rumor was the ferry St. Genevieve had a broken keel after some sort of mishap. The MoPac was in negotiations with Mississippi and Louisiana about a new bridge across the Mississippi at Vidalia that would carry rail and highway traffic. According to a couple of employees I knew on the Louisiana Division, Mississippi wanted the MoPac to shoulder a major amount of the expenses (even though federal funds were being used for a major part of construction). Louisiana was more ready to wheel and deal; perhaps someone in the MoPac hierarchy knew Edwin Edwards.

Maybe George S can fill this in, but I think the IC line south towards Baton Rouge had already been pulled up or had been embargoed circa 1980, but this might have been thought of as an alternate route for petrochemicals through a relatively unpopulated area had a rail bridge been built.
Jim O

Apparently it did the operation no longer is used by the railroads. The MoPac better interchanges with the Illinois Central at Shreveport (Bossier City), New Orleans, Monroe and Baton Rouge then Vidalia. The Mississippi Central side was very treacherous with flooding and erosion caused by the river. The barge had some problems of its own that were a considerable liability to the railroad. By the way you failed to mention that (LOAM) assets were sold at a sheriff sale.
Bill E

The fact that it is no longer has more to do with the condition of the barge than the ICG merger. Yes there are better interchange points and Stagger would have probably made the operation suspect even if the barge had been in good condition. Until Staggers a lot
of marginal operations were maintained due to government beauracy. It didn't hurt that the MOP had a major customer, a papermill, on the Mississippi side that it served as originating road. The LOAM was in my eyes a bad investment. It went from the middle of nowhere, Packton, LA, to a connection not much better located. Unlike the original Louisiana Midland (LM) it had no friendly connections on either end and a poor online traffic base. A friend of mine tells of helping to remove the line and that pea gravel had been used for ballast. The original LM could proudly proclaim itself as part of the "Natchez Route" and boast through service between Hattiesburg, MS and Dallas, TX with partners Mississippi Central and Louisiana & Arkansas.
George S
Dry Prong, LA

George a friend of mine worked that job off the extra board an upper MoP seniority conductor. Alexandria or Monroe covered the vacancies as outlying points. It would be interesting how they worked the job. Staggers Railway Act was a shot of much needed life for the rail industry. It involved the cost of doing business and what youcould charge for doing business. The standard ICC rate was changed and instead of the government setting the price railroads were able to regain control of this critical factor. Before Staggers your performance was measured by on time performance because everyone charged the same price. Post Stagger is today's railroads which equal no competition, captive customers, capacity problems, and record earnings for the railroads .
Bill

We were in Ferriday, Louisiana, way on the other side of my normal world and it was five 0'clock in the dimming afternoon. We were starting to get noticed after circling this one area for the sixth time. I knew it was time to drop the hammer and let sparks fly.

I never know if Al senses the gravity of certain situations. I believe he did as he hugged my rear fender as if a child grasping a teddy bear. We flew in tandem well above our normal speed, somewhere approaching the state's ordained limit.

La.15 exits Ferriday in a no frills fall to the Mississippi levee. There it mounts the levee's ridge, riding it to Deer Park where it momentarily dismounts only to mount again. I wildly shot as we wound it up atop that lonesome road. I am surprised the shots were not blurred, I was.



We stopped at Deer Park. I wanted Al to see the old steamboat there.
He was more interested in the landing.







We left noticing the high water marks on the street signs from the Spring floods.

Agriculture proceeded in its yearly dance.





A yellow crop duster joined the party.

Finally, we were on home turf, below the Red River, as we crossed the Old River Control Structure. Each time I go by this place I'm reminded of how this exploring on a motorcycle thing got started. You've heard that story. Hey Lonnie, wherever you are.

All is nice and dry here at the "over bank" relief area.



Old Mama lay ahead. She's been doing her thing, protecting
the people of the Basin, for many years. But, she's old and things
keep changing. How much longer can she hold on?



We exited La.15 at La.418 and went toward Simmesport.
There we rode up ancient La.1 to where it had crossed Edenborn's
other bridge, the one that crosses the Atchafalaya. Remember the other
one at Alexandria near where we started this treck?



With this shot the camera battery went dead. Good, and now I realize how great its timing was.



The ride home was endless, but fast. In ohter words, we went fast endlessly.
Simmesport is 100 miles from my house. It is doable in a weakened condition, I keep telling myself. Cooler weather is coming. Yes, we made it home before dark. Just.
See ya out on the road. Oh, you may want to look at some of my research links.


In doing the research for Packton to Jena, I found some great links. Before I do the last page, I wanted to look them over to see if there was something I missed. I figured while I was looking them over I might as well post them so you can look them over, too. More will be added. Look below to read the latest.

This one is by Jack Willis, one of my favorite historians. He's right up there with Block, who, in my humble opinion cannot be beat for local history in technicolor. Click Here for that one.

This is a pretty good one on the Rock Island Line. Click here for that one.
Belis, now you have me humming that dern song.

Here's a "hobo" story. Click Here.
Here's another Willis write: Click here.''

More from the book "Talk of the Town". Click here.

This is an unbelievable resource. CLICK HERE

Here are the words to ruin your day. The links go back to Wikipedia, the source of what you see below.

Lead Belly and John and Alan Lomax supposedly first heard it from a prison work gang during their travels in 1934/35. It was sung a cappella. Huddie sang and performed this song, finally settling on a format where he portrayed, in song, a train engineer asking the depot agent to let his train start out on the main line.^[1]
The verses tell a humorous story about a train operator who smuggled pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock.

Rock Island Line as sung by Johnny Cash. Leadbelly's is below this one.

Now this here’s the story about the Rock Island Line.
Well the Rock Island Line she runs down into New Orleans.
There’s a big toll gate down there and you know if you got certain things on board when you go through the toll gate - Well you don’t have to pay the man no toll.
Well the train driver he pulled up to the toll gate and the man hollered and asked him what all he had on board and he said,
“I got live stock, I got live stock, I got cows I got pigs
I got sheep I got mules I got … all live stock”.
Well he said “you all right boy, you don’t have t’pay no toll.
You can just go right on through”.
So he went on through the toll gate
And as he went through he started pickin up a little bit of speed,
pickin up a little bit of steam.
He got on through he turned he looked back to the man he said
"Well I fooled you, I fooled you I got pig iron I got pig iron I got all pig iron".

Down the Rock Island Line she’s a mighty road
The rock Island Line it’s a road to ride
The rock island line it’s a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line.

Oh cloudy in the west and it looked like rain.
Around the curve come a passenger train,
north bound train on the south bound track.
He did alright leaving but he won’t be back.
Well the Rock Island Line she’s a mighty road
The rock Island Line it’s a road to ride
The rock island line it’s a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line.
Oh I may be right and I may be wrong but you gonna miss me when I’m gone.
Well the engineer said before he died that there where 2 more drinks that he’d like to try Conductor said "what could they be" - A hot cup of coffee and a cold glass'a tea.
Well the Rock Island Line she’s a mighty road
The rock Island Line it’s a road to ride
The rock island line it’s a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line.

Leadbelly's version is below.

Cat's in the cupboard and she can't find me
Oh the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line
Oh the Rock Island Line is the road to ride
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it like you're flyin'
Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line

Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong
Lawd you gonna miss me when I'm gone
Oh the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line
Oh the Rock Island Line is the road to ride
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it like you're flyin'
Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line

Jesus died to save our sins
Glory to God I'm gonna see Him again
Oh the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line
Oh the Rock Island Line is the road to ride
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it like you're flyin'
Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line

Moses stood on the Red Sea shore
Smothin' the water with a two-by-four
Oh the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line
Oh the Rock Island Line is the road to ride
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it like you're flyin'
Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line

Pictures that didn't make the cut.



No, I didn't "shoot" a snake. It's a brake air line that connects the cars.
It's now on my den wall. I was walking Packton. How much IQ does it take
to stroll around in a full coverage black helmet in 100f temperatures?
You'd think I'd voted for Obamma.






Naples Update
From time to time I get some real gems in the mail. This was one of them. As some may have suspected, I am awe stricken with the concept of trains being transported on steamboats across treacherous waters such as the Red, Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers. Seems there are others. Here's his note, I have put in a few links to the places he mentions.


Back to Naples, Angola, etc...

I live in Big Bend just a few mile down the bayou from the old iron bridge where the museum is.[open in new window and check out the next 2 pages to see the Bayou DesGlaises Bridge and trail to Naples]

I like to ride my old three wheeler around here, and have been out to Naples numerous times. There's still an old clay brick structure, not sure what it is, but it's running over with what looks to be coal. There are some concrete blocks and pillars out there, too. At the museum at the iron bridge, there are some pictures of the boats [at Naples] while the operation was still going. In one of them you can see some old posts and what I would call a "dock" for lack of better term. Those posts are still out there in the woods on a big slope, which I'm assuming is the old riverbank. If you look at Google Earth, you can clearly see the old meandering lines where the river has moved away a bit, and what is now called "Martin Bay" would have been part of it. If you follow that it bends around and crosses Turn Bull Island about in the middle of the two channels that are there now. I firmly believe that's the stretch of water the ferries used back then. The mileage adds up according to the old descriptions of the route I've found. Anyway, I've never been too sure of where the Angola landing was. The info on your page is the most I've ever seen about it. The pictures of the bank you have and the road leading out there, is what I've always referred to as "the sand levee". At least that's the only name I know it by. People like to go camp out there in the summer when the water is low, there's a big sand bar that pops up.

Back to Naples, again. This summer I wanted to ride out there and see what things looked like, but the land has changed hands and gates have been put up on all the roads going back there. It used to all be part of a hunting club and I knew a few members, and never had any problems going back there. Now it's a new club that's got it, and apparently they want to keep people out. One day I was passing by and decided to ride as far back as the gate, and when I got there it was open, so I kept going. The road goes to the river bank, right downstream from where the town [Naples] was sitting. When I got to the river there was a big sign that said I was being monitored by infrared video systems and that trespassing was prohibited, so I went no further! There was another sign though, that read "Naples Plantation, LLC". When I got home I searched the web for that name, and found a record where a guy from Baton Rouge applied for the corporation name, and it gave his name and address. That name and address came back to a law firm in Baton Rouge, the guy's last name was one of the three lawyers. I decided not to bother him about it then, but one day I'd like to ask his permission to go back and take some pictures.

That reminds me of the old concrete pillars [LR&N crossing of Bayou Des Glaises near Big Bend] in the bayou where the train crossed. You saw the railroad grade leading out across the field from there towards Naples. A friend and I walked that whole thing from the bayou, to the river bank at Naples one day, including wading across the water along the way in one of the low areas. There are remnants of the old wood bridges that crossed them too. I had taken many pictures along the way, and at Naples too. Unfortunately I lost them when a hard drive died in my old computer.

One day I'll stop by the old museum at the iron bridge again and look at the old pictures he's got. I've only been in there twice even though it's just a few miles down the road from me. I'd like to go through all the old stuff in there. I started asking about Naples the second time I was there, and he got out a folder with old tickets and passenger lists from the trains that crossed.

I see you've got an appreciation for the train bridge at Simmesport too. I've been around, under, and on that one a number of times as well. There's trails that pass under it on the Simmesport side, where the kids from town ride ATVs. I found them riding around as a teenager myself. I've spent a few summer days laying out on the middle pillars below the bridge, waiting for the boats to pass. The old road still runs from the end of the bridge to the ramp where it left the tracks in town. It's almost grown over now though. I still like to ride out there and stop to look at the bridge.

ME:

I did have a picture of where the highway had descended off of the train bridge on the Simmesport side, but I dumped it because it just looked like a hill of weeds.

Further: This note was really inspiring to me. It was written not by someone reminiscing of a long ago personal past, but by a 25 year old who just digs history and looking at old train bridges. There is hope for the next generation.


Packton to Ferriday to Home
History books tell of things that were. Many folks accept them as the final statement on a subject. Not Al and me. James R. Fair's "The Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad, The Story of a Regional Line" is a history book. Of late, History Hunts has been, off and on, an amateur's attempt at supplementing that write. Fair has led me on many an expedition. From those outings I've added a few pictures to coordinate with his tales. This will be another one.

From Fair's book:

"The Jena extension was completed at the end of 1903, except for the 180 foot steel-truss bridge across the Little River near Georgetown. (This was the first bridge of any consequence to be needed by the L&A.) High water during the spring and summer of 1904 delayed completion of the bridge, and through service from Packton to Jena could not be provided until February 1905. The terminal point, Jena, was an old settlement that had become little more than a country post office in the midst of a dense pine forest; but Buchanan now owned most of the forest and proceeded to build up Jena to the point that it was incorporated in 1908. Estimates of lumber yield from the Jena area ran as high as 250 to 300 million board feet per year, for at least twenty five years. To exploit this lumber potential, Buchanan located three mills in the vicinity, one of which, at Trout (three miles west of Jena) survived until the 1940's.

The L&A issued an attractive brochure in 1904, designed to tell the world about the railroad and its geographic region. It claimed that the mill at Stamps was the largest in the region, shipping some 82 million board feet of lumber in 1903. The brochure described a seemingly inexhaustible supply of trees for lumbering, yet serious attention was being given to the reuse of cut over land. The railroad boasted that it was being constructed to rigidly high standards, with an eye toward freight traffic interchanges at several points. This sanguine attitude of management appears to have been justified; on June 8, 1904, the Louisiana Railroad Commission made an inspection of the property and reported:

The roadbed and track of this road are splendidly constructed, ballasted with gravel and laid with heavy rails on cypress ties, and are unusually smooth for a new road. The depots are all frame structures , but are constructed along modern plans, and in each there are water coolers, and ample provisions for their proper heating. The closets are located at a convenient distance from each depot.
Construction of the Alexandria extension began in early 1905, departing from the Winnfield-Jena line at a a station named Packton. On July 1, 1906, 30.46 miles of railroad were placed in operation between Packton and a connection with the Iron Mountain at Tioga, Louisiana, 8.2 miles north of the joint Iron Mountain -T&P) depot at Alexandria. Trackage rights were secured from the Iron Mountain and T&P, which included a bridge over the Red River and use of the joint passenger station in Alexandria. Separate freight facilities and yard trackage were developed by the L&A.

The survey of the L&A route into the Alexandria area called for a direct line from Tioga to Alexandria through Pineville, utilizing the Edenborn bridge (of the Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company, the new name of the Shreveport and Red River Valley, to cross the Red River. William Edenborn refused to grant such rights to the L&A, keeping alive the old rivalry between Buchanan and himself; hence the arrangement with the Iron Mountain and the T&P.

Me shortening the last passage:

At about this time the Rock Island.... was moving south through Winnfield and agreed to use the L&A tracks from Packton to Tioga. Buchanan extended tracks to the Edenborn Bridge, with a connection at Pineville Junction to the LR&N. Edenborn allowed the Rock Island trains to cross his bridge. For many years only the RI used this short stretch of the L&A rails.

It was like a splinter that would not come out. I needed to see it all. Even Al put on an air of interest. We were off. (You decide the interpretation of the last statement.)

Unlike Fair's book, this will also be a travelogue of our attempt at being in the places where determined industrialists had not only taken great steps for themselves, but for the economic future of a region. Those guys didn't do it alone. They did it on the backs of the working man. Without that catalyst they would have been powerless. I walked several tracks imagining the hammers whaling in the humid Louisiana heat. I later realized it was my throbbing heat swollen head inside my full coverage black helmet. Al suggested I take it off for the next stroll. He does have his moments.

Enough dry truthful history, it's time for embellishments.

Late again, Al showed up sporting a new t-shirt Bootsie had given him. You ask, what happened to Tilly? They are the same person, Bootsie is Tilly's middle name which she now prefers because it reflects what Al gets if he doesn't behave. After 15 minutes of the t shirt explanation, I finally ushered him to the bike and said, "ride".

BTW, Bootsie, the fig cake is wonderful. Thanks you.

I'll pick up the ride above Porte Barre on La. 103 as it leaves town headed for Washington, LA. Remember, this is a travelogue site. We'll get to the RR stuff eventually.



Next was La. 359.



La.359 is another example of the basic La. road configuration, bayou on one side, fields slanting to back swamp on the other. Find a road like this and you have found some fun. Our bayous meander, a lot. It was 9 AM.

Next, US 71 at LeBeau and the Masonic Temple.



Exiting 71 a little above LeBeau....



It was time for more bayou chasing. Bayou Petite Prairie was our rabbit.



Spring Bayou and Bayou Rouge pick up where Petite Prairie leaves off.



We rode through Evergreen and found that the old Victorian is now occupied and slowly being brought back to life. I had talked to the owners niece a while back and she had said that "things will be looking up". Indeed they were.

I took Al by the previously shown antique farm implement exhibit a local has on display. Sorry, no recent shots and the old ones are buried somewhere. We were next on La.115 headed into Hessmer, named by Edenborn, mentioned above. The KCS article has more about Hessmer and Edenborn.

We crossed a bridge and I wildly shot and hit.



From time to time I shoot to shoot. I shot again. To this point all of the pictures were taken on the move. No dear, both hands remained on the bars. Don't ask how. Obviously, the next one wasn't taken on the move.



I stopped at the old feed store in Hessmer which was also a fruit and vegetable warehouse. Yes, Al knew all about it and pointed out the sign on the wall I'd missed when doing the KCS write. There are a lot of entrepreneurial Roys in Mansura, also.



"Earl Roy Produce Fresh Fruits and Vegetable Market".
Al had dealt sweet potatoes with him.

We crossed the Red River. The next page, when it is written, will begin my intensely serious examination of the historical places of which I spoke. It will be so boring it will make you cry, but all the words will be spelled correctly, a big bonus. Between tears, there will of course be the comedy afforded by two old _arts wandering around deliriously, wearing black helmets in 100F heat, one step ahead of being taken off to Pineville's famous sanitarium for the mentally afflicted.

Page 2, leaving Moncla, we crossed over the Red River on a new bridge which was required by the Corps of Engineers when the river was deepened for larger ships. The old Moncla bridge fell just like Edenborn's railroad bridge had fallen in Alexandria, at the hands of some some grand scheme which I'm not sure ever amounted to much. I might spend a day at one of the locks and just count the traffic. The loss of Edenborn's RR Bridge is discussed in the KCS ride report.

Back to this page:

Some places you just feel obliged to photograph. The Red River is a mystery along much of its course*. Not really, but the part below the La.107/115 Moncla Bridge is. Well, at least to me. The bridge is the final spanning of this great river that began west of Palo Duro Canyon which is south of Amarillo, Texas. I'll give you a moment to soak that in.

*(That's a sentence I learned from watching National Geographic Specials)



Ready?

Now?

OK.



Here's looking down the levee at the new Moncla Bridge.
Bits and pieces of the old Moncla Bridge can be found up and
down Bayou Boeuf south of Alexandria. I think it was cut up and sold
by some getterdone entrepreneur. One section now crosses
the Boeuf and leads to the falling down Red River and Gulf Depot
at LeCoumpte. One bridges the Boeuf at Barbreck Plantation. One crosses
behind a historial cemetery along La.29. Another long span is above LeCompte
behind LaMurie. I had wondered where all these fine bridges had come from.
Here. The hand is Al's attempt to be in every picture.



That thing could be an alien space ship for all I know?

Here are 2 more wild shots taken while crossing the bridge.

Downstream



Upstream



This is an abridged map of the ride featuring some of the major
rivers. I chunked that in since there are river people who
read this thing. The yellow line is us.



I once did a ride report that I called "Louisiana's Mystery Land".
The LML is bordered by the Mississippi, Black and Red Rivers. It really
isn't a mystery if you know about it. The fact that you don't know
about it may be a mystery to some. It's all in one's perspective.

We followed 107 up to Pineville. Along the way I took a side road to the paper mill.
The reason I did this is because one of the spurs that leaves the old L&A,
the present KCS, goes to the mill. I also took it because Marion collects IP Mill pictures.
I'll send you the large versions, Marion.





I wanted to go in and see the local engines which belong to the plant,
but we had 300 miles to go and it might have taken a while proving
Al was not a terrorist.

Marion got the shot and wrote this back:

Many thanks for the picture of the Pineville mill.The building you are looking at is a Recovery boiler/power generator house. After the chips are cooked, the cooking liquor is strained out of the pulp, water is evaporated out of the liquor until it is a thick dark brown semi-liquid. This liquid contains the lignin (the glue that holds the wood fibers together). This liquor is heated and sprayed into a boiler where the lignin burns and produces heat which makes steam which is used to heat water and / or dry the paper on the paper machines. It sounds complicated and it took many years to evolve, but it is now standard, every day practice for all paper mills. This is where we recover and recycle our cooking liquor.

Marion is my go to guy on anything mill related for obvious reasons.

We next tried to find the wye that left the main line and came to the mill.
Hey, we were bored.

On our first try we found some ducks. They were OK but the owner started
firing at us. Al began wildly firing back because he though someone was trying to
harm his newly adopted ducks. I had to convince him, from the nick on my helmet,
that the shooter was aiming at me. He again wanted to fire back but I explained,
while behind a tree, that we really should go and if one of those bikes took
a bullet, we'd be stuck here. He said he liked it there, especially the gun play.
I gave up and left as he ripped off another round. I soon heard Al roaring up
behind me firing his gun into the sky. I knew he was mad at me. I held the GPS
up high and he quit. Sometimes I have to pull my "big gun"which is knowing where we are.
Al has one Achilles Heel, being lost. Seeing the result is not a pretty sight.

Al requested that I show you "his" ducks.



Probably more important to this write than the duck episode is the location of
the wye that goes to the mill. It is also the area known as "Pineville Junction".
Remember? That was where Buchanan's L&A rails were allowed to intersect
Edenborn's LR&N, but the L&A could not cross Edenborn's bridge. The Iron Mountain
had trackage rights, having piggybacked from Packton. The L&A and T&P used another
bridge.

If I got all that right, it's a wonder. If not, you can research it. Suddenly I feel a
vacuum as all leave to check the facts.



Above is the wye to the mill "Y". [it heads southeast through "Church" on the map.

Al, having shaken off his mad, said I should have taken the shot from the split toward the arm of the wye going east to the mill. I did it backwards which is so unlike me.



Looking the other way you can see Al yelling at me to take his picture where
the rails depart for the mill. Actually, I had cut my way across the tangles and
trudged though mud. He had simply taken the trail but was a bit late in pointing
that out. Al is quite an asset, if not a delayed asset. That fact would be reinforced
later. I never jump his case on the road, but I can from a distance and these writes
afford that opportunity.



When he wasn't looking I took a better shot.



The line on the left is the one to Packton by way of Tioga, Buchanan's 5 miles
that he couldn't use but the Iron Mt. could. The games big boys play.

Next we went up behind Louisiana College where I'd been on the last Pineville tour.
We needed a break and there was a patch of shade there. We were trying to follow the rails to Tioga and here we were. I remarked to Al that it was about time for a train to show up but realized that probably one wouldn't. Run, go get the kids.



Yes sir, about that time the warning signal started clanging.







No, not the same shot, look again.



There were two.
No, three.



And a dump car.



And that was it.
Seen closer in this shot.



This all seemed a little inefficient. Then a guy jumped down
and turned the switch.





Then he began walking away from the engines.



They began to move backwards pushing the car onto a siding.





Above is proof that the same picture can be used twice which is efficient.

They dropped the car off and pulled forward. The switch man
returned the switch to its usual mainline position. That prevents
surprises.



If confronted, the engine wins. Remember that.



Obviously there has been no progress in this realm of railroading in 150 years.
Is this a sign of union power? Are there still firemen? Seems strange to have to manually switch.
But, he did wave to us after Al let go a sound that resembled an Indian war cry after being shot.

Had, in fact Al been shot back at the duck deal? He never complains much, I just choked. I should have said that he doesn't complain like normal people do. He's more reactionary. Maybe he wasn't yelling to the switch man? I'll have to ask him.

Reflecting, this may have been the high point of the ride. Al and I have yet to discuss high points.

The three engines with no cars left.............



..........satisfied they had completed their goal.



Ok, Darlene, those are soccer goals and that was a joke. Notice
the switch guy riding on the side of the engine. Why. I'll sleep on it.



We headed for Tioga where I remember being told there was an old depot. I remembered that 5 miles past Tioga which meant we had to U turn and come back down US 167 to where you see "C". The "KCS UP X" thing signifies where the Union Pacific, coming from their Red River bridge, crosses the Kansas City Southern tracks coming from Pineville Junction. There appears to have been a large yard there at one time. The cross track seems to be below the 167 bridge. I forgot to look being intent on staying alive on a real highway. When we got back to Tioga we found this.
Click it if you can't read it.



Here we have the Iron Mountain part of the puzzle mentioned.
I believe the Iron Mountain was bought out by the Missouri Pacific?
Or was that the Rock Island? I can't keep them straight and it's not my job to do so.
Edenborn allowed the Iron Mountain, and later the MP to use his bridge. So maybe so?
But the Rock Island had ridden the L&A to this point from Packton. I'm confused.
Don't look for things to get any clearer.

Here's looking around the Commissary Museum area.



Yea, he was still mad and muttering about ducks.
I told him this was his last picture if he didn't let it go.



The next thing I heard was that Indian again.
He had found a caboose and was waving to the imaginary engineer
to pull forward.



He told me to completely document the caboose.










It had five "lights on behind". "Well, the blue light was my baby and the red light was my mind".



Here it is in Illinois in 1984.



Seems like it was built in 1966 "at the Centralia Shop".
The real caboose could have been built in 1966 BUT.....

All I could find regarding the Centralia Car shop [at first] were links for model trains.
This caboose, evidently, is a model for a model which explains the weird pictures below
which are really drawings found on Flicker.
Virgil, you know anything about this?





IC is Illinois Central RR. ICG is Illinois Central Gulf RR.

But there's more, Centralia is a real place. This from Here.

"In 1853 the Illinois Central Railroad laid out Centralia proper. David Oxley was the master mechanic at the Centralia I.C. shops from 1854 until 1890. Through years of experiments, he developed coal-burning locomotives to replace the old wood burners. The name, “Centralia” was given the new town in honor of the Illinois Central by John W. Merritt, the newspaper publisher at Salem, the county seat. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy first reached Centralia in 1882. In 1887 the Louisville, Evansville and St. Louis Railroad (the Air Line), which was part of the Southern Railroad system, ran through Centralia to Mt. Vernon. In 1893 the Centralia and Chester line ran between these two towns and in 1896 was extended to Salem. It was later to become part of the Missouri Pacific system. To local citizenry it was the Mike and Ike".

That made me dizzy. Can you repeat any of it? I can't. That was a pure case of info overload. I did that one time giving directions on a ride. That jerk is still lost.

Read IC History Here. That's enough on the caboose.

We were at the "Control Point, South Tioga". I've started a collection of "Control Point" pictures, want to trade? The big ones are awesome.



There was more stuff on the grounds.







Steam Stuff and an old barber shop. There were a few more
less impressive buildings.



Al was strolling down the porch, often called a gallery.



He was muttering again.



Something about "just like Angola Prison".

I looked closer and they were mail boxes with the names still attached.



I don't know what that is behind the boxes.



Leaving, we headed north. We passed this house and it
sure did look like an old school. If not, pretend.

Next, we headed to Bentley. More later. We still have 290 miles to go.



OK, after a very bad night with a sick dog, my plans to attack Monday have shifted to a more defensive position. I'll see if I can flank the day by writing one more page and then do my best General Forrest imitation at conquering the enemy.

By the 4th page of these historical railroad ride reports, I should be getting request for more information on the varied routes, personalities and rail layouts. That not happening, I will shift my emphasis from the academic to a more mundane, yet spirited, approach, one that I'm more comfortable with, anyway. Evidently, Al's suggestion that I make a big deal out of the caboose has fallen into a void of none interest. [actually Virgil just wrote and said the two weird pictures of the caboose were indeed weird and he knew the source, a program that lets you enter a Matrix type world and become an engineer. I wonder if you can face the real world after that?]

I was sure that a whole discussion group could have been elevated around the caboose subject. No problem, that was just another fishing trip on the web. Sometimes not catching is better than catching. A Mz Panhead on the end of the line and I'd have to cut it after shooting her. As a result of the above, fold your wings back because we are getting ready to fly through this one. I'll add the previous pages on the L&A route at the end. From here on out it's just frivolous journalism. Well, I did get bogged down a little.

We headed north after putting the bikes on an abandoned hand driven rail scooter.
Al finally got the knack of the seesaw drive. I never imagined one of those things
could really do 60 mph. It put "hearing the rails sing" in a whole new light.





At Bentley, we left the scooter and headed east on La.8 from US 167 to look for possible depot locations. All the signs and more were there. But, first we saw what appeared to be an attempt at a tourist trap . Too bad it didn't work out because it seemed to have some valuable historical artifacts.













This one, above, looks suspiciously RR.



Evidently, it all was a "Louisiana Adventure" gone bad. I can relate.
Nice try, though. Al said there was a functioning RV campground nearby.
Give them a try.




Bentley was named after a rather interesting person. I'll see what I
can find real fast. If not, you are on your on. BTW, Mr.Bentley was
my great grandfather's boss. He worked as a surveyor for Bentley
out of Zimmerman, another mill town. I just found something that
shed a whole new light on my g.grandfather. CLICK HERE.
It seems that Henry Wilson was more than just a surveyor to Bentley
and Zimmerman.

Also, you will see Julius Levin mentioned again. If you read the historical
marker on the last page, you'd know we were at the location of Levin's mill in Tioga,
the place where the caboose was. I love it when a story comes together.



This is Henry Wilson, my great grandfather, in action.
In the car picture below, the hats match. Could it be?


Extracted from that article:
Joe Bentley's Place in the Rapides' Lumber Industry

Unfortunately, there are those who have branded Joe Bentley as the “Paul Bunyan” of the south, and the man who built his hotel because another, lesser hotel, refused him when he applied for service. This type of aggrandizement detracts from a creditable legend. While local tradition puts some faith in the second claim, where he was probably looking too much like Paul Bunyon, the first is based primarily on someone’s fantasy. Further, to say that Joseph Bentley and E.W. Zimmermann introduced Rapides Parish to the lumber industry is a gross misstatement, but their place in the history of the local lumber industry is well established. Actually, they came on the scene late in the 19th century, around 1892. It was William Waters, and Levi Wilson, on the other hand, who first cut in the pine forests, formed logs into rafts, and pushed those rafts down the Red and Mississippi Rivers to build a major part of 19th century New Orleans. This was around 1815.

Joseph Bentley with his driver, 1910-15

In post Civil War Rapides, the man to first enter the lumber business in a big way was Julius Levin. He had moved directly from Prussia to Alexandria in 1853. After several years as a merchant, Mr. Levin studied and became interested in the lumber and building materials businesses. He manufactured and/or dealt with brick, cypress shingles, doors, lumber, and pine cisterns. One of the earliest Levin ads in the Louisiana Democrat about his large lumber business appeared in 1879, about 15 years before Bentley and Zimmermann arrived. By 1887, his Alexandria Mills had produced so much lumber, that 800,000 feet of the stuff was stocked on his large loading dock. It was stocked there because available railroad cars couldn’t transport sufficient product to fill the demand. Levin was shipping lumber all over the country and into Mexico. Unlike Bentley and Zimmermann, however, Levin’s material came mostly from independent sawmills, four Pineville-side mills in particular. His own timber holdings were relatively modest. His plant not only included a large sawmill, but the largest of the early planning mills in Rapides Parish, and he had transportation facilities by either rail or river that couldn’t be matched.

Joe Bentley and E.W. Zimmermann, originally from Pennsylvania, arrived in Rapides Parish around 1892, directly from the saw mills of east Texas. They had purchased a sawmill from Frank and Don Peak of Orange, Texas, in 1892. Presumably, they left this mill.in operating condition. Henry Wilson came with them; he was the negotiator in the purchase of standing timber and timber land in Rapides Parish, as well as the surveyor. Although he was offered a partnership he refused.

The first large plant was the J.A. Bentley Sawmill north of Boyce. A company town was established named after E.W., and eventually the plant was widely known as the Zimmermann sawmill. At its peak, the Zimmermann community included 118 houses and a population of 500 or 600 persons, half black, half white. The community had its own fire department, utility system, post office, and railway express agency; household goods and clothing could be purchased from the company commissary. Also available was candy for the children and soda pop bottled by Joseph Baker's company in Boyce. About fifteen miles from the mill and the mill pond was Zimmermann Camp, home to the loggers and their families.ⁱⁱ The company amassed 90,000 acres of virgin pine, (including the holdings of Frank and Don Petty near Cotile), stretching from Rapides into Vernon Parish. It built a private thirty-mile tram railway for transporting the timber into the mill, originally on a narrow gauge 52” track. However, the railway became inefficient by 1949, and it was replaced with trucks.

The acreage was stripped bare by 1962. It is approximated that over a billion board feet of timber went through the mill during its seventy years of operation. At its production peak it was processing twenty-two million board feet annually, but over the years it averaged 15 million. This annual production was sufficient to build 1,000 to 1,500 three-bedroom houses. Upon the death of Bentley in 1933 and Zimmermann in 1938, the property was inherited by relatives. Operation of the mill continued into the 1960's when the supply of timber was exhausted. E. C. Johnson who joined the company in 1947, became general manager, an he was the man to close it down in 1962. The T.L. James Company leased and reforested the entire 90,000 acres.ⁱⁱⁱ

By July of 1903, J.A. Bentley, Paul Lisso, and D.F. Clark had selected the site for the Enterprise Lumber Company to locate its huge $300,000 sawmill in Alexandria. It was located on Experiment Plantation, in the Enterprise addition, where Bayou Rapides was crossed by both the T & P and Iron Mountain railways. It included a 20-acre tract of land that was used as a millpond. In the previous month, the company had purchased 21,000 acres of prime pine timber land from Carpenter and Company of Michigan for $500,000. Enterprise had an annual cutting capacity of 30,000,000 feet, or 82,000 feet per day. It estimated its timber holdings sufficient to supply its demands for another twenty years. Bentley was president of the company, and his partner at the Zimmerman sawmill, E.W. Zimmerman, was vice-president. Paul Lisso served as secretary/treasurer; S.F. Sharpe was general sales agent; E. Beuhler was general superintendent; H.H. Turby was cashier, and R.A. Waitz was the stenographer. It was projected that operations would begin December 15, 1903, with 125 employees.^iv

Back at the tracks there was so much to imagine.







And the Control Point picture. There were rails running everywhere.



Here's the gem, the Bentley Depot, taken in the early 1900's.



From Here.

Dry Prong to Packton






From Bentley, we rode busy 167 north to Dry Prong.
Al bolted from his bike and..........



I heard the Indian yell again.



Al had donned his Keith Richards autographed shades.
Was that rail ballast dust in his beard?



What next? He was having a hard time figuring out how to get down.



He finally got down and we both read the Historical Marker.
We were firmly established on the L&A.



I didn't spend enough time in Dry Prong. You can understand what
ate what I had. Al wanted to become a hobo. He really had
his mind set on it. I had to convince him that the bike was not going to
ride itself.



Next stop was Williana. I wanted to show Al La.472. It's a pretty nice bike road in its upper reaches. It follows the rails for a while then they veer more toward 167. Between the two roads is the Kisatchie National Forest with great gravel roads for those who like that scene.



The above picture is an example of pure laziness. Mine.
I could have gotten a better picture very easily.
It says, "Control Point South Williana".

Time for a map.


The yellow line is our tracks. I realized that when we got to La.500
we had to go west to Packton. I was not going to pass up the junction of
the Jena line and the Winnfield to Tioga line. Yes, my old software has
the old line on it that follows La.500 from Packton to Trout, then Good Pine and Jena.
Trout and Good Pine were Buchanan mill towns. Jena had a mill also. They were the
fruit on the branch. To set things straight, the Winnfield to Jena stretch was the "mainline"
The Alexandria stretch was a "branch". Of course that changed later on.

Back to 472, here we go. We parked and walked out to the tracks. 2 perspectives.





Turning west on 500, I aimed for the first rail crossing on the way to
Packton.



Looking down the line I can see these folks will be having ghost trains
coming through their bedroom all night. I think I'd have planned differently.



On the north side, the side going to Georgetown, evidence of the
railroad is passing quickly. Our forest eat history.



Next would be a long anticipated moment.



From this point on, it got intense.

Here comes the first "boring to tears page". To add to the misery
I'm starting on a half tank of gas due to spending the whole
morning's writing session trying to guide Al through the ordeal of
barbecuing steaks for a large group. The only reason
I did is because I feel his pain. Barbecuing steaks for a large
group is an impossible task. That's why most chefs get drunk
during the experience. Al doesn't drink because he thinks it
makes him crazy. Well...... I could go down that road but I
won't because he reads this thing. The other reason he doesn't
drink is because he's a control freak. Remember me mentioning
the fact that his Achilles Heel is being lost. That's a symptom
of his problem. Asking me how to barbecue steaks is another
symptom. I could see he was approaching one of his shaking
episodes so I had to at least give him some guidance even if I
am totally unqualified to do so. That's why this page will be a
dirge instead of a march through boring to tears hell. Maybe
I should have put this as a footnote. No, the plain truth has to
be out front. While I'm at it, all the information on this page
was stolen along with most of the pictures. I may be worn
out but at least I have a clear conscious. Also, this page will
not be published until after his barbecuing trial. If he knows I gave
him unqualified information he'll be at best muttering, at worst,
you never know. Oh, to save on putting another footnote, all the
information on this website is UNQUALIFIED. When history
leaves a void I fill it. Imagine History Hunts as a pothole pocked
Louisiana highway.

Back at the ride we were finally at Packton, the actual start
of this History Hunt. I am at a teetering point right here.
I could include all my research or none of it and suggest you
do your own. But, you wouldn't. Being there is the "push you
over the edge" incentive that is needed to spend hours hunting
down lost names of places and trivial moments in the past.
Most of us are way too concerned with the present, rightfully so,
to attempt that investment which in the end is pointless. My
only analogy is a crossword puzzle. Indeed the stretch from
Packton to Vidalia is a puzzle to me. There are conflicts in the
info I've been able to find. That later.





Al and I de-biked at the railroad, corner of the KCS line, Winnfield to Tioga, and La. 500.



I first looked south and imagined the wye going to the east.
I didn't walk down there as it seemed a bit out of reach. Look
at the dark place just before the rails touch each other.

On the north side of the road there was immediate stuff to ponder.
Yes, I figured out what those old rails were. Wow.



These large cement supports could have been the base for a water or oil tank.



Had they been moved to the side or was this their original positions?



I say they were moved seeing their disarrangement and teetering.

Next, I walked toward the north wye arm.



I cannot express my excitement. If I had known what I do now
it would have been doubled, maybe tripled?



Here's the all important "Control Point" sign and an active switch.
Was this part of the old wye to Jena sometimes used? Was
the proximity of the "lake" an issue? Did it supply water for
the tank? I think the line was pulled up in the mid 1980's.

One more.


Next, I walked down the wye to see how far the rails continued.



I'd say the rails were not used past this point. They were headed
to the highway where they crossed and joined the other arm coming
from the south side of the road. I turned toward the main line and shot
walking back up.







I walked back to where Al was patiently waiting. He doesn't like
walking and often just surveys the parking areas. Be forewarned.

I saw another spur coming off the west side of the main line and wondered. I wonder no more.



Get out your crying towel, here it comes.
First, the mystery spur. Some of these excerpts come from
Railroad Commission books documented in the early 1900's.

What you are looking at is the abandoned Rock Island Line
coming from Winnfield. My source said it was abandoned prior to
1924, but my sources are vague. It was once part of the Rock Is.'s
main line to Eunice, La. It paralleled the L&A from Winnfield and maybe
further until it's usefulness was deemed unnecessary. I further found
out that this point is called L&A Junction. I assume that the Rock Island
did not again ride its own rails until Alexandria or south of Alex at LaMourie.
But that's a whole other discussion.

Here are a couple of those Railroad Commission findings.
Click these if you can't read them.







Now I have a question. Besides being a junction, what importance did Packton have?
And, how large was it to rate two stations? BTW, Willow Glen is on the south side of Alexandria
which does not jive with my assumption that the RI did not have its own track until LaMourie.
I think in the KCS write Mike had pointed out that they did have their own right of way.

At this point I'm stopping and assessing my bootie.
The boring stuff is far from over. I just need to figure out how I'm going to present it.
The naming of the article, "Packton to Jena" is way too limiting. We'll take this thing
into Ferriday before leaving it. Along the way much confusion will be presented. I'll start
by leaving you with this. Al, if we hadn't come home, we could have ridden to Hope, AR.
What is really important, below, is the mentions of Wildsville, inferring that it was the end
of the L&A branch. What confuses me is the fact that the Ferriday site says that residents could
take the L&A out of town. Ferriday is east of Wildsville. Hang on. this will get exciting.

Click below to enlarge.



Speaking of bootie, here is mine from Packton:



Of course you recognize the spikes. The other deal you may not,
but my wife did. It's a brake airline hose, what you see connecting the
cars on a train. This one had a problem and was disposed of track side.
The spikes were found pushed up in the ballast away from the rails.
The Smithsonian is calling, got to go. More later. Keep that crying towel handy.
Oh, the red mug is my coffee cup. Now you understand what it takes to write these things.
And what it takes to read them. Beat you to it.

Before we move on down the line you really need to read some history.
This is from Fair's book.

If you can't read these, click them and they will open
larger in a separate window. Hit your back button to
return here.



Of Note: As of 1902, a contract had been let for a
38 mile mile extension east from Winnfield to Jena.



Of note: The line from Packton, on the Jena extension,
to Alexandria was being surveyed. 8-10 wheeler steam engines
were on order.



Of Note: Important passage: The extension to Jena,
with the ultimate objective of Natchez.... was motivated
by Edenborn's competition. I'm not interested in Edenborn here.
I'm wondering where the L&A's reach actually ended.
Hang on to that Natchez statement.



Of note: The bridge at Georgetown is way cool and still there.
1905: through traffic from Packton to Jena. Trout and Good
Pine were two noteworthy lumber mills. Buchanan owned the forest.



Of note: 1905, construction began from Packton. June, 1906,
the 30 miles of rail were in place between Packton and a
connection with the Iron Mountain at Tioga (where thecommissary was).
This point was 8.2 miles north of the joint Iron Mountain
and Texas and Pacific depot across the Red River in Alexandria.
Here's some confusion. Edenborn had forbidden Buchanan and the'
L&A from using the Edenborn Bridge. Yet, above it says, " Trackage
rights were secured from the Iron Mountain and T&P, which included
a bridge crossing of the Red River and use of the joint passenger station in
Alexandria. Separate freight facilities were developed by the L&A. So,
it is obvious that the L&A used the north bridge, shown in the KCS article.
That bridge is still in use by the Union Pacific. The Rock Island having ridden the L&A in,
used Edenborn's bridge by way of the 5 mile extention from Tioga to Pineville Junction.



I think I got it right!



Of note: The final constuction extended eastward from Jena "toward Natchez",
not "to Natchez". The work began in 1911 and had as its destination a connection
with the Natchez and Western (formerly Natchez, Red River, and Texas) on the east
bank of the Black River. This involved two large bridges at Georgetown and Jonesville.
Yes, I have pictures but you'll have to wait. The connection was made at Wildsville Junction with
the N&W. The N&W was a sub of the Iron Mountain which would become the Missouri Pacific.
Thus the MP's navy at Vidalia. That's another story.



So, the Packton to Natchez stretch was a BIG DEAL.

I don't want to strangle you with too much history right now so
I'll stick a pic in.



On the next page we'll travel from Packton to Jena. All aboard.
At the bottom of the page you'll find links to read the whole thing and other L&A/KCS rides.

Please: Click the files if you can't read them, larger versions will unfold.
Please: If the sentences are not lined up, pull your browser wider.

For some reason I've become nervous like someone is watching me. I'm also very nervous because I have so much information that I'm afraid I'm going to forget something. The next stretch is between Packton and Georgetown. Georgetown was so confusing as I wanted to be at the point of the cross tracks of the L&A, later the Louisiana Midland, and the Missouri Pacific which was the Iron Mountain, and is now the Union Pacific, but, there is a big road construction project going on there and I was afraid of getting run over by one of those big old graders. Even Al retired from the field. That scene depicted later on this page.

La.500 goes through some of the Kisatchie forest. There are gravel roads that intersect the old right of way. If we had had more time I would have suggested we visit the ROW from the highway. But I didn't, having a very good sense of time and space. We did visit one spot. Al remarked that we needed to come back in the winter when we could actually see something and the snakes would be sleeping. From time to time Al is really encouraging. Ah, now I get it, I had just offered to let him use the red cold weather riding outfit Mark had given me and he was already planning a ride. Nothing "slow" about Al, well, except showing up on time.

Here's the forest stop east of Packton.



Visualizing trains here is a stretch. Visualizing my 4 wheeler
here is not a stretch.

Here's the cross track area, speaking of stretches of the imagination.
The almost invisible rail is the UP was MP was IM is confusing.



At Georgetown you are met (me introducing you) with the realization that this
stretch is about 2 railroads, the second being the Louisiana Midland.
The La. Midland is no longer around and seems a sad story to me.
But, then I'm emotional. Looking at these pictures brought back
a line I had read about the Missouri Pacific removing the diamond
that connected the Midland to its rails. Possibly that was its demise? Possibly
my memory stinks.

Here's a few more pictures while I look up what I've found on the La.Midland.

Here you see the Union Pacific (was MP) looking north. You can see the arms of the diamond
connector rails launching from either side.



Seems the UP is still using an "arm" as a storage track.
The L&A/LM /and Iron Mountain/MP cross track, was at the approximate location of
the bridge in the background and was the location of the Georgetown depot according to
something I read on Abandoned Rails written by a Mr. Rambo who I think is really
Sheriff Rambo possibly related to the famous politician, State Senator or Representative Rambo.

Any connection to the movie is unknown but could be fabricated. Roaming these woods
you learn stuff. That tidbit is just the tip of the iceberg.

Looking east, the L&A/ LM heads out of town.



On an earlier visit, I had hit it right. There's not a whole
lot of Georgetown. I've been warned to watchmy P's and Q's
when visiting.



This is from a Wiki Page. Click Here to view it.
It is a little of the history of the LM.

The First Louisiana Midland (LM) was formed on January 1, 1946 by H.H. Holloway,Sr. Mr. Holloway owned a gravel pit at Rhinehart, LA on the Louisiana & Arkansas Railway's (L&A) main line. When the L&A made plans to dispose of the branch Mr. Holloway knowing without the railroad his gravel pit operations would ultimately fail. The LM would consit of 76.7-mile branch line from Packton, Louisiana to Vidalia, Louisiana from the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway. Passenger service was discontinued in 1953. On April 28, 1967, the Illinois Central Railroad absorbed the Louisiana Midland as part of its absorption of the Mississippi Central Railroad.

On April 28, 1974, the Louisiana Midland resumed independent operations, being controlled by Craig Burroughs' Joliet, Illinois-based Trans-Action Associates, Inc. The Louisiana Midland operated first with three ALCO RS-1 locomotives and later with three ALCO RS-3 locomotives.

In the 1980s, through freight service was discontinued between Packton and Ferriday, Louisiana because of poor track conditions and lack of demand, reducing the Louisiana Midland's operations to switching service at Packton and Ferriday. Traffic at the time included pulpwood, wood products and general commodities.

Operations ceased in July 1985. On July 1, 1986, the property was sold at a sheriff's sale.

Abandoned Rails has a couple of good pages on the LM. Click One Click Two
Virgil sent me this link. It's pretty awesome, also. Al, it has big pictures. CLICK HERE

The next big attraction going east is the Little River Bridge.







The 180 ft steel truss bridge was built in 1904 and completed in 1905.
In Feb. of that year, traffic to Jena began.



Toward the end, crews would let the trains cross in "low" with no one on board. They would catch the train on the other side after a pickup ride across the La.500 bridge. I wonder if
they ever got stuck in traffic creating a little problem down rail.

Past the bridge, Al skidded to a stop. I had told him we were going into his namesake parish.

C.Alfonso de LaSalle beamed with pride. Understandably, "de"LaSalle Parish was reclaimed for France once again bringing home the bacon for the de LaSalle family and making the King of France very happy. [He's holding a gun on me] Al's g....... grandfather is THIS GUY.
Added later: Al is possessed among other things.



More a little later. This is Al's Paw Paw. See? Next page link below.



This is getting to be another double digit page write. I'm feeling enduro fatigue coming on
so I'll be pacing myself. Ferriday will be the grand finale and I want to be pumped for that.

After claiming [de] LaSalle Parish, Al was renewed. He rigged a flag staff on the back of his bike allowing the Fleur d' Leis to wave proudly down La.500. I requested that he fold it when we reached US 84 [El Camino Real] which I explained was owned by the very powerful Spanish, an ally of his King's. If that didnt' retract the flag, I knew I'd have to explain the "US" part of the road number. Following the old right of ways with Al along takes on several dimensions.



I figured it was time to step back and get a better look at the route.
It is hard to believe I'll have to start posting more maps, but I will.
Right where you see the "Hwy500" label is where that highway
reaches 84. Soon you come to a hard left turn that rides the north
edge of Catahoula Lake, where the three mills belonging to Buchanan
had been built keeping the railroad humming.



On the Natchez to Jena ride, I'd tried to find the location of the
old Jena depot. I'm convinced I did.





Here's an old picture of it. Added: New pictures are not available.



Engine, maybe? Rail car, maybe?

Jena was up to her old tricks. None of the stop lights on US84 were timed.
The bank's electronic sign said 1ooF. We were wilted. we found an air conditioned
sitting area inside a convenience store and sunk into our chairs nursing cold drinks.
Dante's Inferno awaited us. Actually, it wasn't that bad. You know in Louisiana, it's
a dry heat. Once on the road, Hot Jena was completely forgotten.

Soon a private exhibit appeared which I'd seen before. Al drives an Edsel, so I figured he'd like
seeing it. Here are a few pictures.









Al's is sort of like that one.



I think the paint was donated. Or possibly the painter was on drugs having painted it in the 60's?
Seeing a psychedelic pink antique tractor with spiked iron wheels coming at me would be a unique nightmare.

Moving on down the line, the rails moved away from US 84.
On the Trout ride I'd ridden up into the hills and found Rhinehart.
I believe I read that it was a temporary end of the line at one time.
I found where the rails had crossed La.8. It was not a memorialized
location.



From Jena to the Little River, the rails follow the stream beds
to keep the grade as close to level as possible.



Go ahead and click the file below to enlarge.



This is where I wanted to visit in Jonesville.











What I get from the above is that the L&A crossed the Black
River on its fine bridge and proceeded to Wildsville for a big
party where it met the Natchez and Western ( a sub of the
Iron Mountain that became the MP) The 24 mile extension
is from Jena, I checked it. It's about l.8 miles from the bridge's
east entrance not 1.6. The next is confusing, "and 2.o miles
east of the end of the Natchez and Western at the town of Black River".



This the only way I got 2 miles to work out. Had there been a spur up there
that was part of the Natchez and Western? I'll wake up at 2 AM, suddenly
clear on this confusion. I'll call you immediately and let you know.

But, I got ahead of the ride. That's what happens when I obsess on something.

Back to the ride:
I tried several approaches to reach the bridge location. I finally got "on track"
and came down the line with anticipation pegging.

Ahead, what the heck was that?





Was the name of this art object, "The Hills", or were "The Hills"
the artist? And, what could be its name?

Ahead lay the levee of the unpredictable Black River, the
sum of the Tensas and the Quachita where they join above Jonesville.
I heard the noise of an approaching steam engine. The thing follows me.



Indeed, we were hooked up.

The site did not give up much because I did not try hard enough.
There are supports still in the water. There are still support post
visible in the ground. They will be gone soon. Eagle Eye Al found them.
I did not find the supports in the water until we were crossing the car bridge.
He lamented that we were probably the last people on the face of the
Earth to know what they were if they are actually ever seen again.



With that poignant thought, I'll sign off for the night.

Where do I start.
Ferriday's rail history is......well... like describing its great musical heritage. The famous ones are all gone.

I'll jump right into it and then back off so you can read another description.
First a map. There will be many and probably repeats to keep you sharp. More than what I can claim. All get bigger when clicked. Hit the back arrow to return.

Al and I wandered into town. Seems I've said that before.


We more ore less ended up here:

This is a picture of Concordia Junction (above). Al and I just happened
to happen upon it. A few blocks after passing through it he said,
" I saw some rail ties in the dirt back there. We were then in a
place we needed to leave and I couldn't chance going back.
You can venture into danger, but don't linger.
I'm going to have to talk to him about blowing his horn when
he sees something important. He has a visual gift, but doesn't
realize it. I will try to remain patient, but that was the
second time that day he'd done that. I don't want to be too
harsh or he won't tell me at all until the post ride conference.
Then, I may take his gun and beat him with it. Lately he's
been thinking he's Lt. Dave Robicheaux in J.L Burke's books.
This phase may be distracting the rail sleuth I once relied upon.



This train was coming in from in from Vidalia/Natchez. (in a dream)
The picture seems to be taken from the L&A /Natchez and Western wye.

The progression of our ride through Ferriday simulated what
you'd expect of a couple burned out geriatrics after 300 miles
of riding in the sun. Few pictures were taken as I think I forgot
why I was there.

These tank supports were in that area. For some reason I felt compelled to shoot them. I can offer no explanation.



The following comes from a write on Ferriday's history, credited below.
I"m going to hand copy it because I want even the lazies to read it.
This is not all of it, but the part that applies where I want it to. At this
point I am as write fatigued as I was ride fatigued in Ferriday, so I guess
this deal is in sync.

Here we go, several questions asked along the way are answered here which is pretty cool.
I guess I could have read it earlier but I didn't, so here it is, and we can read it together.
You first Johnny:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The railroad era in Concordia began when the Vidalia & Lake Concordia Railroad & Steamboat Company reached the vicinity of Ferriday's plantation in 1876. The narrow-gauge route, extending from the wharf along the Mississippi River at Vidalia to Concordia (a rural location near the southern tip of Lake Concordia), was oriented primarily toward serving agriculture. In 1878, it was sold to the newly created Natchez, Red River & Texas RR. The new owner completed a 25 mile extension to the Trinity (Black River) in 1886.

{I measured from the tip of Lake Concordia to where Black River is marked on my software and only come up with 17 miles. Something is missing}

Residents of the parish came to depend on both the services of this railroad.........
A second railroad, the New Orleans & Northwestern Railway, completed a 77 mile route between Natchez, MS and Rayville, LA in 1890. This standard gauge carrier laid its tracks through the heart of Ferriday's plantation and depended on ferries to move freight and passenger cars across the Missippi River.

With rail service now available on a pair of routes, the economy of Concordia Parish flouished. In 1894 the New Orleans & Northwestern Railroad extended its line north to Bastrop, Louisiana, making it part of a new long distance route. These tracks shouldered an even heavier traffic burden after representatives of the Iron Mountain bought the carrier eight years later.
{Here you have the MP's heritage}

These developments laid the groundwork for an ambitious plan prepared by the Iron Mountain in conjunction with the Texas & Pacific Railway to create an entirely new community serving both existing and proposed rail lines. This railroad town, to be built on the Ferriday plantation, would support a system of routes linking both Natchez and New Orleans with Little Rock, Memphis, and other cities. Proponents of the plan believed that such a system would be able to effectively compete with the Illinois Central RR and the various steamboat companies, the dominent transportation providers between the lower Mississippi River Delta and Memphis at the time.

The plan moved forward on an expeditious timetable. By the end of 1903, the Texas and Pacific had laid its tracks north from Addis, Louisiana, to the newly created town of Ferriday. The Memphis, Helena & Louisiana RR (an Iron Mountain sub) simultaneously extended its rote south from the Arkansas boundary to Clayton {remember the bridge I mentioned}, a junction on the Iron Mountain, 5 miles north of the town site. For the first time, freight could move by rail over a direct route on the western side of the Mississippi River, the entire distance from Memphis to New Orleans.

These and other improvements pushed the old narrow gauge line {to Black River, probably the Jonesville vicinity} rapidly toward obsolescence. The Iron Mountain began operating this line through a subsidiary (Natchez and Western?) and converted the tracks west of Concordia Junction (one mile south of Ferriday) to standard gauge in 1906. It abandoned the remaining narrow gauge segment east to Vidalia the following year, operating trains instead over the parallel Iron Mountain route and then leased the segment west of Concordia Junction to the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway in 1913.

{Bingo!!!!!. The L&A had trackage rights clear to Concordia Junction. That mystery has caused sleepless nights}

By the time the Iron Mountain became part of teh Missouri Pacific system in 1917, Ferriday was a mature community with a downtown several blocks long. It had a hotel, dry goods store and cotton compress establishing Ferriday as a prominent center for the cotton trade.

The MP freight yard was a particularly busy place. The carrier interchanged cars with the T&P in Ferriday and with the L&A at Concordia Junction. Northbound trains shared a common track to Clayton where some trains diverged toward Winnborro and Collinston (on the former New Orleans and Northwestern) while others headed toward Lake Providence (on the former Memphis, Helena & Louisiana). At Vidalia, southbound trains on the MP, as well as those of the L&A, turned freight cars over to the Natchez and Louisiana Railway Transfer Company, a subsidiary that transferred them across the Mississippi to Natchez.

The routes through Ferriday apparently never handled a significant amount of Memphis to New Orleans business as originally conceived, but they did become important transportaion thoroughfares. In 1928, passengers could depart the Ferriday vicinity on any ofo eleven trains each day except Sunday . MP's passenger trains operated to Memphis daily by way of both Helena (via Tallulah) and Little Rock, (via Winnsboro). Travelers heading to Memphis via Little Rock had the advantage of Pullman sleeping car service. Passengers could also book passage from Concordia Junction on the Louisiana & Arkansas, which was by now a prominent route linking eastern Arkansas to the Mississippi River.

Operating rail lines in the Mississippi Delta had long been a problem for the railroads of Concordia Parish. Not only was ferrying rail cars across the river a heavy financial burden, but chronic flood damage added greatly to the maintenance of way expenses. In 1940, Texas and Pacific abandoned its flood prone route to Ferriday. {That route parallels our ride back on La.15}

During the summer of 1988, the MP (MoPac) received approval to abandon the entire route between Vidalia and McGehee, AR, a distance of more than 170 miles. The townspeople felt a sense of loss when their spirited campaign to save the former MoPac depot from demolition failed.

Prospective rail operators considered acquiring portions of both the MP and Louisiana Midland lines. The Dixie River Railroad sought to buy the MoPac route from McGehee, AR, to Ferriday and even purchased locomotives, but it could not obtain financing. The Delta Southern Railroad, a short line, purchased and resumed service over the portion of this line north of Quimby, a small town near Tallulah, in 1989. It could not be persuaded, however, to purchase the more southerly portion.

The tracks were pulled up leaving a scar across the town. The area where the freight yard, roundhouse, and other railroad facilities once stood remains vacant.

Portions of the former freight yard area have been developed into the Ferriday Depot Park.
Visitors will find little more in Ferriday except vacant property to remind them of the towns heritage as a railroad center. A strip of track encrusted in concrete at the former Louisiana Railway facility and a dilapidated former MoPac building near the old roundhouse site offer a shadowy reminder of transportation years ago.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That was almost completely copied from HERE Please consider this an ad Joe:
When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line ......
By Joseph P. Schwieterman seems to be a pretty good book. There ya go.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, on with more of our ride around Ferriday. My last visit here netted some great pictures of the warehouse district as I've already said, but, they are not the most important to this L&A write. The lumber mill south of town, which was on the L&A's leased tracks, is what I had missed last time. It blew me away.

The minute I saw the water tower I knew I was on the trail. Joe, in the article above, must have missed it as a remnant of "railroading times". It's a knack, Joe.



Flashes of Long Leaf hit me. (Southern Forest Heritage Museum)



That's the best shot. The rails ran out there somewhere,
or possibly they were behind me at this point as they crossed
the road at some point.



Now the sad shots.



I was surprised to see lumber just laying about. Al though
some work might be going on. Who knows, maybe ghost?



Here's an old picture that could have been taken right here.
The car is full of lumber.



Here's a few shots from the last time I was here. I really
did not understand the layout and completely missed Mill Rd.
But, I did catch the warehouse district pretty well, as he repeats himself.
The railroad which headed north was a sub of the Iron Mountain, later the MP.
By the way, there is a swing bridge at Clayton, 5 miles north, I need to visit.


Ferriday today or in May, rather. I've been there often it seems. It's a blur:

Looks like the Arcade Theater, reported as closed by Joe, may be reopened for some use.



Here's a warehouse on the north end of what I believe was the exchange area between the Texas & Pacific and Iron Mountain/ MP. That's a complete guess. There will absolutely be no further research concerning this subject, ever.







Was this a large cotton warehouse? Your turn.



And, to close it out, here's the shrine to the 3 cousins, Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley. They are the other big 3 here that are no longer with us. They are only a sampling of our diverse music and personality. (La.Tourist Bureau)



Here's a quote from the Ferriday Chamber of Commerce :

The Delta Music Museum is presently the home of exhibitions and Hall of Fame for fifteen Delta musicians and two non-musical celebrities born in Ferriday, news commentator Howard K. Smith and Hollywood's legendary hostess Ann Boyer Warner. Celebrity musicians include Ferriday native cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley and Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, along with Conway Twitty, Percy Sledge, Aaron Neville, Irma Thomas, Gov. Jimmie Davis, Pee Wee Whittaker, Clarence "Frogman Henry," Johnny Horton, Al Harris, Dale Houston with Grace Broussard, John Fred Gourrier & The Playboys, and Fats Domino. For more information, the website for The Delta Music Museum is http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/delta.

More later. The ride home was awing. My camera held together for the grand finale. It had been on for 10 hours, then quit for the final 2 hours. Stay tuned for that great page which will be written somewhere in the purple haze. Wait, it's not over yet.

Check out what is below or CLICK HERE to go to the next page.

As an added treat, here's a discussion of the Natchez rail ferry.

This is from a public forum or Google was a member and told it all. I will cut the last names of the speakers as a courtesy and I will correct their spelling. Tank yew. None of what you read on this site can be considered the truth, speaking for myself and them too. Take it away boyz:

He's addressing someone. That's the last help I'm offering. Remember, who knows what these guys are saying is true. Right off the bat the first guy gets shot down.

The article you are looking for is called MoPac's Navy and is an in depth article about the car ferry operation between the Missouri Pacific and the Mississippi Central railroad later the (ICG) Illinois Central Gulf. The Photos show the idler cars and the float operation from the MoPac side of river. The locomotive used were GP18 and SW1200 and in Vidalia Mopac also had a small car shop. They also connected with the LOAM Louisiana & Midland railroad (bridge line) which connected with the Louisiana & Arkansas part of KCS. The IC-GMO merger did away with the car ferry along with the Mississippi Central and the Louisiana Midland (abandoned). The traffic was directed over the ICG bridge at Vicksburg and the car ferry operation was also abandoned.
The east side of the river or Mississippi Central side was dangerous due to erosion from the river and a saw back if not mistaken that allowed it to get over the bluffs. The car ferry was an old converted river boat or something it was just another reason for MoPac and ICG to end this little navy operation.
Bill E


The IC-GMO merger had nothing to do with either of these two events. The MP transfer between Vidalia and Natchez operated until the early 1980's about ten to twelve years after the IC-GMO merger. It was the barge built from one of the old river ferry's needing replacement that caused it to be uneconomical to replace. The Louisiana Midland (LOAM) was the fourth operator of the line between Vadilia and Packton. Originally it was a branch of the Louisiana &
Arkansas, then sold to a group of former L&A officals as the original Louisiana Midland (LM). This was operated as the Natchez route offering through service between Hattisburg(?), MS and Dallas Texas over the Mississippi Central (MC), L&M & L&A. When the IC bought the MC, the LM forced the IC to purchase it also. The IC sort of ran the line for several years then sold to a third party. Around 1980, two things happened that killed the LOAM, 1. the MP removed the diamond at Georgetown severing the LOAM main track. 2. The approaches to the bridge over the Black River at Joneville, LA burned making the LOAM into three sections. At the end the track had been allowed to deteriorate that it was hard to get a train across even before it was severed. Actually, the LOAM made more money by leasing its main tracks for the storage of cars during a down turn in business in the early 1980's.

The barge was made from the hull of the Ste. Genevieve that had been operated by the Missouri-Illinois between Thomure, MO and Kellogg, ILL. according to page 288 of "MOPAC Power" by Joe Collias.
George S.
Dry Prong, LA

The railroad barge was the hull of the former Missouri-Illinois transfer ferry St. Genevieve which was stripped down to the hull. The barge/towboat combination replaced the stern wheel steam towboat James Y. Lockwood (blt. 1896) and her barge. If you ever get a chance to see the TV mini series "Centennial" There is a scene in one of the early segments of two of the stars traveling down the river and a "steamboat" passes them. It's the Lockwood. This is the only footage I have seen of this boat. Interestingly, Capt Frederick Way, Jr. in his book Way's Steam Towboat Directory says that upon retirement, the Lockwood traveled under it's own power up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to Chicago where it became a restaurant named Sara S. from 1961 until 1970. In 1970 she was towed to Buffalo, NY and named Showboat. About 1985 she
was transported to Lelystan, Netherlands and renamed yet again, this time Mark Twain.
Hope the above is of interest to someone besides me. ;^)
Bill H

It is to me Bill. I never thought of a steamboat directory before.
Interesting history.

Capt Way spent his life on the river as a clerk, steamboat owner and river pilot. His books Piloting Comes Naturally and The Log of the Betsy Ann are good fun reading. He was also in charge of moving the Delta Queen from San Francisco to the Mississippi River when it was purchased by the Greene Line (towed by an ocean going tug.) His last works were the towboat directory mentioned before and Way's Packet directory 1948-1983, a listing of Mississippi
River packets, ferrys and transfer boats. Both include references of MoPac, T&P and M-I boats as well as the Cotton Belt's transfer boats that ran out of Gray's Point, MO.

For those who look at the pictures that Greg sent the URL to, the colors on the boat sides were white with a gray wainscot and black hull. Wheel was red - of course. GOT to finish a model of the one of these boats. I have started models of the MoPac's transfer barge Dixie and the towboat Gillespie.
Bill H

The IC/GM&O merger was in 1972; while this pretty much killed the Louisiana Midland, the Natchez branch continued until the early 1980s after which it was embargoed. The rumor was the ferry St. Genevieve had a broken keel after some sort of mishap. The MoPac was in negotiations with Mississippi and Louisiana about a new bridge across the Mississippi at Vidalia that would carry rail and highway traffic. According to a couple of employees I knew on the Louisiana Division, Mississippi wanted the MoPac to shoulder a major amount of the expenses (even though federal funds were being used for a major part of construction). Louisiana was more ready to wheel and deal; perhaps someone in the MoPac hierarchy knew Edwin Edwards.

Maybe George S can fill this in, but I think the IC line south towards Baton Rouge had already been pulled up or had been embargoed circa 1980, but this might have been thought of as an alternate route for petrochemicals through a relatively unpopulated area had a rail bridge been built.
Jim O

Apparently it did the operation no longer is used by the railroads. The MoPac better interchanges with the Illinois Central at Shreveport (Bossier City), New Orleans, Monroe and Baton Rouge then Vidalia. The Mississippi Central side was very treacherous with flooding and erosion caused by the river. The barge had some problems of its own that were a considerable liability to the railroad. By the way you failed to mention that (LOAM) assets were sold at a sheriff sale.
Bill E

The fact that it is no longer has more to do with the condition of the barge than the ICG merger. Yes there are better interchange points and Stagger would have probably made the operation suspect even if the barge had been in good condition. Until Staggers a lot
of marginal operations were maintained due to government beauracy. It didn't hurt that the MOP had a major customer, a papermill, on the Mississippi side that it served as originating road. The LOAM was in my eyes a bad investment. It went from the middle of nowhere, Packton, LA, to a connection not much better located. Unlike the original Louisiana Midland (LM) it had no friendly connections on either end and a poor online traffic base. A friend of mine tells of helping to remove the line and that pea gravel had been used for ballast. The original LM could proudly proclaim itself as part of the "Natchez Route" and boast through service between Hattiesburg, MS and Dallas, TX with partners Mississippi Central and Louisiana & Arkansas.
George S
Dry Prong, LA

George a friend of mine worked that job off the extra board an upper MoP seniority conductor. Alexandria or Monroe covered the vacancies as outlying points. It would be interesting how they worked the job. Staggers Railway Act was a shot of much needed life for the rail industry. It involved the cost of doing business and what youcould charge for doing business. The standard ICC rate was changed and instead of the government setting the price railroads were able to regain control of this critical factor. Before Staggers your performance was measured by on time performance because everyone charged the same price. Post Stagger is today's railroads which equal no competition, captive customers, capacity problems, and record earnings for the railroads .
Bill E

We were in Ferriday, Louisiana, way on the other side of my normal world and it was five 0'clock in the dimming afternoon. We were starting to get noticed after circling this one area for the sixth time. I knew it was time to drop the hammer and let sparks fly.

I never know if Al senses the gravity of certain situations. I believe he did as he hugged my rear fender as if a child grasping a teddy bear. We flew in tandem well above our normal speed, somewhere approaching the state's ordained limit.

La.15 exits Ferriday in a no frills fall to the Mississippi levee. There it mounts the levee's ridge, riding it to Deer Park where it momentarily dismounts only to mount again. I wildly shot as we wound it up atop that lonesome road. I am surprised the shots were not blurred, I was.



We stopped at Deer Park. I wanted Al to see the old steamboat there.
He was more interested in the landing.







We left noticing the high water marks on the street signs from the Spring floods.

Agriculture proceeded in its yearly dance.





A yellow crop duster joined the party.

Finally, we were on home turf, below the Red River, as we crossed the Old River Control Structure. Each time I go by this place I'm reminded of how this exploring on a motorcycle thing got started. You've heard that story. Hey Lonnie, wherever you are.

All is nice and dry here at the "over bank" relief area.



Old Mama lay ahead. She's been doing her thing, protecting
the people of the Basin, for many years. But, she's old and things
keep changing. How much longer can she hold on?



We exited La.15 at La.418 and went toward Simmesport.
There we rode up ancient La.1 to where it had crossed Edenborn's
other bridge, the one that crosses the Atchafalaya. Remember the other
one at Alexandria near where we started this treck?



With this shot the camera battery went dead. Good, and now I realize how great its timing was.



The ride home was endless, but fast. In ohter words, we went fast endlessly.
Simmesport is 100 miles from my house. It is doable in a weakened condition, I keep telling myself. Cooler weather is coming. Yes, we made it home before dark. Just.
See ya out on the road. Oh, you may want to look at some of my research links.

In doing the research for Packton to Jena, I found some great links. Before I do the last page, I wanted to look them over to see if there was something I missed. I figured while I was looking them over I might as well post them so you can look them over, too. More will be added. Look below to read the latest.

This one is by Jack Willis, one of my favorite historians. He's right up there with Block, who, in my humble opinion cannot be beat for local history in technicolor. Click Here for that one.

This is a pretty good one on the Rock Island Line. Click here for that one.
Belis, now you have me humming that dern song.

Here's a "hobo" story. Click Here.
Here's another Willis write: Click here.''

More from the book "Talk of the Town". Click here.

This is an unbelievable resource. CLICK HERE

Here are the words to ruin your day. The links go back to Wikipedia, the source of what you see below.

Lead Belly and John and Alan Lomax supposedly first heard it from a prison work gang during their travels in 1934/35. It was sung a cappella. Huddie sang and performed this song, finally settling on a format where he portrayed, in song, a train engineer asking the depot agent to let his train start out on the main line.^[1]
The verses tell a humorous story about a train operator who smuggled pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock.

Rock Island Line as sung by Johnny Cash. Leadbelly's is below this one.

Now this here’s the story about the Rock Island Line.
Well the Rock Island Line she runs down into New Orleans.
There’s a big toll gate down there and you know if you got certain things on board when you go through the toll gate - Well you don’t have to pay the man no toll.
Well the train driver he pulled up to the toll gate and the man hollered and asked him what all he had on board and he said,
“I got live stock, I got live stock, I got cows I got pigs
I got sheep I got mules I got … all live stock”.
Well he said “you all right boy, you don’t have t’pay no toll.
You can just go right on through”.
So he went on through the toll gate
And as he went through he started pickin up a little bit of speed,
pickin up a little bit of steam.
He got on through he turned he looked back to the man he said
"Well I fooled you, I fooled you I got pig iron I got pig iron I got all pig iron".

Down the Rock Island Line she’s a mighty road
The rock Island Line it’s a road to ride
The rock island line it’s a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line.

Oh cloudy in the west and it looked like rain.
Around the curve come a passenger train,
north bound train on the south bound track.
He did alright leaving but he won’t be back.
Well the Rock Island Line she’s a mighty road
The rock Island Line it’s a road to ride
The rock island line it’s a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line.
Oh I may be right and I may be wrong but you gonna miss me when I’m gone.
Well the engineer said before he died that there where 2 more drinks that he’d like to try Conductor said "what could they be" - A hot cup of coffee and a cold glass'a tea.
Well the Rock Island Line she’s a mighty road
The rock Island Line it’s a road to ride
The rock island line it’s a mighty good road
Well if you ride you got to ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line.

Leadbelly's version is below.

Cat's in the cupboard and she can't find me
Oh the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line
Oh the Rock Island Line is the road to ride
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it like you're flyin'
Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line

Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong
Lawd you gonna miss me when I'm gone
Oh the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line
Oh the Rock Island Line is the road to ride
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it like you're flyin'
Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line

Jesus died to save our sins
Glory to God I'm gonna see Him again
Oh the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line
Oh the Rock Island Line is the road to ride
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it like you're flyin'
Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line

Moses stood on the Red Sea shore
Smothin' the water with a two-by-four
Oh the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line
Oh the Rock Island Line is the road to ride
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it like you're flyin'
Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line

Pictures that didn't make the cut.



No, I didn't "shoot" a snake. It's a brake air line that connects the cars.
It's now on my den wall. I was walking Packton. How much IQ does it take
to stroll around in a full coverage black helmet in 100f temperatures?
You'd think I'd voted for Obamma.




Natchez to Trout
I left home with the electric jacket under a sweatshirt, just in case. It was that cool here in late May, 2009. I threw the old auxiliary Rev Pac soft bags across the backseat of the DL650 to carry the clothes I knew I'd eventually shed. My ensemble was perfect, never having to plug in the jacket, removing all at Natchez. Just kidding, north La. parish officials frown on nude riding. You can get away with it in so.La.

These rides into north La. get a little out of hand. To do them you have to completely dismiss the need for a ride home as inconsequential. Luckily, I have I-49 to address my insanity. It is a coma road, a blur through a worm hole whose only value, in s.La, is being a free flowing conduit. All you have to do is avoid the other occupants.

My route north is a little less wormy and actually a pretty ride. I'll skip that as unless you are from Breaux Bridge, it does not affect you. The good part starts at LeBeau on US 71, the first town north of the intersection of 71 and US 190 or as I had to explain to my wife, "it's where you caught the bus to Shreveport". From there I took La.10 to one of my favorite little towns, Palmetto. Past Palmetto I turned north and crossed the Union Pacific tracks on La.360, and rode north trough Bayou Rouge. The bayou, an old steamboat route, is spectacular there. La.360 is a great road if you enjoy the thrill of trail riding without the mud holes.

Then I hit good old La.105. I never tire of 105. I don't know if it's its Easy Rider legend and entertaining curves that help me along, or knowing that the Texas and Pacific came this way. There is always something new to find when following old rail beds. That's one of the reasons I adopted following them as a tour guide.

You can't come this way without stopping at the park/boat landing just south of Simmesport. The view is awing. It would be more awing this time. The Atchafalaya appeared a bit fuller and angrier.





I took several shots of this scene. The truck never moved. I would find out why.

The Atchafalaya is described as "treacherous". That description, at times, is insufficient. On a slow day it carries 1/3rd of the Mississippi load, plus that of its mother, the Red River, and aunts, the Black, Little River and Quachita. And, its cousin's the ...............

I've always gotten a hit off of being close to power, possibly the reason I've been married so long.



I crossed La.1 bridge, very slowly. That was not a good thing. The wind was blowing hard. Most of our big rivers run north to south. The wind blows, usually, on that axis. Riding a motorcycle in a crosswind is easier than holding it up while stopped. The bridge was using only one lane and I was stopped a while, using my legs as outriggers as I held the handlebars in a death grip. If my tentative back had given, neither would have done any good. I was glad when our turn came. Down the the ramp I went, soon turning north on La.418. A sad note, the old sharecropper homes are now gone, all except for one that the land owner kept as a camp. I have pictures of when it was a home. That was also very sad.

Shaking off the melancholy of the moment, I turned up La.15. I felt the ride was now in gear. La.15 is a "trip". I know of no other road that can hand out an initial impression like this one can. Most of the time you ride on top of the Mississippi levee. Riding on the top of any levee is rare these days. Levee Riding use to be the state sport. Equipment needed, a vehicle of some sorts and an ice chest. The game could go on all day. The playing fields were endless.

Next, after crossing the locks that separate the Mississippi from the Atchafalaya, I dropped down off the road into a campground I use as pit stop. A little sign said that it was temporarily closed. I suspect that the Corps felt that the rising water might result in soggy sleeping bags.







Climbing back up the levee, I stopped and took this picture of the 3 remaining supports of the long removed Texas and Pacific bridge that carried the rails which had come north from Lettsworth, passed across Torras Junction, and run through Torras at the water's edge.



I have never ridden La.15 aware of the old railroad bed. It is there and extremely visible. Checking it out as I rode along would add yet another facet to this great La. ride.

Next up would be the AUX, the axillary spillway which was constructed after the 1973 flood. It was "in use".



Just up the road is the old "Old River Control" structure. It was looking tired and shabby.



Were these vultures getting the same feeling?





I worked my way toward the end of the "low sill" structure. I had noticed some streamlets flowing on the dry side and wondered if the Corps was starting to let water through. This is the wet side.



Looking out on Old Man River is a poignant moment.



Take that moment to hum along with Roger McGuinn:

"The river flows
It flows to the sea
Wherever that river goes
That's where I want to be
Flow river flow
Let your waters wash down
Take me from this road
To some other town".

This time the river side of the levee was not my interest. The dry side was. I was now at Black Hawk. A large farm there takes its name. I have shot these old buildings before never realizing what passed just in front of them. What I suspect is that the store appearing building was the Black Hawk depot. Often stores in small settlements would play that part. The power line marks the rail bed.







I dropped down to rail level and shot this at a water crossing.



Next was this. My wife says they are possibly coreopsis, spelling?







The river soon goes one way and 15 the other.



At Deer Park, they would rejoin. Here are a few more pictures from this perch.
Looking south, Wet Side:



Dry Side:



Looking north, Wet Side:



Looking south Dry Side:



Soon I was in Deer Park, actually, it was further than "soon".



I had suspected this.



Those are not twin boat launches. They are roads leading to a community that surrounds a commercial campground.


Looking a little closer, I did actually shoot the campground office. Well, some of it.



On a past trip, I'd found this old steamboat near the campground. I wonder if it was anchored? Now I know how it got "on shore".



Back up on the levee, I rode north. Nearing the next descent from the levee, watching the old rail bed I saw this farm and some interesting out buildings and tank construction. The tanks reminded me of what I'd seen on the T&P stretch from Melville to Simmesport. There had been a similar tank configuration which Everette had recognized as part of an alien landing zone. I don't know where he gets those ideas from? The grassy looking area is the rail bed. Funny how their mark never goes away. Those rails were ripped up almost 70 years ago.








Soon after leaving the farm, I left La.15 which was headed to Ferriday. I'd catch up with it after visiting Vidalia and Natchez. That will be on the next page which I'll get to, probably, tonight, if I'm not in the hospital with my back. If this writing has seemed more drugged out than usual, there's a reason.

Page 2.

Leaving La.15, I turned north on La.131. I was still with the river. There are a couple of plantations along there. Whitehall was impressive.



I've submitted my bill to Dish.



This is for you steam engine enthusiast:



The bell is for those who can't get their kids to come home for supper. Those cement blocks sure do look like they were the base for a tower of some sort. Maybe a water tower? Dr.Baronet?

The next picture I took and took again because of something Dr.Baronet, University of Pecan Island, aka UPI, had pointed out.





It reads, "This gin plant equipped with Continental Lint Cleaners". He had pointed out that the gin at Lewisburg used the same equipment. In the future, hopefully I can get him to do an article on LC's. I may not have enough pages left.

Here's where the wagons were weighed.



Consider yourself lucky to have gotten the last few pictures. The rails to the ferry were just up ahead and I was anxious. I figured the location of the ferry yard would be on private property and be totally inaccessible.

The picture below is not a proposed landing plan in the spirit of "D" Day. It merely is an attempt to show from where I shot the pictures and in what directions I shot them. I am often confusing. I should have left this more unclear. The unknown targets of those unassigned arrows will be shown in a minute. I guess it's also to show you the arrangement of the rails and how it all worked. I got this software for sixty bucks. I got it because City Navigator is junk as far as showing waterways. What I got is priceless.



Arriving at the point where the rails cross the highway, I turned into what is now a campground. The driveway was sitting on the rail bed.

It was a private campground. I knew I'd have trouble if I didn't stop at the office. The lady was nice enough and she knew that the campground was on the old ferry grounds that included a yard.



I was red lining. I looked at the GPS, then I looked at the surroundings, trying to put the two together. The road curved around and ended pointed toward the bridge up river. I figured I was at the switch where the engine would pull forward and back the cars onto the ferry. That is the yellow post at left.



This is a better shot of the park and back section.



Next I'd try to find anything on this side that looked like it was part of the operation. I saw nothing, but that means nothing since I'm pretty blind. Next, I'd zoom to the other shore, constantly trying to imagine the past. Remember, the river is extremely high and there may be a whole layer of what I was looking at submerged. I think that either its location is underwater or has been destroyed by the excavation that is going on. This may be the last you see of the remnants of the ferry operation near the bridge, where the old software shows the landing point. I'm convinced that the excavation has taken the landing area.

Here's the map.



This is near the bridge, the approximate location of the landing. You can see that it has been destroyed. The fine black line marks the existing rails that go down to the lumber yard and south. They were the highest level of the operation.



This shows the second tier of rails where the pull out engine would have backed the cars. I think there was a rail configuration where an engine could pull around a line of parked cars. The switchback is seen in front of the lumber yard.



The rails continue south of the lumber yard where the 9 car sections could be reassembled there and drug in either direction. Accept all this as speculation.



And here's the end of the switch back.



Of course, the rails are a drawing. Without an imagination, you can't do this.

I was a little unhappy about the excavation and the fact that I couldn't imagine the set up looking at it from across the river. Having time to study it, I think I'm close. I went on to take some non railroad related pictures.







I decided to go over to Natchez. I shouldn't have since time was flying. I'll have to go back. Exiting the campground, what should I see? I wonder where they got all those rail ties?



Here's a plug for them since they were nice. Slots run 40 plus bucks per night. Historic Natchez is 5 minutes away, the casino, 2 minutes. Not bad considering the location. Then you can probably hear tugs all night. Or sit out by the river and imagine the past. An evening of river listening and watching would be a hoot.



The way west awaited.



I tried the hardest to get down to the incline level.



I either ran into danger or ominous signs. Here's one last map of the arrangement. The dotted line is where I was able to go.



I was teased.



The rail goddess was being coy.





I heard the ferry landing.



Here's the ferry on the Louisiana side.



This is from "Trains Magazine" as were the pictures.

From Shreveport, L&A trains officially listed in the timetables as “Texas Fast Freights” carried the tonnage to the banks of the Mississippi River at Vidalia, La.

At Vidalia, the steam tugs and transfer barges of the Natchez & Louisiana Transfer Co. (a subsidiary of the Missouri Pacific) ferried the cars across the river and handed them over to another MP family member, the Natchez & Southern Ry. The N&S carried the cars from the river’s edge up a 4 percent grade and two switchbacks to the top of the bluffs and its connection with the Natchez Route’s easternmost partner, the Mississippi Central.

The N< Co. and the N&S Ry. built the Natchez tracks and loading dock in 1900. For most of the Natchez Route years, the stern wheel towboat James Y. Lockwood pushed a nine-car capacity barge named Baysinger II. The operation was modernized in 1961, with a new diesel towboat, the Natchez, and in 1962 a higher capacity barge was purchased. These served until ferry service was discontinued in 1982.



Page 3

On the last page our hero was poised at the red light above the Natchez to Vidalia Mississippi River Bridge. Point to take: There was never a N to VMR Railroad Bridge, so don't get caught with that trivia question like what happened to me. Oh, you don't know about the game Train Trivia? Get with it.



Across the bridge he carefully rode, acknowledging the wind and different styles of driving displayed in this no-man's land between the states. These places scream out, "Be yourself!". So if you really want to know a person's personality, ride with them across a bridge between two states. Our hero was the timid person going 40 in the passing lane, away from the rail. He tells me he never understood the finger gesture imitating the letter "I".

Arriving in Sweet Home Louisiana, a memorial picture of the Art Deco designed state image was in order. These are rare pieces of art and a proud reflection of times past. I just noticed that the state image is on the corner of Magnolia Street and US 84. How fitting. The Magnolia is our state tree as well as that of Mississippi.





Next was to investigate the tracks in Vidalia. Could a station be found? Reflecting, it seems that a station, if there was one, would have been at the ferry landing, for several reasons. One would be that the landing was on high ground and why should there be multiple properties? Nevertheless, an inspection was done, not having thought much in transit.



The rails were seen, but as in most tracking the tracks pursuits, less than interesting pictures were taken.

Yes, you are right, there's the bed in front of the warehouse. Way to go!!



Better sit down, here come some great ROW shots.





As far as RR stuff goes, that's it for Vidalia. Everett said, suddenly there is an eerie quite, more on what he said later.

Vidalia is famous for more than onions. Now you know more than most.

Exiting Vidalia on hot and busy US 84, aka The Camino Real (look it up), the rail bed, visually, was easy to follow. Railroad landmarks, on the other hand, were few. This loading ramp was it for a ways.



Next stop, Ferriday. Ferriday is a mother load of history. Read this.
I have copied it since it is too valuable to lose. It can be read HERE. For now, clicking the link will be easier. Otherwise, you will have to click each segment to enlarge it to where it is legible. The article segments are pictures and like all pictures you see here, the larger versions are accessible by clicking what you see, which are in essence thumbnails of the original shot. Just click the damn things or better yet, click the link, what I told you to do in the first place. Geezus, you're worse than talking to a Democrat.

There is stuff below the reprint.


































I have the FAIR book. It is a winner. I got mine for 25 bucks on Amazon. Lately it's running for 35. Demand? On the next page will be my pictures and more on Ferriday. Here's a map of the rail situation. I totally blew it. I missed "Milltown" and a probable depot location. I got turned north, thinking I was following the L&A. I was in the rear of the old downtown which seemed the place to be. I did get some good shots, but, I'll have to go back. (sound familiar, Andy?). Here's the map, yellow line is where I went. More later, the real world is calling.




Page 4



I forgot to get a shot of the Delta Blues Museum this time around. I wanted to get that out first before I forget to tell you what I forgot. Also, I witnessed some black kids hassling an old one legged black man. Being politically correct, never, Ferriday seems to be the poster child for our failed welfare system. You know the details. The police showed up in a heartbeat. Social comment out of the way, back to railroads.

Ferriday was a crossroads. I took a right when I should have taken a left. That put me in the old downtown. I like old so that worked.





At the end of Ferriday St is La.568 aka 1st Street. The rails north had run alongside it. All the traditional evidence was there. Gorgeous.



Next was this place. I'm tempted to say it could have been a depot, I'll show you why I say that. It had a huge covered platform. It very much reminded me of the depot at Church Point, La.



These are pictures of the platform. Conscious of the thousands of railroad modelers and architectural historians that read this rag, this Bud's for you, Bud.



Note the wilted ceiling fan blades to the left. There were desk along the right side. Maybe outdoor concerts were held here after the demise of the rails and continued until the fans wilted. Northeast Louisiana gets hot.



I think I'm seeing what might have been where the scales were located?



Here's the first place I showed you from the front, taken from the second place I showed you.



This is a picture of the front of the second place I showed you (the platform building)



Across the highway was this, what I believe was a grocery store.



Zooming inside, these messages were painted on the back wall. If not a grocery store, these messages might be considered troubling.



"Quality at a lower price", an idea whose time has passed.



Time to shake the blues.

BB to the rescue.



AT:



I wonder?

Here's more looking around at the corner of Mickey Gilley St. and 1st Street.



Myer Discount House?





Feeling badly about not showing you the museum, here it is. Yea, you caught me it's
The Delta Music Museum. The Delta Blues Museum is in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, pretty close to being on the same latitude which may be meaningful to some.
OK, the La. Delta and the Miss. Delta, are pretty much the same, very bluesful.



One more look downtown. The above shot and this one were taken on an earlier visit.




The Concordia Drugstore is gone. Serving out Green Stamps seems not to have worked.
Check the second picture on this page.

Page 5

Click the maps and pictures if you want them enlarged.

The following paragraph is from a reader:

"Steve, you must be typing with one hand and eating with the other, or have been VERY busy the last few days. Many thanks from the expatriates of north and east Louisiana for a job well done at pointing out past history".

That's why this ride report will be finished and why there are typos. Sometimes the keyboard smokes and smells like burnt toast.

The rain storm hit, I'm down from the ladder and have a choice. I can take a nap or keep those expatriates smiling. I can handle yawning for a while.

Outside of Ferriday it is flat. The cool spell was appreciated because in the summer this area becomes a frying pan. I am almost certain that this lowland leading into Lake Catahoula was an old route of the Mississippi River, the one that skirted Ville Platte, Lafayette and Cade.

I continued to chug along. The abandoned rail bed was to my left (south) I saw a building where "8" is on the map. It reminded me of the Red River and Gulf depot at LeCompte. I think it was the foliage around it that I found similar being that I couldn't see the building. I often start my assumptions early. It was near the rails so it had to be a depot.





I should have stopped, but the miles and time were adding up and I figured I still had a bunch of miles left and little time. Next trip, yea right.

Next was Frogmore Plantation. It is open for tours. It was a cotton plantation. I covered it on the old site, but that's gone. Here are a few shots of the grounds and big house.





About this time in the ride I started feeling a little down about the lack of inspiration. I hadn't realized I'm missed so much at Ferriday or I would have been really depressed. At least I could see the dead grass where the rail bed had been and an occasional bump on the few gravel roads leaving US 84. Then, POW! The rail gods knew I was hurting and let a bolt of railroad evidence fly to Earth.



I passed it and alarms went off. I had learned while following the S&P north out of Gueydan that there were instances where these rail fossils were perpetuated, locked in cement, safe from the ripper's crane. There it was, right off US 84. I shot about 20 pictures of it. I figured another angle would be appreciated.



Here's where to stop, bring plenty of film.



I was nearing Jonesville. Here in Louisiana we have Jonesville, Jonesboro, Winnfield, and Winnsborro. I have yet to visit Winnsborro. The similarities confuse me constantly. You know how aggravating it is when a disliked song sticks in your head all day. That's close to the aggravation I have with those names. I know, too much information.

Jonesville would be a test. Of course I failed to check where the rails had crossed the Black River. I just assumed it was near 84. I was wrong. As you can see the rails veered south. Did I even look for a possible depot, no. Again I got sucked off into the old downtown, but I did find where the old 84 ferry had been. Of course that was a complete accident and only realized a few minutes ago. That's the problem with far away eyes.

Pull out your crying towel, the old Black River span is going down, maybe. Anyway, a crew was working on it. There is a new bridge. Unless it is to be used for some other purpose, it's gone. In this poor area, I can see no government entity taking it on.







Hey, you still have that crying towel out? (I'd use mine, but....that stinking old stiff thing is still lying on the floor next to the pile of beer cans and empty potato chip bags, yea, the one with the Saints logo on it). It seems I really blew Jonesville just like Ferriday. I ride an old beat you to hell motorcycle almost 150 miles to investigate a couple of tiny towns using high tech equipment which has all the ability I lack, and I didn't think to look at it. I may resign. When you become delusional and can't think straight, like Speechless Pelosi, you should resign.



The rails had come to a wye. What had been in that open space? I'd say a mill, but I have reservations. From the wye the rails had proceeded almost to the Little River. You can see where I went around in circles instead of studying the GPS which has this same map on it. I fear I'm losing it. I don't drink enough water and I was probably dehydrated. Whew, finding excuses is getting hard. I'm stumbling over my words. Where are my notes? Did Barack take them?

In a crisis I shoot the water tower and come up with some little known useless bit of history. Jonesville is named for Charles Jones, who, by the way, shot General Liddell in a duel. Jones was killed several days later by a friend of Liddell's. Liddell surrendered the last Confederate fort east of the Mississippi at Mobile. Liddell had also been in Taylor's command at Mansfield. You see how all this ties together?



I now see the water tower had something else written on it .......lock. Maybe "Last one out of town, lock the door". That was terrible, I will now submit a pre-apology. It's like I'll be sorry if I have to be. Come on, how many times have you done pre's in your mind, just in case?

Ferriday and Jonesville seemed sadly similar.



Foster Walgreen Agency / Prescriptions Filled.......





Not that far off 84, near the library, I found this.



Being that everything around was flat, I believe this is what the vague marker was referring to.



Putting white cemeteries atop Indian mounds seems to have been a practice. I think flooding was a problem and floating caskets are hard to round up, don't we know. The Indian mound near Frogmore has one on top of it. Hope everyone is getting along. There I go. I really don't know if the mounds were burial sites or trash piles. I think they were trash piles. You hear about old broken stuff being found in them all the time.









What's the problem with those pictures? What do you get from them? I'm a little opinionated so I'll cool it. I don't think people who do informative travelogues should rattle off their personal agendas.

Looking at the map, check the red arrow. I went through the "seawall" and was presented with water. Turning around there were these murals on the wall's water side. It is called 4 Rivers Park. It was pretty much submerged beneath those 4 rivers. The Black, which starts here, is made up of what's left of the Little River, which is diverted up the road, the Quachita and Tensas Rivers. The Quachita and Tensas are no creeks. The Little varies seasonally but, it, like I said, was diverted. What you are really looking at is Lake Little River, a bay of the Black, to get technical. So forget about the Little River being a part of the Black. I know I just save myself a note from the Love Boat where Fred and Mz Panhead are this weekend. Oh, I didn't tell you. That's another story.







This seems to be of the north side of the Little River. My map calls this community "Trinity". Hey, you remember that movie, "They Call Me Trinity"? Pretty funny. I'm just guessing, I don't remember a thing about it.



This is a picture of where I was. I believe the road going into the river was not a boat launch, but the ferry landing for El Camino Real, US 84.



All of theses pictures were done as if looking from the east bank of the Black River. Panning south, this is the next group of buildings.







Maybe that's the boat launch. CLICK HERE FOR REQUIRED READING PAGE
Page 6

You need to be read this before we get to Jena, Good Pine and Trout.


At the bottom is some little known info which ties the LongLeaf mill, aka Southern Forest Heritage Museum with all of this. If you want to see history, go there. It will make all of this stuff you have to imagine, imaginable.

Now to our feature presentation.

Jack M.Willis is the writer. He may still work for or worked for the Jena Times-Olla Tullos Signal Newspaper in Jena, Louisiana. "Grass Roots and Cockleburs" is probably his column. He seems to be, or was, the paper's historian. His information is fascinating.

Submitted by Jack Willis
Source: From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Grass Roots and
Cockleburrs
A History of Trout, Louisiana -Revised 10-04

Part I

Trout, Louisiana is a mere umbra of its former years when it was the
opulent, crown jewel of the Buchanan Lumbering Dynasty, with it's location
lying west of Jena, LA on a "dogleg" on US Highway 84, and this is probably
the only highway feature of its kind found on the whole stretch of roadway
between Sacramento, California and its terminus at Augusta, Georgia. This
particular section of the highway was built to dovetail with streets already
laid out by the Buchanan engineer Mr. Herbert N. Tannehill in 1907. Though
the original mill has been shut down for over 70 years, a good number of the
old, identical, gray hued houses still occupy their ordained station in
life.

Around 1895, on horseback (there were no roads, only trails and bridle
paths) William Buchanan formerly of Stamps, Arkansas had ridden in to what
was then Catahoula Parish, scouting out a vast yellow pine forest he had had
knowledge some years earlier. Prior to the invasion of the tracks of the
Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad, several tribes of Native Americans occupied
the area, with one historic account stating that two different chiefs ruled
the tribes and that the two chiefs had died on the same day.


Buchanan was bent on expanding the empire he had begun in Stamps,Arkansas starting with the Bodcaw milling operation he had purchased from C.T. Crowell officially on January 14,1889, expanding southward to Springhill, Louisiana (formerly Barefoot, LA) where he established the Pine Woods Lumber Company in 1894. The next move some 30 miles south to the town of Minden, Louisiana was in 1901, and a year later his "logging line" chugged into Winnfield, Louisiana, and took time on his way to Trout to absorb Grant Timber and Manufacturing Co. interests near Selma, Louisiana. In a span of fourteen years Buchanan had established five major lumber mills across the Deep South, followed two years later adding the Good Pine mill and eight years later the Tall Timber mill was added to the fold.


The main reason for locating a new mill in Trout, was the availability
of water, the prime prerequisite for lumber milling operations; that and
timber. Trout was located geographically in the center of a Mother Lode of
virgin, longleaf pine timber. The mill name came from its location on the
headwaters of Trout Creek with this stream probably having been so named by
J.P. Ward when he stopped off and settled downstream at White Sulphur
Springs around 1830, but actual construction of the mill didn't start until
sometime in 1903. Buchanan, in making his initial long range plans,
envisioned taking 70 years to "cut out" the virgin longleaf forests, and
accomplishing this venture from the Trout mill only.


The Best Laid Plans-All of this long range planning was nullified by the
Louisiana Legislature in1905, with this legislative body deciding to from
extract something from the timber companies currently ravishing Louisiana's
forests raw materials, and shipping the finished products out of state for
huge profits. The imposition of ad valorem tax laws would necessitate the
later construction of Good Pine and Tall Timber mills in1906 and 1912
respectively to shorten the taxation period.


The milling process had to be established first, because it had to be in
operation to furnish lumber with which to build the businesses and houses
necessary for the labor forces to function. Mr. Herbert N. Tannehll drove
the first stake to initiate mill construction. He was on loan from the L.&
A. Railroad, an operation totally owned by William Buchanan himself and
stayed until the planer mill operation was finished, doing all the
engineering for the company.


When the Trout Creek Lumber Company opened the company store/commissary, Ned Kiser was the store manager; Charley North was the office manager, a Swede from Wisconsin by the name of Babstubner was the mill foreman, and Ben Ezell was deputy sheriff.


The Trout Post Office was established in the back of the store and a
Miss Tucker was the Post Mistress, Dr. I.N. Adams was the first company
doctor and Mr. W.S. Ellard from Stamps, Arkansas relocated to Trout to
assume the position of log scalar.


The first building erected in Trout was the train depot, because it was
necessary to have as a staging area for mill equipment arriving by train
daily. Some day's three trips were made to and from Paxton, Louisiana at the
juncture with the Southern Pacific line, where materials were offloaded from
trains running from Kansas City to New Orleans.


The mill proper was completed and ready to go on line in 1904.The first
two carloads of mules were purchased in St. Louis, Missouri in December of
1904 for rail shipment to Trout. J. A. Buchanan of Texarkana was manager of
the mill. William Buchanan, his valued brother-in-law W.T. Ferguson, his
brother J. A., and the Brown brothers, Thomas and William, were the
principle owners of the foundling lumbering empire. Two "flatheads" named
Masters and Warner started logging operations in the spring of 1905, with
the felling of the first tree; the name flathead being derived from a pine
borer with a seemingly flat head, which was indigenous to southern forests.


As of 1890 when the partnership was formed, William Buchanan was only 40
years old, and the team now in 1905 was on the threshold of what William
Buchanan had been laying the groundwork for, for some 15 years, and at this
time Sam Finley and Jim Kitchens were brought on board to operate the mill.


The Trout mill only sawed one log at a time, forming a single line of
different phases until the ending up with the finished product. The most
important pieces of equipment were the carriage and the band saw, which
worked against the carriage and was called the "head rig" because they
worked along side of each other to produce slabs that would ultimately be
converted to boards down the line.


Immediate construction was started on the planer operation and dry kilns. The kilns were huge concrete buildings with miles of switchback steam pipes on the floor levels and ceilings, and when lumber would come off the "green chain", it was stacked upon a railway-type car, rolled into the kiln where it would bake, sometimes for days. When it was deemed sufficiently dried and appearing almost scorched, it would then be transported over to the planing operation. After four months of hard work the planer mill was completed and the company began to manufacturing and shipping lumber.


The mill had enjoyed its successes for about 15 months, when suddenly
one night the whole operation caught fire and burning to the ground on June
8th, 1906. It was hastily rebuilt on the original foundation, and in about
four months, operations were begun anew.


A turpentine distillery was constructed about a mile north of where the
town would begin to materialize about a year later, with the Buchanan
interests operating it until about1909 when it was deemed not economically
feasible, shut down and dismantled. People residing on the north side of
Trout during it's operation stated that when the wind was right, the fumes
from the distillery would "curl the hair in your nose."

GR&C-6/13/01
Rev. 4/14/04 Jack Morgan Willis


Newspapers: A History of Trout, Louisiana -Revised 10-04; Part II,
LaSalle Parish, La.
Submitted by Jack Willis
Date: 16 Oct 2004
Source: From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Grass Roots and
Cockleburrs
Date: 04 Oct 2004

A History of Trout, Louisiana -Revised 10-04

Part II

Trout Creek Lumber Company cranked up their milling operations officially with the felling of the first log on March 01,1905 by "flatheads" Masters and Warner,with the first log being sawn the same day in commemoration. When finished lumber was being produced according to the dictates of management, the powers-that-be then initiated efforts to fabricate a company town, with company engineer H. N. Tannehill laying out the town proper, and crews of craftsmen supervised by one John Casey erected the buildings.


In the first consignment there were 60 houses constructed for white residents, whose only condition to live in one of the houses was that breadwinner be employed at the mill. A company house with electricity and water cost $5.00 a month, no taxes. Standard housing rental was $3.00, and on up to the most expensive at $10.00. This village would eventually swell to 108 dwellings, a Company Commissary, a Masonic Lodge, a Methodist Church, a combination Doctor's Office and barbershop, U.S. Post Office and a Hotel.


John Casey had also constructed the Methodist Episcopalian Church in 1906 and first pastor was W.F. Roberts. A painting contractor from Monroe, La. named Turrentine painted all of the buildings. The Colored quarters were
located directly opposite the mill site for easy access of the occupants with 108 houses constructed for them, along with a hotel and for some unknown reason, management decreed that all the Colored quarters buildings were to be painted a dull red.

The mill town of Trout was literally carved out of the yellow pine forest. About the only description that suited this first town in the area, was that it was practical from a company viewpoint. The dwellings were all one story, with 12-foot ceilings and the reason being was that the mill didn't saw any lumber shorter than 12 feet, thus by sealing up the wall with 12 foot long boards, this saved sawing off the already uniform length boards to obtain a shorter ceiling, resulting in speedier construction, and besides, higher ceilings were supposed to make the houses cooler. If you believe this bit of trivia ask some of the former residents who laid up under the breeze-stifling mosquito bars night after night, with the perspiration rolling down their person.

The company houses, as a rule, all followed the same floor plan, with all being what was known as "shotgun style," because you could have fired a gun down the hallway in the center of the house, and hit someone sitting on the throne in the back yard toilet. Each house faced a street and backed up on an alley, with an outhouse in the rear, next to the alley.


There was very little effort to maintain drainage of the town, so when there were excessive rains, water stood everywhere resulting in swarms of mosquitoes in spring, summer and fall. There were no screens on the windows, but the commissary sold mosquito bars by the dozens, at a price.


There was absolutely nothing romantic about mill town life because management built the towns adjacent to the mills for easy access; this also brought an introduction to noise, fumes and debris from the saws, boilers and smokestacks, with some form of dust permeating everything. Then, there were the inevitable steam whistles dictating your every waking moment, and would strike terror in every resident's heart when at night the whistles and bells were used to warn of fire nearby.


The Masonic Hall featured some of Construction Foreman John Casey's finest workmanship featuring a huge Easter Star emblem over six feet in diameter emblazoned in the floor of one section of the top floor which was a work of art. Casey used a variety of indigenous woods with different textures and hues to provide startling contrasts of the Easter Star hallmarks vivid colors. National and State office holders of the Organization, on visitations to the Hall, were over whelmed at the obviously excellent artwork and craftsmanship involved.


The year 1907 was when management and labor got it all together. The labor force which worked in the logging woods were white, illiterate, local family men for the most part with their work uniform consisting of a floppy, broad-brimmed hat, overalls and brogan shoes, all purchased at the company commissary. They took a bath in summer every Saturday night in the millpond, whether they needed it or not. From one "flathead's" own description, he related that by the end of the week their overalls were so stiff with the rich resin off the crosscut saws, they would stand in the corner where you could just jump into them every morning and were also so slick that "a cat couldn't climb a britches leg." The company's work force, whether at the mill or in the logging woods, had to be in place when the whistle blew at 7:00 a.m. to begin a 10-hour day. They had an hour off for dinner and then worked until 6:00 p.m. Some of the logging crews had to roll out on pre-dawn trains pulled by slow, powerful Shay locomotives.

Often the woman of the house often getting up when the alarm went off at 4:30 in the morning and she'd have to get the wood stove fired up to bake two big pans of biscuits. Then she'd fry bacon and eggs,for breakfast, and for dinner she'd put bacon, eggs, biscuits and some cane syrup in a lard bucket so the man of the house could set out walking, or riding to the rail yard. Some crews had to travel from 20 to 30 miles, which necessitated riding a bench in boxcar. When they got in at night, often hours after dark, they then had to walk home to get a few hours rest and then get do it all over again the next day, six days a week. Pairs of "flatheads" were required to fell 10 trees per day with these trees having to be cut up into logs 12 and 22 feet long to be hauled or towed to rail side by the teamsters.


The teamsters were made up of two different classes. One was the muleskinners; the other group was the bull punchers. Mules were used mostly in the hills because they were faster, but oxen with their wide tired eight-wheel wagons proved their worth in the swampy areas of the Buchanan holdings.


The loading of the one-ton logs at rail side onto the railroad cars was where life got dangerous and many men were hurt, maimed for life or even lost their lives. When a salesman of flatcar-mounted cranes asked one of the company executives if the purchase of one of their devices wouldn't be better for the company? He was said to have replied to the salesman, "Hell No! That crane wouldn't trade at the commissary!" End of conversation.


The loggers, the teamsters and the loaders were the main components of the woods work force. To aid and abet these laborers were the rail gang that maintained the tracks and a small horde of youngsters that scurried around the logging operations carrying water to the workers, and gathering pine knots for fuel for the locomotives.


Life rolled on in the town of Trout. In 1907 the first school was established on a hill back of Trout and the Superintendent was J.P.A. Whatley, and the first teacher was Commodore Walters. Dr. T.M. Butler, formerly of Centerville (Summerville) came on board as another company Doctor. From 1907 to 1908 a Mr. Lynn was the office manager, then Charley North came back, and left again, and a Mr. O.F. Wyman took his place


J.A. Buchanan retired in 1910 and W.J. Buchanan became manager of the mill. In 1912 a picture show was established in the Masonic Hall, and was managed by Ben Casey. It only operated for a few years. During the First World War, nation wide business was at a standstill and labor was very hard to obtain.


In twenty-five short years, the Trout Creek Lumber Company had more or less cut out their share of the virgin pine forest from which the company ventures successes had been carved. Records indicate that in the operational time period the mill had sawn over seven hundred million board feet of lumber. On the morning of March 1st, 1905 when the first log was sawn, operations had been almost continuous until October 4th, 1929, and the company had employed from 350 to 400 men in the various departments. The last whistle was blown at the mill the next day, which was more or less a ceremonial rite, on Saturday morning October 5,1929, less than a month before the Stock Market Crash. The Trout Creek Lumber Company mill had started work on a Friday and finished on a Friday.


The advent of the closing of a mill was nothing new to the Buchanan hierarchy. At this time William Buchanan had already been dead some six years. One company official recalled that when the Minden mill had been consumed by fire in 1918, it fell his lot to go into the Big Man's office and inform him of the disaster. He knocked on the door and gained admittance, and told Buchanan the bad news. Buchanan looked at him for a moment and calmly replied, "Son, that sometimes happens," and turned back around to his desk and resumed his study of a ledger.

The virgin long leaf pine forests William Buchanan had once ridden through on horseback were no more...

GR&C-6/20/01
Rev.10/04 Jack Morgan Willis

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The following is an application to include the Good Pine Lumber Company Building in to the National Register of Historic Buildings. Included is more history.

Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance

The Good Pine Lumber Company Building is located at the center of the rural community of Good Pine, which is near the parish seat of Jena. Once a thriving lumber town, Good Pine is now reduced to a scattering of considerably altered workers' cottages set amid rolling piney woods. The only other reminder of this early twentieth century boom period is the Good Pine Lumber Company Building itself.

The Good Pine Lumber Company Building is a frame, rectangular, hip roof structure which is raised approximately 18 inches on brick piers. It is almost encircled by a square post gallery, the rear portion of which was enclosed in the 1920's The five bay front facade is symmetrical. The transomed front door leads to a central hall which has offices on each side. One of the rear rooms has two large built in safes. The interiors feature narrow gauge wainscoting, cornerblock doorways, transoms, and large, four panel doors.

The building is simply detailed on the exterior. The only noteworthy decorative feature is the set of three scallop shingled gables on the front and sides.

Assessment of Integrity:

The only changes in the building since construction have been the enclosure of the rear gallery and the installation of fiberboard ceilings in some of the rooms. These changes should be regarded as minor.

Summary Paragraph:

The Good Pine Lumber Company Building (1906) is a single story, galleried, frame office building which is set in the piney hills of central LaSalle Parish at the center of the rural community of Good Pine. The building has been altered very little, and consequently there is no integrity problem.

Specific dates 1906
Builder/Architect Builder: Good Pine Lumber Company

Statement of Significance (in one paragraph)
Criterion A

The Good Pine Lumber Company Building is locally significant in the area of industry because it served as the headquarters for the Good Pine and Tall Timber Lumber Companies, two of the parish's three early twentieth century lumber companies. As such, it is an important visual reminder of an extremely significant industry in LaSalle Parish's history. In fact, it is the only extant structure associated with the industry in the parish believed to be eligible for the Register. There are surviving workers' cottages, but they have been significantly altered The sawmills themselves have disappeared, as have other subsidiary buildings such as the commissary. In any case, the lumbering industry per se did not leave many visual reminders. Most timber settlements were little more than movable camps which were dismantled once the timber was cut. Finally, after reviewing the recent comprehensive survey of LaSalle Parish's historic structures, the State Historic Preservation Office concluded that only four properties were potentially eligible for the Register. The Good Pine Lumber Company Building is one of these.

Lumbering was the most important industry in early twentieth century LaSalle Parish. There were three companies operating in the parish: Trout Creek Lumber Company, Trout, 1905; Good Pine Lumber Company, Good Pine, 1906; and the Tall Timber Lumber Company, Good Pine, 1913 These three mills were owned by William Buchanan, one of the state's biggest timber barons. (A recent issue of Forests and People, a publication of the Louisiana Forestry Association, describes Buchanan as "the biggest giant of them all in Arkansas and Louisiana.") At one time he owned seven mills, six of which were in Louisiana.

Buchanan organized the Good Pine Lumber Company in 1906 and the nominated structure was built to serve as offices and headquarters. In 1913 the Tall Timber Company was established and began to share office space in the building with the Good Pine Company. The nominated structure served this function for the Good Pine Company until 1935, when the firm's sawmill burned and the company ceased operations, and for the Tall Timber Company until 1941, when its mill was torn down. With the consolidation of area lumber companies into the Bodcaw Company, the building continued to serve as an office until 1959, when the company relocated. It is presently owned by the LaSalle Museum Association, whose members are currently transforming it into a parish museum.

The boom period experienced by the lumber industry in LaSalle Parish (and the entire state) was short lived. Production had peaked by c. 1913, and by the mid-1930's, the greater portion of the timber resources had been depleted. The Good Pine Lumber Company Building stands as a direct visual link with this important chapter in the parish's history.

Bibliography

LaSalle Parish Vertical File, Louisiana Room, Middleton Library, LSU BR.

Comprehensive Statewide Survey, LaSalle Parish, 1981. This document is on file at the Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office.

Caldwell, John M. "The Forest of the Vintage: A Geography of Industrial Lumbering in North Central Louisiana, 1890 1920." M.A. thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1975.

Kerr, Ed. "The History of Forestry in Louisiana." Louisiana Forestry Association, July, 1981.

"The Bodcaw Story: Energy, Imagination, Enterprise." Jena Times, June 30, 1976.

Old photograph of Good Pine Lumber Company Commissary, Jena Times, June 30, 1976.

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Submitted by Jack Willis
Date: 11 Oct 2004
Source: From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Grass Roots and
Cockleburrs
Date: 25 Aug 2004

Early Railroad Why Fors?

When William Buchanan started his timber acquisition march southwards from Stamps, Arkansas in the late 1890's, he was one of the mechanization moguls who recognized the importance of the railroad as the prime source of transport to insure success in the lumbering business at that time. After Buchanan first got his mills up and running at Stamps, Springhill and Minden he was tired of the old outdated locomotives and poorly maintained tracks he had inherited from the purchase of the Stamps, Arkansas mill, so he personally took on the task of vigorously upgrading what would become the Louisiana & Arkansas rail system. In fact, he was so in love with the construction of the L & A that he considered his sawmills of secondary
importance, and even decided to oversee the renovation of the old line and the laying of the new rails himself, and becoming a familiar sight at end of track, shouting orders from raised windows of his plush rail car named the "Catahoula". Buchanan was considered a miser in other aspects of his Timber Dynasty, but when it came to railroad construction and maintenance of his rail line and equipment, money was no object, resulting in the line's estimated worth in 1910 at over $10,000,000.


He might have been considered a horse's "arse" by his peers, but at his
death in 1923 the L & A was the best, most profitable, and most efficient
rail systems in the Deep South, and other railroad magnets like J.P. Morgan
and Jay Gould journeyed south to study his modus operandi.


Buchanan constructed one of the most elaborate, expensive machine shops,
complete with a roundhouse and turntable, in the United States. The Stamps
shop, by utilization of the turntable, could turn a locomotive and position
it over different bays where any and all mechanical problems could be
properly addressed.


Mr. Herbert Tannehill was Chief Construction Engineer until the line reached
Trout, and after laying out the mill town, Mr. Tannehill no longer wanted to
be dominated by the overbearing Buchanan clan so he simply quit their
employ. Needing to extend the line on to Jonesville, thus opening up a venue
to eastern markets, he contacted the Missouri Pacific Railroad Line
Officials and procured an engineer on loan in the person of Mr. E.J.
Lassiter, Sr.


When the line was completed into Jena with the first train arriving in what was old Jena on December 31st, 1903, there was no depot and when attempts were made to purchase land on which to erect one on, land sales were denied the company. The stand taken by the good citizens of Old Jena was because that they were fearful that establishment of a depot in their elitist neighborhood would draw hobos, bums, and a generally undesirable class of secondary rabble to their community and they simply wouldn't stand for it. The company simply moved back up the line about a mile and hastily erected a depot at what would become New Jena in order to have an embarkation point for the first passenger train, which arrived in New Jena on May 1st, 1904. By 1907 the line had traversed the Brushley swamp east of Rhinehart, La and had been laid into Jonesville to tie into a pre-existing line called the New Orleans & Northwestern Railway.


This tie-in enabled William Buchanan to then utilize his connection on the western end to the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern railroads to give valuable access to both northern and eastern markets. In 1917 he shipped out enough board feet of lumber from the Good Pine Lumber Company mill to construct the complete town of Lincoln, Nebraska.


When his engineers arrived in Jonesville with the L & A, they found that the NO& N R.R. was a narrow gauge line with the smaller rails only three feet apart, but not to be dismayed, they sent the line locomotives back up to the Stamps machine shop where the steam engines and rail cars were fitted with an extra set of wheels to enable them to travel the US standard gauge line with a 4 feet, 8. 5 inches width between the L& A rails and then transition to the narrower, smaller 3.0 width rails coming from Natchez.


Many questions have been raised as to why railroads being built today in the US use the odd measurement distance between rails utilizing the US Standard gauge and here is the reason why. The roads are built that way because that's the way they were built in England, and the people over there who built pre-rail-trams ways used that spacing, and these English émigrés to the US used the same jigs and tools that were used for building wagons in the US as they had in their native England. If the English wagon makers had tried to utilize any other spacing the wheels would not have followed in the ruts first made by the chariots of Imperial Rome during Julius Caesar's rule of Britannia.


The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications of a Roman war chariot. So the next time you wonder why some horse's "arse" came up with such an oddball measurement,it's because Roman war chariots were built just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses.


And you've been thinking all this time that being a HORSE'S ARSE was not important, but William Buchanan would have probably argued in defense of that calling.

GR&C (8-25-04) JMW



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Early Railroads Built for Mills
Tremont operations supported by T&G Railroad in NE Louisiana

By JACK M. WILLIS
Correspondent

In 1901 Robert H. Jenks of Cleveland, Ohio, had acquired lands west of the Ouachita River, in north central Louisiana, which were estimated to eventually produce 600,000,000 board feet of Longleaf yellow pine lumber. To get the timber to a sawmill for processing, one had to have a railroad.

The late Lucious Beebe was the creator of railfans, i.e., people who devour every fact they can glean about historic railroads, mostly the big, famous cross country lines (the all powerful trunk lines with four way traffic lanes and many vice-presidents). But, he chose almost methodically, to tragically overlook until the 1940s, the myriad of short line railroads that criss-crossed between the big main lines. If the cross country lines were the main arteries of the national transportation body, then the short lines were the feeder arteries and veins.

Southern forests had remained comparatively untouched until the northern forest had been depleted in the 1880s. Small quantities of Louisiana timber had been harvested and processed, but only from forest lands bordering waterways. This began to change dramatically with the northern demand for forest resources from the south, and by the end of the 1920s railroads had been built into every nook and cranny of the state. They were necessary to furnish timber to the many mills springing up.

The virgin pine trees, which were so abundant, were centuries old. They only grew at a circumference growth of 1/4 inch per year. One report stated that to furnish the Tremont mill at Eros it took the timber from a forty-acre tract to operate the mill for a 24-hour shift. This enormous demand for timber necessitated short line railroads in profusion. Building a rail line was no easy task, as Jenks so found out. Robert L. Stevens had designed the iron rail in the 1830s, and he is also credited with perfecting the practice of attaching the rails to the ties by means of spikes. Steel rails were perfected during the Southern Struggle for Independence. They were stronger and more durable; thus trains could haul heavier loads. This art of rail laying had been perfected during the logging boom, which was responsible for gutting the forests of the northern tier of the United States.

When William Buchannan began his move southward from Stamps, Arkansas, the Missouri Pacific railroad loaned a Field Superintendent to the Louisiana & Arkansas in the person of E. J. Lassiter, Sr. The northern tycoons were ready and able to furnish such engineering expertise because they wanted to get the finished timber products to market, and get paid for the transport of it.

Actually, the lumbering entrepreneurs had no recourse but to build railroads. After all, they had fortunes tied up in prime real estate. Virgin pine timberlands could be had in 1906 for $14 an acre. By 1919 price of the same type of land had risen to almost $58 an acre, and by 1920 the going price was up to $88 per acre. The investments were apparently worth it. From 1902 to 1935 one big lumber producer shipped an estimated seven billion board feet of lumber, all by rail line.

Recognizing that other timber barons were moving to secure the northern markets, Robert H. Jenks was ready to make his move. Tremont Lumber Company was established just west of Monroe on the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad (later Illinois Central). He built nine miles of track into the woods south of the sawmill and Jenks chartered it as the Tremont & Gulf. In this, his first venture into railroad construction, he incurred the enormous expense of building a rail line. He found out, in a hurry, to be able to haul sufficient quantities of logs the railway had to be sturdily constructed. This called for approximately 2650 cross ties per mile. The dimensions of the ties were seven inches by nine inches by eight feet long. They were hewed out of pine or scrub oak, which had to be replaced every three years, unless the manufacturer used white oak. There were 272 rails 39 feet long per mile. To hold the rails in place, this necessitated the use of 21,200 spikes per mile. There were two extra spikes used per rail in curves, on sidetracks. and turnarounds. On a standard line, usually laid after 1860, the rails were placed four feet, eight inches apart. Some of the earlier lines, like the one that stretched from Jonesville, Louisiana to Natchez, Mississippi, were of narrow gauge construction, the rails being only three feet apart.

Jenks found out very soon that the mill at Tremont had a limited capacity, in that it could only handle logs no longer than 22 feet. Be that as it may, to cut logs up to 40 feet in length, he built another sawmill at Eros, 10.2 miles from Tremont in 1904. It would seem that timber barons had an affinity for names pertaining to the solar system. Eros derived its name from the 433r asteroid, which had been discovered by a German Astronomer in 1898. Urania was named after the planet Uranus by Henry Hardtner, "the Father of Reforestation". The name means `heavenly body'. Eros quickly became the center of T&G operations. By 1905, the Tremont & Gulf rail line was complete to Chatham, 6.7 miles further south, and most of the timber for the new Eros sawmill was cut in the woods around Chatham.

The T&G was a remarkably busy operation from the very beginning, and a 1905 timetable shows T&G No.10, as "ex-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 4-4-0 (1879 Baldwin b/n 4470" locomotive handling one passenger run and one mixed train over the line in each direction daily. A brand new Baldwin locomotive, 2-6-2, T & G No. 14, handled three scheduled log trains daily to keep the sawmills busy.

For Tremont Lumber to acquire additional large timber holdings, more financial backing was required. By 1908 Samuel J. Carpenter of Winnfield, La., and William T. Joyce of Chicago would be a major stockholder. Both of these men are significant, in that they would control T&G fortunes for the next fifty years. Construction of the T&G main line continued south in pursuit of the timber and the track was completed into Winnfield on September 5, 1907. While the line out of Tremont was generally rolling pine-clad hills, the newly completed track near Winnfield was largely located in the Dugdemona watershed. Lucious Beebe, the railway historian, described the area in a Deep South Cavalier style, "Along the swamp trestles of the Tremont & Gulf, the Spanish moss trails with churchyard caress along the sides of the passing cars".

In 1908 the company reorganized into the Tremont& Gulf Railway, improved the property and continued in pursuit of the trees construction of branch lines. On May 1, 1908, T&G President William T. Joyce wrote to his board of directors: "The Tremont & Gulf Railway is the outgrowth of the Tremont & Gulf railroad, which in its initial stages was merely a logging road, with rather poor grades and alignment. The road has been practically re-constructed at large expense, all heavy grades and bad curves eliminated and the extensions to Pyburn and Rochelle completed. Our property is now in all respects a standard railroad".

T&G operated branch lines to bring in timber from distant forests and serve company sawmills at temporary locations. But lumbering operations were beginning to moderate; expansion was not necessarily the `watchword' any more. At least three branches built by Tremont Lumber to Daily, Alger, and Bennett were all abandoned by 1909. The 20-mile Jonesboro branch (known as the Shreveport, Jonesboro & Natchez R. R.) was begun in 1906 and operated until shortly after the Jonesboro sawmill cut its last log on August 12, 1915. The easterly Menefee to Rochelle branch served the company sawmill on the Missouri Pacific, formerly belonging to the Louisiana Lumber Co. and purchased in August of 1907. The Rochelle mill was closed in June of 1908 for a ten-month, $600,000 overhaul, which turned it into Tremont Lumber's biggest mill. The T&G also considered an extension of this branch, and maps show the line proposed as far as the Mississippi River town of Vidalia, La. (across from Natchez, Ms.) until 1910. When the Louisiana & Arkansas and Missouri Pacific jointly constructed a branch line, which paralleled this proposed route a few miles to the south in 1913, there was no further reason to push T&G tracks toward the east. T&G eventually tied a spur line into the L&A near Georgetown, La. for marketing purposes to the eastern markets. While T&G's tracks stretched in four directions through the woods, Winnfield (which had a population of 3,000 in 1920) was the only real town of any size on the line, the main shops were removed from Eros to Winnfield in 1918. The Eros sawmill closed in 1926. T&G's mileage dropped from 98.5 miles in 1915 to 66.6 by 1920. Thus began the decline of the once grand railroad. The following observation by an unknown author best sums the demise of the logging railroads: "The train passed by one morning; I saw it go out. When it came back it was pulling up the tracks and ties and loading them on the flat cars the engine was pulling. Soon the train was out of sight and the railroad was gone".


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T&G Railway connected forestry in region.
Former employees of Tremont industries remember 'Good Old Days' in reunion

By MILDRED KING SHELL
The following article was written by Mildred King Shell of Winnfield for the Winn Historical Society, and displayed it at the reunion of former Tremont employees in WInnfield on August 31.

The Tremont & Gulf Railway Company began around 1904, as a logging railroad in conjunction with Tremont Lumber Company during the height of the early timber boom operations. The railroad's history is related to that of Tremont Lumber Company as both were owned by the Joyce interests.

The Chicago-based Joyce family, among whom were William T. Joyce, first president of the Tremont & Gulf, his two sons, David G. Joyce and James Stanley Joyce, and Beatrice Joyce Kean, the daughter of James Stanley Joyce, worked in the development of this region. The local airport was named for David G. Joyce, and the Village of Joyce was named for this family.

In 1899 the Joyce family, who had previously operated sawmills on the Mississippi River in Iowa from timber logged in Minnesota, acquired a small sawmill at Tremont, Louisiana, in the pine hills of Lincoln Parish, and there Tremont Lumber Company was founded. The lumber industry in the South was beginning to boom, and sawmills were springing up overnight.

The first major expansion following establishment of the Tremont mill was the organization of a logging railroad to operate between the mill and the company's pineland at Eros, Louisiana. This was the beginning of the Tremont & Gulf Railway Company, which was the vital link with logging operations. In rapid-fire order came the acquisition of more mills, along with more acres and more logging railroads, among those the Winn Parish Lumber Company at Dodson and another railroad, a mill at Pyburn, and finally in 1907 the Louisiana Lumber Company at Rochelle in Grant Parish, including two sawmills and the Western Railroad Company with ten miles of track. When a railroad link between Rochelle and Dodson was constructed, Tremont possessed a network of rail transportation ranging from Tremont in the north to Rochelle in the south, with links connecting Chatham, Jonesboro, and Dodson.

The logging road became Tremont & Gulf Railroad in 1905 with William T. Joyce as president. At this time there was endless virgin pineland in the South, and the Tremont & Gulf was lined with numerous sawmills from which flowed an incredible output. After the logging road became a full-fledged railroad, development was begun in earnest and an extension from Chatham to Winnfield was completed in 1907. On September 19, 1907 the Tremont & Gulf rolled its first train into Winnfield. Afterwards the Tremont & Gulf built several branches, the first from Menefee, six miles north of Winnfield, to Pyburn on the Rock Island; another from Menefee to Rochelle; and another from Sikes to Jonesboro. Instead of using the telegraph, the railroad was operated by a telephone switchboard from the train dispatcher's office.

In a reorganization in 1908 the road became the Tremont & Gulf Railway Company, and the general offices were located at Winnfield, where they remained.

During the heyday of railroads in the 1920s the various lines serving Winnfield had 12 passenger trains and 8 freight trains running into Winnfield daily. The Tremont & Gulf had 71 miles of track in 1936, connecting with the Missouri Pacific at Rochelle, Illinois Central at Tremont, O N & W at Gulf Crossing, and Louisiana & Arkansas and Rock Island in Winnfield. It had 100 employees and a $150,000 payroll.

In a book published in 1947, Lucius Beebe and C. M. Clegg, Jr. wrote:

"By far the most enterprising and functionally animate of short lines we encountered in the Deep South was the Tremont & Gulf, which operates out of Winnfield, Louisiana, and maintains no fewer than six separate train movements, four scheduled and two unscheduled, daily over its 97 miles of well-kept iron. While the road is controlled by one of the vast lumber projects of the region, its freights and mixed consists are unusually various as to types of merchandise carried and its locomotives are among the most beautifully shopped and maintained anywhere in the South. A handsome green- and gold-painted Packard limousine with flanged wheels for the exclusive use of the roadmaster adds a panache of deluxe urbanity that might well be envied by more comprehensive railroad systems.

"The Tremont & Gulf's motive-power roster includes four enchanting ten-wheelers built between 1907 and 1915 by Baldwin and numbered 15, 20, 24, 25. Of somewhat later vintage is No. 30, a Baldwin Mikado. All are oil burners, and their silvered rod assemblies, red and gold trim on the cabs and general air of spit and polish set them in a class with such proudly maintained motive power as that of the little Colorado and Wyoming ...

"Every morning at one-hour intervals beginning at 6:30 the three trains roll out of Winnfield yards: one a solid freight which runs to West Monroe 40 miles away and return; a mixed freight and passenger on schedule between Winnfield and Tremont where it connects with the Yazoo & Mississipi Valley branch of the Illinois Central; and another freight with passenger accommodations in its spacious caboose on the 20-mile run to Waggoner, where it connects with both the Rock Island and the Louisiana & Arkansas."

The authors wrote more about the maintenance of the motive power: "The T. & G.'s motive power is among the most beautiful in the South," and of the road's motive power, "which is spotlessly maintained in the quintessence of short-line chic." Responsible for the well-kept equipment were Jesse L. Corley, Superintendent of Motive Power, and his shop crew. Mr. Corley served 40 years with Tremont & Gulf, from May 25, 1919 to July 31, 1959.

Lucius Beebe and C. M. Clegg, Jr. had this to say about Winnfield at the time of their visit in the middle 1940s:

"In Winnfield, where the hotel was overflowing with oil riggers, derrick-men and geologists attracted by a nearby offset property that had come through against the expectation of everyone concerned, we were lodged in overstuffed comfort at the home of the local magistrate whose lady, palm-leaf fan in hand, made pin money by taking in travellers whose credentials passed her inspection and standards of respectability. For two dollars we mounted to a bedroom whose Irish linen sheets, shaded bed lamps and Niagaras of hot water could have spelled luxury in New York or San Francisco."

On August 1, 1959 when the Tremont & Gulf Railway Company was sold to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, the transaction closed a chapter of Winn's history which began more than a half-century before with the beginning of the timber boom. At that time trains were operated between Winnfield and Monroe daily, and Sunday when necessary, and between Winnfield and Rochelle daily except Sunday; but the operation had ceased to be profitable.

Other railroads serving Winnfield in 1959 were Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Company, as part of the KCS-L&A System; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad; and Louisiana Midland Railway (formerly a branch of the L&A).

Beatrice Joyce Kean, a descendant of William T. Joyce, was the sole owner of the Tremont & Gulf when it was sold to the Illinois Central in 1959. She was also the sole owner of Tremont Lumber Company at the time she died in 1973, leaving no descendants. She left her holdings to the Joyce Foundation; and Tremont Lumber Company was sold to Crown Zellerbach Corporation in 1974.

Bibliography of credits:
Lucius Beebe and C. M. Clegg, Jr., Mixed Train Daily: A Book of Short-Line Railroads, 4th ed. (Berkeley, California: Howell-North, 1947).
The Comrade, Industrial Special Edition, July 24, 1908.
Forests & People, official Publication of the Louisiana Forestry Association, First Quarter 1970.
Winn Parish Enterprise, September 10, 1936.
Winn Parish Enterprise-News American, June 18, 1959.
Tremont Lumber Company 70th Anniversary Brochure, 1969.

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This explains the Crowell and Buchanan connection mentioned above. Remember, Buchanan bought out Crowell in the beginning up in Stamps. This is edited from a promised source.

Caleb T. (C.T.) Crowell was one of the original founders of the Bodcaw Lumber Company, which was located in Stamps, Arkansas.

C.T.'s wife Ella, was Miss Ella Stamps before she married CT. Two of the other partners in Bodcaw were James Stamps (Ella's father) and his brother. C.T.'s oldest son, and later manager at Longleaf, was James Stamps Crowell, who went by [the surname],Stamps.

Stamps AR. was on the Louisiana and Arkansas RR which was owned by William Buchanan. When Bodcaw ran out of timber that could be hauled to the mill by ox team, the Bodcaw investors were faced with the necessity to built a railroad into the timber or sell out. Having insufficient capital to build, the group sold out to Buchanan, and Bodcaw went on to become one of the great Arkansas and Louisiana lumber companies.

Crowell took his money, went partners again with the Stamps and the Wadley family of Texarkana and built another small mill at Dubberly, LA.

After a couple of years, he decided that he wanted to return to California (he had lived there from about 1870 to 1883), he sold out at Dubberly and moved back to Los Angeles. After returning to Louisiana to wind up the sale of his interest in the Dubberly property to the Wadleys, he decided to return to California via the newly opened Kansas City, Watkins and Gulf RR from Alexandria to Lake Charles. South of Alexandria, he saw the immense virgin forest, and immediately got off the train in Glenmora. There he made the acquaintance of a man named John Evans, and summoning Alexander Spencer from Arkansas, the three men began buying timberland east and southeast of Glenmora. Moving back to the north of Glenmora to the old abandoned settlement of Babbs Bridge, they set up the first mill and renamed the location Longleaf. Spencer and Evans continued to buy timber and Spencer built the mill when C.T. returned to California.

That was the relationship between the Crowells and Buchanan. There is probably more, but that is all that we have been able to find so far.

Buchanan built the Good Pine Lumber Co. C.T. was an investor in Good Pine. When that mill shut down in 1936, C.T.'s son R.D. Crowell Sr. bought several items from the Good Pine mill, including the water tube boiler, that is under the largest stack at Longleaf. This boiler was the last in use at Longleaf, and was used to power the electric plant when the mill was converted to electricity.

It's pouring down again so I guess I'll finish it up. CLICK THE MAPS TO ENLARGE.

My last stop was the mural wall in Jonesville. I gassed up there. Filling stations are society's petri dish. A petite blond female Harley rider was across the pump from me as I pulled in. She seemed to be doing a scene out of a long ago biker classic. I have never witnessed more drama at a gas pump. It was a performance, obviously, or she was flying like a kite in March. How personally involved can you get with a gas pump? I couldn't stay for the grand finale.



The open road was welcomed. The next point of interest was that the old rail bed would cross US 84 and head north across the Little River and proceed out of the Little River Valley headed for upland Jena. US 84 would have no reason to cross here and would wait until the Little River itself went north. There it was.



This major US highway still has to rise while the ghost of an old railroad crosses its path. There is symbolism here. R-E-S-P-E-C-T, That's what it means to me.

I tried to get to the river in hopes of finding some evidence of the crossing. I was stopped by an ominous sign saying that if I didn't have business at the project I should leave or answer to the Levee Police. I obeyed, returning to the highway and tried another approach which yielded a similar warning.



I found the crossing on the levee, but the under under sideways down growth was too thick to press and then there were those Levee Police to worry about.



Soon, US 84 did its turn north and I would have a chance to check out the rails in the high country. I'd look for the double set of rails I saw on the map at Rhinehart (Rhin on the map)



Yes indeed, there they were. Neat gate.



I guess that there are still a few people out there that don't realize that was the L&A Railroad bed? To say the least, I was disappointed. Such is the fate of a bed detective.

I returned to US 84 headed north. Another chance was offered and I took it. Up McDaniel Road I rode.



I was thinking, "I bet Andy would like this".



I think I forgot to look for the rail bed? Anyway, it wouldn't be the first time on this very disoriented outing I'd bypassed potential historical treasures. I got to "12" on the map and shot the road sign to know where 12 was. I forgot the bed shot but got the meaningless street sign.



Rhinehart and Breithaupt? I was starting suspect Germans in the area.

There was more, Andy.





Then I encountered the down side of these great roads, idiots. Two pickups came flying down the road. Lucky for me it happened on a straight. I had time to pull way to right as they flew by not slowing a bit and well knowing I was there. I'm sure their intention was to rock me. They even yelled something as they went by. I've learned to take a deep breath and not let what I can't change bother me. That's a load of rubbish. Knowing that they probably won't survive 30 satisfies my hopes for them. I was on Greens Creek Road. Be careful, proceed with your gun cocked.

Up ahead I was glad to see pavement. Pavement means civilization, sometimes. I turned south on La.772, headed into Jena.



I was skirting the rails and saw a chance to visit. I'm assuming this road was built on the rail bed or closely followed it.



Turn off 772 onto Cobbs Road and take an immediate left. (I write these directions right away to save having to answer a hundred emails.)



In Jena, I was hooked up as the rails had entered town. Not exactly.



I took a picture of a meaningless building because it was close to the rails. I just zoomed in on it and look what I found. That green building has rail car level doors on it and that building to the right could have been a shop for the mill's locomotives.



I believe I went back and got the front of the lumber company.



I felt I was getting hot. The piece of rail tie on the cement supported my thesis. Look at the map. I was in the nest of railroading Jena. I say I was near the mill and I'll bet that concrete with the wood on it was the old depot location. I really don't remember if there was a Jena Mill. There was Trout and Good Pine to see in a bit. Jena? I'm bout milled out anyway.



The rails sit in flat Jena. This is US 84 Jena or Up the Hill Jena. I made that up.



I left Jena feeling like I really needed to sit down and study the situation but I couldn't. I pulled into Good Pine, I was feelin' about half past dead. I needed a place where I could see the bed.



Bell Supply was right on the tracks.



It is on the south side of 84 where you see Good Pine written on the map.



Here are the houses:





Next you see 2 of the old augmented pyramid houses. One is saved, the other, not.





I'm sure there is a story here.



This is a strange one. I was exiting Trout headed to US 84 on Railroad which ran perpendicular to the the L&A bed.



I can't make either of my maps show it. Nevertheless, here's the layout of Trout/Good Pine.



Where you see "Trout-Good Pine Kindergarten" is where I ended up. It, of course was the Trout-Good Pine School. It is a huge rambling building falling into disrepair. What a shame.







That's it.





Across the Torras Peninsula (The Thrill of Victory)

This ride definitely qualified as a true history hunt. It was also a "tracking the tracks" ride. This truth in advertising has probably closed the page in many a browser , but what the heck.

They will miss a fine adventure where I pushed the envelope further than I ever have, except for that time when I locked up the front wheel in the gumbo down near Bayou Cocodrie, close to the ghost town of Fauborg. Since, I've been a little more aware, but, you wouldn't think it from where I went yesterday.

I am an obsessive person. That facet can be detrimental or productive. This time it was productive. I want to be where history happened. Ghost and Aura, you know.

I wanted to hear the locomotives as they slowed for Derailment Curve or prepared for the train's Mississippi River crossing on the ferry. I wanted to see Edenborn's railroad that he had built there while pursuing his hobby. The train ferry was his favorite part of the business. I also wanted to finish off the latest project in Simmesport, the turntable. I further wanted to replace the discarded shot of Old La.1 as it approached Edenborn's rail and car bridge from the Simmesport side, a photo I had tossed for its seeming ugly uselessness. But, the real obsessions were Torras Landing and Torras Junction. I've just become aware of what looks like a rail wye, used for turning the trains, at Torras, I wanted photographs of the location. The realization that the wye was there cements my theory. Fooie, I just wanted to be there. That was the place where the LR&NRR sailed for Angola. Like Keith says, don't believe people when they say "stuff is washed away". They just can't find it. His example of this is Naples, Edenborn's first ferry port to Angola.

Torras has grabbed me because the concept of a train "sailing" does seem "foreign", but isn't. Ferrying was used on the Mississippi for quite a while. In fact. It was used at Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Natchez, to name a few others.

Well, I've done it again. I've gone and spewed a bunch of stuff when all you wanted to do was look at the pictures and get full of briers in places few would go.

To set the scene, as I left the wind was howling out of the south but the sky, for the most part was still clear and the temperature was in the mid-70's. The wind doesn't bother me except on high, low railed bridges. I'd have the Atchafalaya Bridge at Simmesport to contend with. It's one of those. If blown over, it would just be into oncoming traffic and not off the bridge, that would be saved for the return ride.

I arrived at Simmesport and bit the bullet to go into the library to get a picture of the turntable which I'm sure they have. Keith had suggested that some people are skeptics until shown a notarized picture and that my three circumstantial witnesses were not enough. The library was closed. This was my fourth visit to Simmesport in two weeks. I can take frustration. That was fine, I'd do another ride through since I was there.

Here's the ramp up to the approach to Edenborn's Bridge, not as ugly as it is or the last shot of it was. When approaching the bridge, the motorist would have to go around a corner on the tracks to cross. There had to be some sort of warning system because, unlike the Legionier side, this was a blind approach. I walked out on the tracks and I still couldn't see the bridge. Three shots here. 1 is the ramp, 2 is taken from on the levee where the ramp ended, and 3 is the map showing my wanderings in Simmesport. Kinda drunk looking.







From there I rode on back up Main Street which is Old LA 1, and I would suppose, the original downtown of Simmesport. There's not much left. I did shoot a couple of old buildings. Remember, Simmesport suffered in the flood of 1927, and the old downtown withered from the new LA 1 bypassing it.





Next, it was out to 418 to see if I could get to the right of way of the old Louisiana Railway and Navigation Railroad as it went east to Torras Landing for the boat ride to Angola or its trip around Derailment Curve to join the Texas and Pacific going southeast to Lettsworth. The underpass is a tangible gateway to the Torras Peninsula. It is just after east bound trains traverse the Atchafalaya.



I stopped and tried to get a shot back to the line (in purple), but only took a picture of an old side track. The map shows where the road is in relationship to the "tracks". I also shot a picture of a yellow and brown house in the neighborhood of the bridge thinking it might be associated with the bridge. I now question that. I think it's just a yellow and brown house. If anyone knows, please write.





And here's a taste of what the rest of this report will be like. I'm kidding to an extent, and then, I stop kidding. Sorta normal for me.



Actually there were no more gates for a while. A short while.



I looked both ways down 418 and then sized up how far down the dirt road I'd have to go to where I saw the tree line marking the ROW. I zoomed down there to find a huge mud puddle. That irked me. I pulled a U-eee into a wheelie and roared back to the highway leaving a cloud of dust. Honest.

My next effort would be more successful, if not more dramatic.



For the first time today, I was at the ROW. Here's looking back at the historic town of Eden toward Legionier. I wonder if Edenborn didn't come up with that name. He named many of the depots along his route. Some names stuck as town names as the area grew up.



Here's looking toward La.970. I almost rode the ROW down there but I think I was deep into a private farm already, maybe not? There were no warning signs.



I jumped back on 418 realizing my next chance would be La.970 where the ROW crosses it. I'm going to show the progress in the route with the purple line. Howz that?



I rode the Row down to a point where a bean field brought a halt to my joyous romp. I figured I wasn't missing much and headed back. I would have liked to have seen the bayou crossing, oh well. Wouldn't be my last "oh well" of the day.
Actually I say AHHH!!!! a lot when I get turned around.



I returned to 970 and took this shot of where I'd go next, quickly. Actually, I went very quickly. The red line is there to show you the curve to the right or east. It was headed to La.15 and a gate. Not the last gate of the trip.





As I rounded the right turn in a full locked up slide, I saw the gate ahead. I figured it was over and that I'd done all the ROW I was going to do without seeing my lusted for Torras Junction or Derailment Curve and anything but Torras Junction, again. I was wrong on all accounts. What's new, it's the curse. Here's the gate and my first case of fallen spirits.



Click the map to enlarge the map in another window.

This is what you'll see next in the photograph. I'll explain it all right now to keep your enthusiasm up. We wouldn't want your entuhsiasm to fall down now, would you? We've been following the yellow line from Legionier (Simmesport east)to La.15, where we are now. In the next shot you'll see that I have 2 red lines. The one straight ahead would follow the the red line on this topographic map to Torras, the old route after the Naples route that crossed the river to Angola. The red line that curves to the right in the picture would follow the yellow line on the topo map around Derailment Curve, the inside of which is the land in the picture to the right of the road. It goes to Lettsworth. The green line going north is the T&P going to Vidalia. The green line headed southeast is a stretch which the LR&N used to bypass the long curve out onto the Torras Peninsula later on which left all of this a speck on the floor of history. How's that enthusiasm working for you?



Straight to Torras, or, go right around Derailment Curve to Lettsworth. Slow down and don't back up.



After the Gate, on the map, I headed north on LA15 back to La.418 which I took to where you see Torras. I'd been there before and was afraid to continue as I believe a bad dog was at the trailer. Something unnerved me anyway. Today, I didn't care. I was going down this road as it was the T&P's ROW headed to Torras Junction. It probably would come up short, but I'd give it hell trying.



You'll have to wait until tomorrow for those pictures and the rest of the ride. My computer is acting up and this has taken twice as long to do as usual which is basically forever anyway. One last shot. The black triangle is sitting on Torras Junction. Big Grin. CLICK HERE TO GO TO PAGE 2



Torras Page 2

How did you sleep with all that suspense I left you with last night?
On this page I'll be asking a lot of your imagination. I'll try to help it along, but, it is really up to you. If you can't get into the choo choo mood, just consider it as a walk in the woods, fields, brier bushes, snake pits and rat holes.

Here's the map. I didn't see the church. The next picture was taken standing where you see "Torras" written. That was probably not the actual site of the town of Torras which was besieged by floods in the early 1900's and eventually abandoned. It would have been further northeast on the green line which was the Texas and Pacific route north. "X" marks the location of Torras Junction, my most recent lust, if I haven't mentioned that yet.



To pick up where we left off last night. I turned east on 418 to see if I could access Torras Junction from the Texas and Pacific RR ROW that goes north-south, Vidalia to Lettsworth. The "gate" next to Derailment Curve had prevented me from taking the LR&N ROW from there to Torras Junction. "If you can't get it one way, try another, but get it", my motto as an obsessive.

In the picture below, the tree line marks what I suspect is the actual track bed. I looked at the ramshackle house trailer and shoeless cars to the left, heard no dogs and hauled it down the two rut dirt road. I descended into history. I was very careful, not wanting to "blow" this moment and dump the bike in some unnoticed mud hole. I also watched the GPS as my route stayed true to the dashes that marked the T&P route to the junction. I saw a field coming up with no road entering it. It would be close and I braced myself for disappointment.



Wham bam, thank you mam, I was there. I parked the bike on a CEMENT SLAB. I suspect the true crossing to be to the left in this picture. I tried to get up on the bed but it was too thick and, frankly, scary. Snakes, I hate snakes and it was in the mid 70's, and sunny. Just right for a late Autumn cobra sunning.



I got excited and took 30 pictures. 6 were blurred, 2 were of the sky, 1 was of my foot, and the rest are passable given large amounts of charity. I don't expect you to appreciate the weight these carry with me. Just think of them as lovely field pictures.

In this one, you can see my shadow standing at the bike, sun behind me, looking east down the LR&N headed to Torras Landing. My head is not that big, I never take off my helmet to prevent any damage I might receive from getting hit over the head with a pipe. Stuff happens.



This is looking back toward the labeled, "Torras". Notice, where I'm standing is on the higher ground which is the LR&N bed with the junction directly to my left. I want to keep you in synch.



Next, I hopped on the bike to see how far east I could ride on the LR&N toward the landing. There were woods ahead.



I saw the road dip into those woods and feared getting into a situation. I had bluffed my way through this ride so far and hadn't been caught. It looked damp ahead and I wasn't going there with this notoriously top heavy bike. I was close to where the LR&N crossed La.418 and it just wasn't worth it. Returning to the junction, I took one more parting shot.



I rode back to where "Torras" is written, on 418, parked down the road a bit from the trailer and shoeless cars, then walked up the levee to find where the T&P had headed off to Torras, the old abandoned town.

Sure nuff, there it was. I wondered how far up those 4 wheeler tracks went and then remembered my unprotected bike on the side of the road. I had a little panic attack and hoofed it back quickly.....................



.......after taking one more shot of the T&P headed to Torras Junction from the top of the levee.



Nowst time for a reVIEW. The squares are my tracks. The last square next to "Pic" is as far as I got on the rails going to Torras Landing, marked by the yellow tack to the far right (on the Mississippi River). With this GE map, you can see the woods that were ahead of me. There might have been a trestle there over Bayou Lettsworth, a bayou we will see later. The yellow line marks the approximate route to the highway. I have seen an opening in the woods that went straight from "pic" and not made the "S" turn to Torras. Had it been a storage area?
More supposition to come.



I rode 418 to the spot where the rails would have crossed. There were bails of hay stacked on the "high ground".



Here's looking from the west toward the road.



I think the rails took the road for a little way then turned toward Torras. I rode down to the turn and was struck by a lightning bolt of insane rage. If I had had a truck, I would have drug that crap to Baton Rouge and laid it on the steps of the capital.



How dare they block access to a national treasure. I'm getting to the bottom of this. I don't suspect it will be there next time as this place is popular with the locals. They'll pull it down. Wow, I'm not advocating any civil disobedience and surely not in hunting season.

With hung jaw, I motored toward the state police landing at Angola because I had seen something on a GE map of the Angola site that was a mystery. Also, there is something to the west of the highway I've highlighted in white. Was this a rail bed for storage, or a borrow pit for the highway? The foliage was too thick. I'll be back in winter.

Down at Angola Landing there is a clearing that goes to a "T". Beyond that is what looks like a rail bed headed to a water crossing, maybe, I walked it and the high ground abruptly fell off as if a trestle had started or it was the end of the line. Also, south of the road that connects 418 to the Angola landing is what is marked as a "trail". No, it depicts an old rail bed because it is as straight as an arrow. The "trail goes all the way to Smithland. What was going on here? A line came form Smithland and rode up to the Angola landing and then veered west over a trestle??????, or stopped? Here's the map with all that on it. Click to enlarge. More from the Smithland end in a moment.



Turning off 418 onto the Angola road, I stopped on the bridge and took a zoomed out shot toward what looked like a sand bar crossing the water. Was that a railroad tie?



Zooming in, this is the scene.



Getting to the landing, I shot way across the river to where the opposite landing is. I've been told that is my next hunt. I'm to figure out how the rails went after the ferry ride over to the prison area. I've decided how I can get on the prison's property. I'll drag that gate back at Torras Landing to the Capital steps, get out of the truck, yell a bunch about the local megalomaniacs and wait. If I'm ignored, I'll yell some more. It's been a while since I've seen Daryl and Daryl. Maybe we can all go on a history hunt picnic after a day of that hard labor.

Look, I see what seems like a rail bed to the right of the gate house. YOU? Or does it go with the power lines? Power poles are always a hint to where the old ROW's were. Wilbur, I know there was no power then, but the right of ways carried power after the days of telegraphs was over. Why buy new ones when you have old ones?



Now I walked what I thought was "something" down the clearing to the "T" and to where I perceived a bayou crossing. I might add it was very faintly perceived.



This is where I walked off the "grade" or whatever. The grass was just too high and I was not as inspired as usual. Dropping off a whatever can make you think twice about further pursuits. Or, I still had my mad on?



I walked back to the bike and stopped to shoot the mighty river at this awing place where C.Alphonso de LaSalle had rediscovered the Mississippi after 3 centuries or so. Sorry, he took all of my pictures to send to his relatives back in Da Parish.



Back to my mad, these are the bad guys.



I was so mad, I decided to flaunt my disrespect by going down the levee the WRONG WAY. (red sign) Come on? Is there really a "wrong way" to go down a levee? I guess there is, my son rolled his truck down one. Where does he get that from? Remember, this is the prison landing and some say it's a one way trip.



I continued down 418 to where the "trail" seemed to cross the levee. The red line marks the presumed "route".



I topped the levee and parked at "P", "2P" is further down the levee and out of sight. The purple line follow what I know were rails. Notice "Smithland Landing" is in the water, just as the old Red River Landing is further north. These places were washed away, but don't challenge Keith on that or he'll get scuba gear and find them.



Also, notice Mike's Bar. I bet that place rocked. For you Harley riders, you knew there was a "Hog Point". But, you'll have to swim to it.

From where I parked I looked down on what I think was the rail bed. The farmer had placed a feed crib on it.



Next is just a picture of the water next to the property. The next picture is what I saw climbing the levee.



The weather was "coming in". I had figured that south wind would be pushing some moisture out of the Gulf.



Then I saw these guys. I shooed them back through the fence explaining that the road was only big enough for one ass.



I rode on and turned down 971 toward Lettsworth (home of Buddy Guy).
I took a couple of shots along the way that display the varied architecture of past days.





I continued on into Lettsworth (home of Buddy Guy).

There is an old store there that you might want to visit quickly as the roof is going and that's that when that happens. Lettsworth is soaked in history, but not much is left. I've been into some of the old slacks and they are now falling down.

Here's my railroad shots of the place. I wanted to walk out to where the LR&N, or maybe then the name had changed to the L&A, had originally traveled to Torras Junction. I think I saw it. I was a little stressed because there wasn't much room to run if a train came. I estimated the distance up the tracks at less than a quarter mile. Here's the way it went.



The next pictures are meant for the rail-o-holics that might recognize some of the stuff that was along the side of the grade.









I walked quickly back towards La.1. The bike was parked away from the road but still I worried. Shots taken quickly in transit.





Had the cement laying on the side of the tracks come from a previous longer bridge across Bayou Lettsworth, which the new bridge ahead crosses? Or, somewhere else. [Explanation below by Mike] I was in the vicinity of the worst rail accident that the L&A had ever experienced. I didn't think to look for any evidence.

I was fried. It was time to attack the Atchafalaya Bridge again, this time in an angrier wind.I'd be blown into the rail if...... I tucked in low, put it in 2nd gear and climbed the ramp. The bike moved around a bit more. That might have been caused by the added weght of the huge 25 pound rail plate I had stowed up high in the bike's trunk. I made it over and was able to sit up on the down ramp. I turned south on La.105, the happy warrior though I'd taken a lick back at Torras Landing. The thrill of standing (almost) where the trains of two great railroads had crossed was almost overwhelming. I hope your vicarious visit there was also (overwhelming).

If you like this stuff, check below in the "Rail Articles" Box for other writes dealing with the Torras Peninsula.

More below on what I saw on the side of the rails at Lettsworth. Mike, writer of "The Railroader" articles sent me this.

The concrete ties you saw at Lettsworth were a failed experiment for the L & A.[Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad, later to merge with the Kansas City Southern line and eventually lose its identity] They were used along the entire route from Lobdell to Shreveport, and were supposed to be the end to constant tie replacement. They were hardy ties, but had no flexibility like wood ties, and ended up breaking where there was the least bit of movement of the railbed. They were replaced in the early '90's, and left along the roadbed for any one who wanted them. They are piled along the right of way just south of Alexandria, and a lot of farmers use them to set their equipment on in the fields. Don't try to pick one up...I learned the hard way that they are much heavier than the wood ones. They would make flower bed borders in your yard. Just haul one a trip on the back of your bike.

ME: Ok, I'll give it a try.
Rent the most recent Rolling Stone concert, "Shine A Light". Buddy Guy (Lettsworth, Louisiana) is a guest performer on the show. Just a taste of his power is displayed there. The concert ain't bad either for a bunch of geriatrics. Rock on!

The Torras Landing Write

Having really gotten bogged down over at Claiborne, I wanted to just take a ride. I knew if I went by myself I'd again get into some big investigative mission and have to come back here and write it all out, complete with research, combining the proof with the pudding. To avoid this, I called up C.Alphonso deLaSalle to see if he would lead my proposed no purpose ride as I consider him the man for the job. Maybe I should introduce you to C.Alphonso, first? You may know him if you've visited here at any length. C.Al is responsible for the great "Couyan Goes Fishing" trips and a few other articles over in the Back Woods Riding Dept. Those were written during his few attendances to work. Most of the time Al lives in the swamp with his five dogs and a raccoon named Willy. You may ask, what does the "C" stand for? It's "Couyan". His parents added that name after he got a little older. He doesn't know why, but we do. Enough introduction. You'll get to know C.Al better as we move along.

I told him that this was totally his trip and to go where he wanted. He wanted to go to the ferry at St.Francisville. That was fine. There are a number of places I can revisit over and over without tiring. The ferry is one of those places. Regretfully, it will not be with us much longer.

We were off to the ferry. Arriving there, we found it closed. Nothing can squash Al's enthusiasm. He immediately saw the situation as a Kodak opportunity. He wanted his picture taken while holding his trademark half filled coffee cup so that he'd have something to show Willy, and, of course, the dogs, who I knew he was already missing. Maybe I had bitten off more than I could handle?



After Al's big moment, he came apart. I tried to reassure him that the reason I wanted him to come along was that I didn't want a plan. He said he was lost and wanted to go home. I consoled him and told him that we would head that way with a few stops at places I felt he would like to see. He conceded, and we moved on. I would extend the "return trip" northward to what I call the Torras Peninsula, one of two peninsulas that jut into the Mississippi River between the Morganza Spillway and Simmesport.

Here's the first map:



We went north on La.1, crossed the Morganza Spillway and immediately turned east on La. 972. If you look at the map you will see the original location of 972 before the Spillway was built in 1958. BTW, the original La.1 can be seen from the new elevated La.1. The concrete, even after being flooded for 50 years, is still in pretty good shape. Somehow we un-learned road building.

I stopped where I'd seen this machine. I asked Al if he had an idea of what it could be. Al sees and understands stuff. He guessed it to be a part to an old oil rig, seeing a well head across the road. He did correctly identify it as a oil burning twin cylinder engine.



In a lonely place atop a rise where 3 levees came together, a pickup stopped beside us. A man leaned out of the window and said that the engine was part of an old cotton gin. Then he disappeared down the road. I guess we had that look?

The gin was part of the LaCour plantation. I had recently found the LaCour Spur that came off of the main line and went to the plantation. Next, we'd find the LaCour's home, Old Hickory.





I was again at the focal point of one of my favorite landscapes.



Here's the next section. Points of interest seen along here are the old sugar mill stack across La.1 which is very close to 418 near Innis and St.Stephen's Episcopal Church.



Al seemed to think the top of the stack had been broken off making it look stubby.



Next up was St.Stephens and its graveyard.



The cemetery contains the famous statue memorializing the Confederate soldiers of Pointe Coupee Parish.



Here's an augmented version of a side view. I tried to get the windows to show up.



Next was our visit to the Angola Prison landing. More on it later.



At this point, Al shot down to the shore exclaiming that he needed to touch the water. He turned and spread his arms. My jaw dropped.



As I flashed on this:



It is de LaSalle discovering and placing a cross on the shore of the Mississippi. We are now in the middle of an intense study of Al's genealogy. He has explained his need to explore repeatedly. The only piece of the puzzle that doesn't work is his proneness to being homesick.

That's it for today. Tomorrow it will be on to Torras Landing and a lot of train history that kept this place shaking for many years.
First of all, I suggest reading The Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad, The Story of a Regional Line by James R.Fair. His book is what brought me here to the "Torras Peninsula". In reality, C.Al and I visited The Avoyelles Parish Big Bend Store Museum on La.451 at Big Bend, LA. The excellent spiel delivered by the host there initiated reading the book after I actually bought it, as suggested by the host. If you are in Louisiana, or even Mississippi and like grade hunting, this is the one for you. It is an amazing thing when you can see what others don't. Oh the other hand, when proven wrong about your perception, it can be a little disquieting. I seem to be floating. Let's get back to the ride.

After visiting the Angola Prison landing, it was time to move west on La.418. Torras Landing had stuck in my mind as a place where, possibly, the rail ferry had crossed over the Mississippi to Angola. TO READ PAGE ONE, to see the St.Francisville ferry location, to see the Angola ferry location, and meet Al, CLICK HERE.

At this point I want to confess that I WAS completely confused about the location of the rail ferry landings after the Naples to Angola route was terminated. From this point on the page, parts have been rewritten for 2 reasons. I'm sure I can approximate the west dock. My assumption is somewhat echoed by a reader who seems grounded in logic. I'm usually happy with speculation as that works for me. The second reason I'm redoing this page is that it was stolen by a Chinese website. That's cool, now One Hung Low has incorrect and confusing information, not what you'll ever find here.

I have read and been told that the LR&NRR crossed the Mississippi at what is now the location of the Angola Prison Ferry, where we were on 418. That was, I feel, incorrectly stated in a noted online encyclopedia. I have also read that the train ferry went across at Filston, previously known as Phillipston, also known as Incline, to Angola. My map shows Phillipston closer to Legionier where the new tracks connected to the then new Simmesport bridge, built by the railroad and the state in 1928. The red line on the map, [click to enlarge] below, shows the rails coming from Legionier to either the Torras landing which is closer to where Garmin places Plillipston and Phillips Lake or to where the Angola Landing is shown. I would disregard the present Angola Landing. I am open to any good argument for that spot if you have it.



I went on to argue against my final thesis. I've removed it as it was wild speculation about a meandering river 70 years ago.

CLICK THE MAPs, choose "open in new window".
The red line would be the line coming from Legioneir. "T" would be the logical place to put the west landing. "A" is the present Angola Prison landing, the one I feel is commonly thought of as being the historical rail ferry landing.



Here's another map I'll try to explain.



These routes are not in Fair's book or maybe my memory and ability to find it again is lacking. Nevertheless here goes:

On the left you see an "S". That is the bridge to Simmesport which was opened in approximately 1928. It did away with the train ferries that had to be used between Naples on the Red River, near Big Bend on La.451, and Angola. So, In 1928 the train came over the Atchafalaya River at Simmeport-Legioneir, but still had to get across the Mississippi as there was no Huey P. Long Bridge at Baton Rouge, yet.



New tracks were laid between Legionier (Simmesport, east) and Filston which I now believe is near the original Torras Landing. That is the red line, but just to the "T", not to Angola. After the ferry was no longer needed due to the bridge being built at Baton Rouge, the L&A, formally the LR&N, still took the long ride to almost Torras Junction (where red and yellow cross) where there was a bad curve I have labeled as "Derailment Curve". The trains then hopped on the Texas and Pacific line which connected south from Torras Junction to Lettsworth where the train could continue southeast toward Morganza.

The T&P ran traffic from Lettsworth to Vidalia or Ferriday, nevertheless, "up north" along La.15.

The L&A abandoned this long loop in 1953, replacing its route along the green line. The move was too late to avoid the worst accident in L&A history. In 1951, a troop train and the line's jewel passenger train, the Southern Bell, had a head-on collision 1.67 miles north of Lettsworth, killing 13 and injuring 82. The fires burned at an estimated 2000 degrees with almost nothing salvageable. It all happened right down there.



That's an outline of what I believe was going on out here. Fair mentions tracks from Torras Junction to Lobdell which is at the foot of the Huey P.Long Bridge across from Baton Rouge. That I can't contend with right now as C.Al and I are just getting to Torras Landing.

The mention of the Texas and Pacific leads right into Mike's story of his father and the rest of the guys that turned back Nature when she got evil back in 1945. That story can be read HERE.

C.Al and I topped the levee right off of La.418 where the GPS pointed to Torras Landing. What lay before me ignited the usual hung jaw "wow" I usually get when I know I've found some treasure or see people mysteriously reenact momentous historical occasions. C.Al later convinced me that I had crossed over one too many times and was calling everything "RR memorabilia". That is still up for discussion. Keep going.



CLICK PICTURES, ESPECIALLY THE MAPS, TO ENLARGE

At the end of this supposed rail bed is a river monitoring station. The embankment was probably built as access to that station. Try to remember this. It supports the Torras thesis I have conjured up.



Here's yet another map. I want you to get excited about being in this very special place. You can tell your neighbors that you've seen it and know it exists. Not everyone does. This one you have to open in another window to follow along. [a browser window, Fred] Here's the rap on the map. See "Torras Landing". That's where we are. Looking north you can see the Mississippi-Atchafalaya lock inlet. The locks are on the navigable connection between those two Rivers. The channel that branches off to the north from the locks channel below the "D"in "Old Control Structure" may be the location of the old Control Structure which Mike talks about in his latest "The Railroader" article mentioned above. You have to read that one. More on that place shortly. Also seen is Shreve's Bar. That passageway to the east is Shreve's Cut, where Captain Shreve, Shreveport's namesake, cut this route to improve shipping.



Here's what we could see from Torras Landing. Oh, the purple line is our route.

A tug and barges headed on the west route to the locks.



Here's Shreve's Bar. The Locks inlet is to the left, hardly seen, if seen, but I saw it.



From Torras, we moved north on 418 to La.15. C.Al had never seen the locks or the present river control structure. I consider this place special. All levees are special, but this section of levee is probably the most important few miles in the United States and I want everyone to see and understand what it is all about.

Google "Old River Control"

Just past the locks there are these large pillars out in the marshy pond.





Yes, ladies and gentlemen, those are the piers to the Texas and Pacific Railroad Bridge. This is the place where the old control structure almost failed which would have allowed water to flood Morgan City way to the south. It was removed and some of the gondolas drug up, the ones they could find, and the new structure built up river. That story explains a lot of what you see there now.

At the point I wanted to show you some old newspaper clipping form 1919, concerning Torras, the town which was here and why it's not. But I can't, just yet. These are Mike's words, first, "Torras was a functioning town on Old River, sitting on both sides of the T & P Railroad. It was flooded in 1890, and then washed away in the bigger flood of 1900. Apparently, it was a pretty big thriving town until the double floods. You can still see the T & P roadbed on Google Earth, running through what was Torras, then across Old River, and heading on north towards Vidalia. All that track was taken up right after the high water of 1945".[His Dad's incident]

"It's ironic that the new control structure (on the north loop of Old River) almost had the same thing happen to it in the high water of 1973. Alas, there were no railroad crews to rescue the Corps then".

From there, C.Al and I rode on up to the new Control Structure and ate some lunch and fed a stray mama dog.

Then I wanted to show him Edenborn's bridge and where La.1 had crossed the Atchafalaya.

A visitor has offered up this information on William Edenborn, a true American success story. He then goes on to explain a lot more. Get Fair's book, all that is covered there.

"William Edenborn was the founder of the LR&N. He was born in Wilhelm Emden in Germany in 1848. He came to America at the age of 19 to make his fortune. He worked in the steel wire business. By the time he was 22, he and a partner had their own small wire mill in St. Louis. He came to specialize in barbed wire by 1882, which is when his business really took off. He became known as "the man who fenced the West." Around 1901, he sold all of his wire industries to United States Steel for $50 million. He had begun building the Shreveport & Red River Valley Railroad in 1896, which he renamed the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company in 1903. It reached New Orleans in 1907. Edenborn also acquired a rail route between Shreveport and Dallas, which became the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company of Texas. Whereas other railways were corporations, the LR&N was a sole proprietorship. He filed ICC documents as "William Edenborn, doing business as Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company." Both Edenborn and the LR&N were very frugal. He would sometimes go out along the track himself and collect loose spikes and other scrap into little piles for his men to come along and pick up to be sold. He was one of the richest man in the USA when he died in 1926. At that time, he and his wife Sarah lived in an ordinary home on Doodle James Road off LA 471 between Atlanta and New Verda in southwestern Winn Parish. He's buried in Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport".

He goes on speaking of the original route the train took from Naples to Angola. It is not often you are treated by what sounds like a teacher, "The original LR&N line diverged from the current KCS alignment at Moreauville, right at the center cross hairs of the map HERE. Drag the map with your mouse and follow the dashed line northeastward past Borodino, Voorhies, and Bordelonville, then eastward and southeastward until it strikes the Red River (formerly Old River) at the second "E" in the word "AVOYELLES." That was the location of Naples, the first ferry landing. From the time that the LR&N was built until the Simmesport bridge opened in 1928, the ferries plied the waters the whole distance from Naples to the opposite landing at Angola on the east side of the Mississippi River. Now you know why "Navigation" was part of the company name!

In 1928, the widow Sarah Edenborn sold her railroad to the Couch family interests of Arkansas, who simultaneously acquired the Louisiana & Arkansas. Both were combined under the L&A name. The Simmesport bridge was a joint project of the L&A and the state, because LA 1 also ran across it until the 1970's. To reach the new bridge, the L&A obtained trackage rights on an existing T&P branch line between Moreauville and Simmesport. (The T&P line went south on the west bank of the Atchafalaya River from Simmesport to the T&P main line at Melville.) Now, drag the last map to Simmesport. From the east side of the Atchafalaya River at Legonier, you can easily follow the dashed "old railroad grade" eastward to the Mississippi River just above a gauging station shown on the map. This was the approximate location of the L&A's Filston ferry landing. The precise Filston premises have been erased by the meanderings of the river. As you can imagine, the Simmesport bridge and this new line to Filston greatly speeded L&A's schedules to New Orleans by shortening the ferry voyage by miles!"

He goes on to mention some of the stuff I have said, but you needed a review, anyway.

"The other old railroad grade in northern Pointe Coupee Parish, the one from Lettsworth to Torras, was part of a T&P branch that went from the main line at Addis up the west side of the Mississippi River all the way to Ferriday. The 1928 L&A line crossed it just west of Filston". [Torras Junction]

Here I continued arguing with myself: If Torras Junction was "just west" of Filston, then the present day Angola crossing can't be the crossing because "just west" would not describe the almost 4 miles from Torras Junction to the present Angola crossing.

He continues, " The Kansas City Southern (previously extending only between Kansas City and Port Arthur via Shreveport) acquired the L&A [Prviously Edenborn's RR] in 1939. The 1940 opening of the US 190/rail bridge on the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge would give the KCS the opportunity to scrap the ferry crossing entirely and begin operation of the famed Southern Belle streamlined passenger trains between Kansas City and New Orleans. In preparation for this, KCS built another new line segment, this time between Legonier and Lettsworth, and got trackage rights over T&P's existing line between Lettsworth and Lobdell Junction just west of the new bridge. The rest of the T&P line north of Lettsworth was abandoned at some time afterward. That left the current arrangement of tracks".

[The Belle actually was using the old tracks to Torras Junction when that bad wreck occurred, referring to Fair's book]

Back to the ride:

C.Al and I turned off of 418 right after going under the RR overpass. Right before the overpass, on the north side, there is a lumber business. The gate to the right of it goes to the right of way to the Legionier to Torras Junction section.

We rode up as close to the bridge as I now feel comfortable. There are no "No Trespassing" signs until the actual bridge. A deputy did question me there one time as if I was a terrorist. I guess he'd gotten some Homeland Security training and was practicing. He did a good job. He asked who my Mama was and more.

C.Alphonso had to check on the dogs and Willy. His wife, Tooty, said all was well but the washing machine was leaking and his sister had won first prize at the Boudin Festival. He was vague about what contest she had entered.



I have a hundred pictures of this bridge. This is not one of the better, but it is the one at hand. First, I got CA to step back.



Now the bridge.



Which opens the door for more of my visitor's additions.

"Did you ever notice that the KCS bridge at Simmesport and the UP bridge at Krotz Springs have one pier each that has been replaced by an arrangement of two piers (one on either side of the line of track) spanned by a cast concrete header beam that supports the bridge structure? [ME: no] That is because each of them had one pier that got undermined by the river, began to lean, and had to be replaced".

He continues, "Once, many years ago at Krotz Springs, I was told a story by an elder gentleman. He said that during one of the great floods, the rail bridge there was vibrating dangerously from the force of the current against its piers. The railroad decided that it would vibrate less if they'd park a heavy train on it. So, they brought in what they had available, a loaded train of coal. That helped some, but the vibration was enough to cause friction between the coal and the steel of the cars. When the heat built up enough, the coal caught afire, and the whole train of coal went up in smoke on the bridge. I have no idea how true this story might be. I have asked most other Louisiana rail historians if they could confirm it, and none could".

"The Krotz Springs rail bridge was built in 1909. Contemporary with the opening of the new rail/highway bridge at Simmesport in 1928,[where we are]. The Krotz Springs bridge was similarly adapted for highway use. This lasted only until the first highway bridge was built parallel to it during the 1930's".

It is amazing what some people know. Next party, just start spewing this stuff out and you'll be the hit. Guaranteed.

One more picture. This one is La.Highway 1 getting ready to cross Edenborn's Bridge.



Another visitor said that his dad or granddad would cross this bridge in the family car. There were times he had to back up quickly. He said he's crossed it on foot.

I could dig that. Hope you've enjoyed this little adventure. I know, for some, it has been a little tedious with all the text. This one has also demonstrated that history, though very interesting, can be a pain in the butt. I don't ask for much in life, but I would like the coordinates of the Filston Landing and the Angola side landings. I may have a few more questions, also.

Oh, C.Alphonso de LaSalle said, "HI".

Update/Thesis and a fact of life: Sometimes you have to go with what you got.

I found this online as part of a very old book (Depression era) of tours through LA.



Doing the math between the two locations' distances, it come out to 1.8 miles between the two. From Torras to the present Angola landing is 3.4 miles, way too far. The exact location of the Filston landing is also mentioned as being washed away. I also read that the Filston landing was at the location of a river stage monitoring station. I firmly believe we were there at Torras Landing. I'm open to any suggestion and would appreciate any grounded argument.

ALSO, THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE DESOTO DIED AND WAS "BURIED" IN THE RIVER HE FOUND.



More:

Keith just sent me a map which I augmented. Now I see a wye for turning the trains at the Torras Landing where we were. I am convinced, 100% that we were at the spot.

One map is from my gps, the other is from Keith. CLICK THEM TO ENLARGE







Naples Update

From time to time I get some real gems in the mail. This was one of them. As some may have suspected, I am awe stricken with the concept of trains being transported on steamboats across treacherous waters such as the Red, Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers. Seems there are others. Here's his note, I have put in a few links to the places he mentions.


Back to Naples, Angola, etc...

I live in Big Bend just a few mile down the bayou from the old iron bridge where the museum is.[open in new window and check out the next 2 pages to see the Bayou DesGlaises Bridge and trail to Naples]

I like to ride my old three wheeler around here, and have been out to Naples numerous times. There's still an old clay brick structure, not sure what it is, but it's running over with what looks to be coal. There are some concrete blocks and pillars out there, too. At the museum at the iron bridge, there are some pictures of the boats [at Naples] while the operation was still going. In one of them you can see some old posts and what I would call a "dock" for lack of better term. Those posts are still out there in the woods on a big slope, which I'm assuming is the old riverbank. If you look at Google Earth, you can clearly see the old meandering lines where the river has moved away a bit, and what is now called "Martin Bay" would have been part of it. If you follow that it bends around and crosses Turn Bull Island about in the middle of the two channels that are there now. I firmly believe that's the stretch of water the ferries used back then. The mileage adds up according to the old descriptions of the route I've found. Anyway, I've never been too sure of where the Angola landing was. The info on your page is the most I've ever seen about it. The pictures of the bank you have and the road leading out there, is what I've always referred to as "the sand levee". At least that's the only name I know it by. People like to go camp out there in the summer when the water is low, there's a big sand bar that pops up.

Back to Naples, again. This summer I wanted to ride out there and see what things looked like, but the land has changed hands and gates have been put up on all the roads going back there. It used to all be part of a hunting club and I knew a few members, and never had any problems going back there. Now it's a new club that's got it, and apparently they want to keep people out. One day I was passing by and decided to ride as far back as the gate, and when I got there it was open, so I kept going. The road goes to the river bank, right downstream from where the town [Naples] was sitting. When I got to the river there was a big sign that said I was being monitored by infrared video systems and that trespassing was prohibited, so I went no further! There was another sign though, that read "Naples Plantation, LLC". When I got home I searched the web for that name, and found a record where a guy from Baton Rouge applied for the corporation name, and it gave his name and address. That name and address came back to a law firm in Baton Rouge, the guy's last name was one of the three lawyers. I decided not to bother him about it then, but one day I'd like to ask his permission to go back and take some pictures.

That reminds me of the old concrete pillars [LR&N crossing of Bayou Des Glaises near Big Bend] in the bayou where the train crossed. You saw the railroad grade leading out across the field from there towards Naples. A friend and I walked that whole thing from the bayou, to the river bank at Naples one day, including wading across the water along the way in one of the low areas. There are remnants of the old wood bridges that crossed them too. I had taken many pictures along the way, and at Naples too. Unfortunately I lost them when a hard drive died in my old computer.

One day I'll stop by the old museum at the iron bridge again and look at the old pictures he's got. I've only been in there twice even though it's just a few miles down the road from me. I'd like to go through all the old stuff in there. I started asking about Naples the second time I was there, and he got out a folder with old tickets and passenger lists from the trains that crossed.

I see you've got an appreciation for the train bridge at Simmesport too. I've been around, under, and on that one a number of times as well. There's trails that pass under it on the Simmesport side, where the kids from town ride ATVs. I found them riding around as a teenager myself. I've spent a few summer days laying out on the middle pillars below the bridge, waiting for the boats to pass. The old road still runs from the end of the bridge to the ramp where it left the tracks in town. It's almost grown over now though. I still like to ride out there and stop to look at the bridge.

ME:

I did have a picture of where the highway had descended off of the train bridge on the Simmesport side, but I dumped it because it just looked like a hill of weeds.

Further: This note was really inspiring to me. It was written not by someone reminiscing of a long ago personal past, but by a 25 year old who just digs history and looking at old train bridges. There is hope for the next generation.