HISTORY HUNTS WAREHOUSE: The Smithfield Ride: Discovery and Disappointment

Virgil said it was time for a History Hunt. That was after I threw him a bunch of pictures gathered in a lingering obsession with a rail route which went, and still does go north from Baton Rouge to Alexandria.
CLICK HERE for that group of pictures which represent the stretch of rails between BR and New Roads.

The portion within which I became interested is the Smithfield Plantaion above Baton Rouge. I'd discovered it on a 2009 ride along North River Road, La.415, between Baton Rouge and New Roads. I think my interest then was the post Katrina devastation that had lingered for four years and probably had nothing to do with railroads. In 2010 I went back with railroads on my mind but with no academic preparation. This time I had prepared even to the extent of transferring the supposed route of the actual obsession, the newly discovered Smithfield Plantation RR's route to my GPS. That ain't easy but surprisingly my guesses about driveways and bald places did line up somewhat with my guesses on the route which were pretty rough, no, really rough and probably wrong. I've always said that two wrongs make a right and I was very happy with what bubbled up out of the computer.. The railroad was about eight miles long. I attempted to find about 6 of it. I was dead on for about two. I was shaky on the remaining four but who knows?

I'd discarded this ride report until a contributor chimed in that he wasn't feeling that well and had plenty of time to read. That seemed like a suicide note to me.

This is a ride report. I'm not going into the bales of history I have on the area. That may be left in the achieves as I'd probably transcribe it wrong any way.

Presentations are arduous and my audience has dwindled. That was my decision. So, this is the no frills account on the ride for a few that might be passingly interested in seeing the landscape and a few old rails stuck in the mud. Here we go:

This one is so lacking in excitement I'm going to emphasize boring with a mundane start. LZ had gone off to Florida. He did not say where so we all know his destination. Grown men shy away from saying that they are going to you know where. I know he will return wearing mouse ears.
Update as this write is taking forever.
He didn't go to Ears Land but to try out his new Speedeaux at a beach frequented by the college
crowd which had all gone home, probably in anticipation of his arrival.

Upon exiting he more or less assigned me to finish up the Port Barre-Barriger picture evaluation. I don't go to Port Barre everyday like I once did so I had to formulate a plan to answer the question about what appeared to be rails across the mainline tracks but were not. I won't bore you with the pictures. I now know where the water tank and sugar mill were. Historic puzzles are like all others. If a few pieces start fitting then the rest follow. I really don't know that but it sounded good.

Urg, He has now challenged my findings so there will be no PB rails presentation pictures.

Now I've done it. I've written too much and I'll have to proof read it.

This write will feature short captions of incomplete sentences and redundant pictures.

The Teche at Jennings Road.

Jennings Road connects La.103 to US 190 if you are liberal with that explanation.

This is the water tower at PB. It is in the same location as the water tower in the picture ....

I moved on after taking the rail and road pictures as I wanted to put Mr. Barriger to rest.

Krotz Springs: UP at work.

Leveling outhouses.
Have you ever fallen backwards into one? Have you ever fallen frontwards into one?
Have you every been in one when it was inverted?
Drink in moderation or not at all.
Do not hang with people that do.

Track to the back.

Continuation of track to the back.

The famous water tower at Arnaudville.

Levee and old bridge.
Ever try to use a clutch on a dramatic uphill start?
Ever do it on a motorcycle?
Ever do it when the road was off camber?
The cop station is right behind me so there was no cruising trough the stop sign.

Old RR bridge never seen on this site before.

La.81, Blanks, La. Disappointment 1. The Smith Plantation buildings will fall soon.

I have met the relative in charge. Its deterioration was expected.

When in good shape.

Much poorer shape.

Much much poorer shape.

Disappointment 2. The fine historic wooden lumber yard warehouse is Gone.

Actually, it wasn't a "fine historic historic wooden lumber yard warehouse".
It was a fine old steel sided warehouse.

It is bigger. Now maybe that lumber can be out of the weather.

Back on US 190 east of Livonia. Aggregates.

This is where the Erwinville Branch of the Missouri Pacific RR began
east of Erwinville (Its US 190 presence)

An overwhelming numbers of historic rail seekers has caused the farmer to erect a gate, sadly.

I left US 190 and proceeded north to scour the neighborhoods for signs of the Smithfield RR.
Yes, neighborhoods. Erwinville is obviously a bedroom community of Baton Rouge.

Picture numbers (s1, s2, etc) correspond to the like numbered pictures below.

Numbers 6 - 12 map location numbers can only be seen by Premium Members.

La.413 (not an "s" number)

Smithfield Plantaion RR Road.

The limestone is probably left from the railroad.
No, I was kidding, don't write.

Actually, they laid it because I called ahead.

I started thinking that maybe I was not on the "tracks" but those were them across the ditch.

I jumped the ditch and stood on them.
I was higher than the crops.
Stop it. You know what I meant.
No, I don't think it was dirt from the ditch.

I should have looked for spikes.
Then I saw them.

Looking closer into the ditch a rail appeared next to the snake. Fool you too, huh?

They were being used to fortify the cross ditch culverts.

Some were off duty.

I was hoping for ties. Maybe, but I don't think so.

Back on this side of the road, the old rail remained.

You just visited the highlight of the ride thus the number of revisiting shots.

Having saved for eternity the vision of the Smithfield rails, I crossed the KCS tracks.

Then I went back and shot each way. South.

North

North with blue sign.

West side of tracks looking north up the power line ROW.
Look, there is another rail!!!

The T&P had serviced the mill at Smithfield.
I just noticed something.
There are 2 spurs.
There was a somewhat similar setup at Catherin down the line.

These are old pictures seen before.
Back then I came in from a cane road that was on the south.

It goes behind the old mill.

This is the mill's backside.

I had 2 pictures so I used them.

I had approached from the river in this set of pictures.

Taken from Smithfield Rd you can see the road going across the levee. There is a large peninsula
called Solitude Point out there. It had tracks on it also. Take my word on that.

Heading back toward the mill.

I included a recent picture to bridge the space.

Back at the old T&P, here are the rails coming off the main.

They are Gone or so over grown I could not find them.

Disappointment No.3 or 4 .

Turning back toward the mill and the river they continued.

They crossed the road and headed up the side of the mill and warehouses.

An old home was between the mill and the river.

Back at La.415 I went south to see what I'd only been able to see from the satellite.

Here are the rails across the levee at Solitude Point.(another mystery)

I'd found this place in 2009. I had no idea.

You can see the relationship between the "big house" and the mill.
The little house would be near the mill.

The mill from above. The black line is the KCS RR (once the T&P RR)

Next, I'd head toward Baton Rouge.
The map below is a 800 times magnification of a 1937 topo map.
The Huey P.Long Bridge was not open so you see US 190 curving south. The
new approach was under construction.
My target was Lobdell.
I didn't know it but I'd been there many times.

Notice the 2 spurs coming off the main to the left of "Lobell". Those went to the Catherine Plantation whose
"stack" still stands.

From Smithfield I headed south turning toward the rails were I could.
Detail is not going to happen as I'm getting tired and that's reason enough.
La.620.

Little country churches have always been a picture opt.
The imitation stone on its sides was interesting.
It is made of metal plate and I'm guessing that was popular in the early 1900's.
The appearance of tone gave the architecture a sense of permanency.
Banks often used it.

Check out the bell. Had it come from a plantation?

Next was Disappointment No. 5 or 6, Orange Grove Plantation Store.
If you know anything about plantations, you know the store was the center of the worker captive economy.

Next was Winterville

Interesting stuff.

I will bet it has something to do with inter-company relations.

Map Review and Update.

Allendale would be the road where you see "Old Stone" above.
There are sharecropper homes here. Possibly they were even slave homes.
Some have been updated and are being lived in. The others are going back to dust.

Two family condos.

The "Quarters" refers to where the slaves lived.

I turned on Catherine.

The stack lay straight ahead.

I should have looked for evidence of the spurs.

This is Catherine's front on the rails.
Catherine is where I place those 2 spurs.
US 190 can bee seen over the sugarcane.

From the Catherine Crossing.

Looking back north.toward Winterville.

I'd go south down that road.
This is an old GE photo.
The pink marks are route marks.

So neither you nor I get lost, here are my tracks in search of the tracks.
These pictures were taken at "CATA" and along the south side of the rails
moving toward "Kansas City Southern".

This is after I crossed under US190. I am sitting between the 2 lanes.

I'd hop the 4 lane and go north.on La.415 to historic Lobdell Station.
GE pic below.

There was a place called Lida Grove. I inserted the labeling.
It was north of Lobdell Station.
The street below the rails is Lydia.
Could the street name guy have gotten it wrong?