Lower Grand River Flooding 2021

The Water Comes Faster, Deeper & Drains Slower … Residents Are Getting Sick And Tired It… 

Bayou  Pigeon  Fire Department  - Hwy. 75 Sand Bag Depot

Pictorial Essay Of The Flooding April 2021

  

Bayou  Pigeon,LA. April 2021

Residents on Lower Grand River, Bayou Sorrel, Bayou  Pigeon, Pierre Part, Belle  River, and  Stephenville are getting sick and tired of flooding every time we get a hard rain. 

Imagine  living  with that every heavy rain means that the river is  going to rise and spill over it’s banks and flood your yard? 

Having to elevate the HVAC, electrical equipment and  dealing  with sediment  and debris laden water.

Spiders and snakes swarm during these floods.

Real estate  studies indicate that the price of a residential property located within a flood zone  is significantly lower than an otherwise similar house located outside the flood zone. On average, a location  that has flooded lowers  property  value about 8%.  If a property is prone to flooding  from 15 – 60%

Cost from business interruptions, and on  and on.

The Week of 4 / 12 / 2021 Flood waters were  moving down Lower Grand River to the Bayou Sorrel, Bayou  Pigeon (Iberville Parish). To  Belle River (Lower St Martin Parish), and Pierre Part (Western  Assumption Parish)   and 4 Mile Bayou & Stephenville flooding businesses, residences  and camps  along the Lower Grand  River and distributaries  and inundating low lying areas. 

There are real Iberville Parish residents  and campers dealing  with this to often.  People in Bayou Sorrel, Bayou  Pigeon, Pierre Part, Belle  River, and  Stephensville are getting sick and tired of flooding every time we get a hard rain. 

Hwy. 75 Verrett’s Shipyard  @ Jack Millers  Landing 

Hwy. 75 Verrett’s Shipyard  @ Jack Millers  Landing 

Bayou Sorrel Hwy 75

Bayou Sorrel Hwy 75 @ Pete Kelly’s Crawfish Dock & Bait Shop 

Mike  U.  Hwy  75  Bayou  Pigeon …not  again…

Hwy  75 No Relief …

Having to Paddle  your boat  to your door every day, T Lloyd  Hebert

Bayou  Pigeon Phillips Camp April 2021 Indigo  Bayou Area

Camp  Sanguine April 2021 Bayou  Pigeon ,Indigo  Bayou Area

Bayou  Pigeon Clay  Coleman The  Shack April  2021

Bayou Pigeon - The Blanchard Home  at  Indigo Bayou  - April 2021 

Bryan Vaughn  - Boo’s Campground - Bayou  Pigeon Road -April 2021

Vehicle Traffic No Wake  Zone Barrier - Some People Won't Listen

St. Joseph Church - Pierre Part, LA. - Bayou  Pierre Part

Parker Conrad Flood Control Plan Map  c 1980

I Became Aware  Of This Parker Conrad Plan /Map For First Time  4 /14 / 2021

I had not seen  this map before. In my 10 years of research in writing two books about the Atchafalaya Basin.

 

The map was posted on facebook, by Mr. Gregory Hedges of  Pierre Part, (a fellow  alligator  hunter), who got it from his dad, Johnson Hedges.  Greg posted  the map to point out that the overbank flooding  that was  coming to our area was going to take some  time  to drain, because it was  all the rainfall coming a large area.

In 1979, The Atchafalaya Basin Management Group comprised of the U S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisiana officials, the federal Department of the Interior and Environmental Protection Agency began a series public meetings to determine how to "Save the Basin" for Wildlife  and Fisheries wetlands, Oil & gas industries and and at same time  maintain Flood Control. 

Parker Conrad, of Conrad Industries that builds tugs, barges, pushboats, liftboats, ferries and many other vessels. Was concerned about how extreme flooding  at Morgan City  in 1973 and future was threating  the economic  security of Morgan City.

Mr. Conrad produced  his own Flood Control Plan!

I  found the map extremely interesting  for  many reasons and  plus the fact I love looking  at old maps  and pictures  from the past.

1. The main reason, it clearly illustrates the boundaries of the Atchafalaya East Watershed and  the Lafourche / Terrebonne  drainage basin, ie., A Picture Is  Worth A Thousand Words. 

 

2. It is easy to see how large this  area is and compare to the  size of the floodway. That it can capture a lot of rainfall.

I wrote about how this new drainage basin came  about in my book,’ Heritage of the Atchafalaya, A Natural and Cultural History of the Atchafalaya Basin. Basically it exist because of the construction the Atchafalaya Floodway.

Before there was an Atchafalaya Floodway 

Before the creation of the  Atchafalaya  Floodway and the USACE became responsible for allocating the waters in the annual flood pulse  through the  floodway, extreme local  rainfall spread out because it had a large area to spread out The water went where it pleased, and people could not do much  about it.  

There was not  the overbank flooding we see today on the lower Grand River. 

After reviewing the Parker Conrad map I could easily see it  validated the current Bayou Chene Automated Barge Floodgate Structure, project which is under construction to alleviate  Backwater Flooding  caused by extreme flood conditions occurring inside the Lower Atchafalaya Floodway.

In my online / internet  research  I quickly realized, that backwater flooding  and overbank flooding are  different.  Both are complicated  but overbank flooding appears to me to be more  of a complex situation. No kidding...

Let Me  explain:

Relative to Backwater flooding, it is COMPLICATED, but the things  that are causing the backwater flooding can be separated and dealt with in a systematic and logical way.

Whereas  the overbank  flooding along Lower Grand River is  a little  more COMPLEX.  

Complex issues are ones in which you can't get a firm handle on the parts /components of situation.  There is extraordinarily little order, control, or predictability.  

Overbank flooding, you  can't control the weather,  predict when extreme rain is going to hit and how much it is going to rain.  

In my Six  Sigma training in an earlier career, I was taught it is best try to  'managed through' complex  situations, until you have  lots of  long-term data to make strategic decisions versus trying to  solve it quickly.

Thus, this latest round of exceptional heavy rain this past week (4 14 2021 over 13” in a 3-day period in Southwest  Iberville Parish area) That  is flooding Bayou  Grosse Tete  and over bank flooding  Lower Grand  River  with as much as 6 ft rise in  some places  would have not occurred  before the  creation of the  floodway.

Which begs the question, why is this extreme rainfall  and resultant overbank  flooding occurring more frequently, often several times in one year.  

Is it related  to Climate change?

The climate is warming! the climate is cooling! We’re all gonna die! 

The answer is...all of the  above. Folks just need to chill out and understand that climate’s gonna climate, and there’s not that much we can  do  about it.

If you really want more information about  Climate Change,  I suggest you read, “Dark, Cold Years Are Coming, So You’d Better Get Ready”.

file:///C:/Users/clegr/Desktop/Documents/Dark,%20Cold%20Years%20Are%20Coming,%20So%20You%E2%80%99d%20Better%20Get%20Ready%20-%20American%20Thinker.html

Has it more to do  with the  Atchafalaya  Floodway System Than  Climate  Change?

Without a doubt, high water years in  the Floodway  and backwater  flooding are occurring more often.   I can remember my first recall of the back water flooding 50 years  ago,  1973 / 74.

May 1973 The Eloyd & Florence Blanchard Home  At  Indigo Bayou; 

Compare to same Picture  y 2021 above - Water Level Approximate;  No Different Than 50 Years Ago, I.e.., 1973 To April 2021

Those years  are  still considered  highwater markers  for flooding  along the Lower Grand  River.

Just maybe it took  the 40 years between   1930’s  and 1973  for the manmade changes  to the  Atchafalaya Basin rivers, streams  and  landscape to reach an inflection point, severe backwater  and over bank flooding.

Personally , I am inclined  to believe, that the more frequent high water  in the  Atchafalaya  Basin and subsequent backwater and / or extreme rainfall  overbank flooding in the  Lower Grand  River Drainage Basin  is a natural outcrop of exponential growth and progress of mid  America and  poor or no water / sediment management. 

 

Not  the apocalyptic talk of climate change by  global warming zealots.

Since 1973, 1974, 1975 there has been back water flooding in years 1979, 1983,1997, 2002, 2008, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. 

Overbank Flooding  at Bayou Pigeon is not new.

OverBank Flooding at Bayou  Pigeon 1974

USACE AeriaL Photo 1974

USACE AeriaL Photo 1974

The Atchafalaya Floodway System  Levees

The Atchafalaya Floodway system was designed and built to protect agricultural areas and towns along and in the Mississippi river valley flood plain from flooding  by using the  flood way when necessary to contain excess floodwaters of the Mississippi and Red Rivers on their way south to the Gulf of Mexico.

The  core of the  floodway are two levees  approximately 15 miles apart.

The East Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee (EABPL). The levee begins at the lower end of the east guide levee of the Morganza Floodway extends southward to and from Morgan City to the Avoca Island Cutoff, and includes the Bayou Boeuf and Bayou Sorrel locks. The length of this system is 106.7 miles. 

The West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee (WABPL). The levee begins near the town of Hamburg, where it joins the Bayou des Glaises fuse plug levee. It extends in a south and southeasterly direction to the Wax Lake Outlet at the latitude of the East and West Calumet Floodgates and thence eastward through Berwick to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. This levee extends 128.7 miles and connects with 3 miles of flood wall along the front of the town of Berwick.

I  do not believe the people who created the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway plan  and the Floodway itself in the 1930’s  at that time considered thought  of any consequences regarding  natural drainage  outside of the  new floodway when designing it. 

Unintended Consequences  - The Lafourche - Terrebonne Drainage Basin

One  consequence  of landscape  change  by building the floodway was the creation of a new drainage system, it is now known as the The Lafourche / Terrebonne drainage Basin. 

It falls naturally between the Atchafalaya Floodway East Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee ( EABPL)) and the Mississippi River natural alluvial ridge.  It covers an area extending approximately 120 miles from the Mississippi River on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. It varies in width from 18 miles to 70 miles.

Local Rain Fall / Water drainage east of  the floodway is totally between the EABPL  and Mississippi  alluvial ridge levees and has to drain through this  area.

 

I suppose it should have been considered  in the design phase how this new  drainage basin would interact over time with  the Atchafalaya  floodway.  

Such things as the effects of progress , like new  / more impervious surfaces like superhighways, streets and pavement, driveways, house roofs, shopping centers, Malls, etc.! 

A significant portion of rainfall in watersheds is absorbed into soils (infiltration), is stored as groundwater, and is slowly discharged to streams through seeps and springs. Flooding is less significant in these conditions because some of the runoff during a storm is absorbed into the ground, thus lessening the amount of runoff into a stream during the storm.

As watersheds are urbanized, much of the vegetation is replaced by impervious surfaces, thus reducing the area where infiltration to groundwater can occur.

When it rains the water no longer seeps into the ground, but now runs off into storm drains and then quickly into local streams / canals.

Couple this with inevitable  periodic extreme rain conditions at the same time as the Mississippi River annual flood pulse is passing through the Atchafalaya floodway and it seems like  someone should have brought up the question.

Today it is pretty obvious  that any extreme flow  in the  floodway overwhelms the exit of the water in  the Lafourche / Terrebonne  drainage Basin to the Gulf of Mexico  and Slows The Drainage, thus you  have extensive back water flooding.

I discuss this Lafourche drainage basin, in my book 'Heritage of the Atchafalaya Basin", on page 101.

USACE Flood Control  Strategy / Plan For Entire Mississippi River Valley

                        USACE Flood Control  Plan For Entire Mississippi River Valley

USACE Flood Control  Plan For Entire Mississippi River Valley

In  Louisiana, besides the Mississippi River,   3  floodways (West Atchafalaya Floodway, Morganza Floodway  and the Lower Atchafalaya Floodway) play a vital part of moving annual flood pulse of the Mississippi River Valley  through Louisiana to Gulf Of Mexico

Understand  the purpose of the USACE  and thus  the Atchafalaya Floodway is to control what is known as a 1000-year flood in the Mississippi River Valley.  Greater than the Great Flood  of 1927.

Let’s Talk About About Back Water Flooding  & Some Interesting Things About  The Parker Conrad Map / Plan, At Least They Are To Me

As I studied the map / plan, I realized, it purports to be an  alternative strategy / plan to the USACE ‘Project Flood” plan in the lower Atchafalaya  Floodway.

The USACE Atchafalaya Basin Flood Control plan passes  a the largest portion of the water diverted  (30 / 70) from the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya Floodway through  The  Atchafalaya  River main Channel  at Morgan city. A lesser portion of the flow through the Wax Lake Outlet.   This has been  the plan since the 1960’s. 

The Parker Conrad plan  validates that  the back water flooding that was occurring in the lower Lafourche-Terrebonne drainage basin above Morgan City was related  to  any extreme conditions  in the annual flood pulse passing through Morgan City.  

The problem is there has been an extreme  annual flood pulse, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1979, 1983,1997, 2002, 2008, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. 

The Parker Conrad plan recognized in 1980  that something had  changed … sedimentation had changed the hydrology of Atchafalaya River Basin and  the annual flood pulse   was extreme most of the time, ‘too much water, too fast and staying to long’.

 

Why wasn’t The Parker Conrad plan  given more  consideration  than it received in 1980.  One reason could be, at the time it was as 'mind boggling' as the  first plan was to create the Atchafalaya  Floodway in the  first place in 1928 / 29.  

His plan called  for blocking / controlling the annual flood pulse through the Atchafalaya River at Morgan City with a Lock & Dam structure, and  diverting the entire flow of the Atchafalaya River through the Wax Lake Outlet.

Mind Boggling  proposals of the Parker Conrad plan :

This plan recognized / devised a plan   for the Backwater flooding in  the Lafourche / Terrebonne drainage basin over 40  years ago!  

The map identifies the bottleneck causing the Backwater  flooding problem, ie., the Avoca Island  Cutoff at confluence with Atchafalaya River below Morgan City.

Parker Conrad  plan - A Bigger Outlet to the Gulf  at Wax Lake 

In the bottom left hand corner of the map, it shows  a proposed  spillway two miles wide, with plans to carry 100 % of Atchafalaya river flow under normal, I assume   that means including annual  flood pulse conditions.

Background  info on The Wax  Lake Outlet 

Wax Lake was a lake in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana that was converted into an outlet channel, the Wax Lake outlet, to divert water from the Atchafalaya River to the Gulf of Mexico. 

The Wax Lake Channel was created by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1942 to divert 30 percent of the flow from the Atchafalaya River to the Gulf of Mexico and reduce flood stages at Morgan City, Louisiana. The  channel is approximately 15 miles long that begins at Six Mile Lake (and the "Charenton Drainage and Navigation Canal", that began at Bayou Teche in Baldwin, LA.

The Avoca  Island  Cutoff / Bayou Chene area, has been a major conduit for  this backwater flooding. 

Back water  flooding through  Bayou Chene is enhanced & facilitated  by a  navigation channel maintained  20 ft deep and 400 ft wide.

Avoca Island / Bayou Chene   Channel

2021 - Current  Project At Avoca Island Cutoff / Bayou Chene To Reduce Backwater Flooding

Gov. John Bel Edwards Announced in 2020 Construction will start on Permanent Floodgate at Bayou Chene in St. Mary Parish.  The projection is underway at the time of this writing.  

High water events in the Atchafalaya Basin, have precipitated  backwater flooding in the parishes of St. Mary, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Martin, Assumption.   

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and St. Mary Parish Levee District (SMLD) are overseeing construction of the automated barge floodgate.

Diagram of Backwater flow through  Avoca Island  Cutoff  / Bayou Chene 

 

Artist Illustration Completed  Automated Barge Floodgate

Diagram of water flow to gulf when Automated Barge  flood control structure is  closed

The flood pulse eventually reaches  Lake Palourde  and is diverted through Amelia and  Bayou L’ourse and out  to Bayou Black and the Gulf of Mexico.

Problem Solved  For Bayou  Sorrel, Bayou Pigeon, Likely Not

Problem #1 Water / Sediment Management...

Lower Grand River in Iberville  and Iberia parish  have experienced rapid and substantial amounts of sediment deposition since the 1960's.  Particularly between the Bayou  Sorrel  Locks & Belle River. 

Severely aggraded and silted up areas of the Lower  Grand River  channel are holding back the water flow especially around the Bayou Pigeon Pontoon Swing bridge. 

Dredging  and channelization of Lower Grand River has not occurred  since the 1920’s.  In fact it may have not been dredged  for over 100 years.

Note the dates and depths of the dredging.

Documentation of last dredging in  Lower Grand  river

Barge Traffic on Lower Grand River at Bayou  Pigeon c 1950's or early 60's

Some local residents  say that  since the Grand River at Bayou Pigeon is no longer part of the Alternate  route of the Intracoastal waterway, ie, since the Bayou Sorrel  Lock.  The lack of barge traffic  does not help scour to keep channel open anymore.

Problem #2 - The Pontoon Swing Bridges On  Lower  Grand  River

The Bayou Sorrel pontoon-style bridge, built in 1964, carries La. 75 over Upper Grand River and Bayou Sorrel in Iberville Parish. 

Lower Grand River Bridge, Bridge Recall # 054480 constructed in 1957 /58 opened in 1959.  Carries traffic  from Louisiana Hwy. 75  to Highway LA 997) over Bayou Pigeon/Lower Grand River, Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, LA

When the Lower Grand River water level gets high, the bridge master pumps water into the Bridge  barge  to lower it into the water column so it is level enough for vehicular traffic to cross; otherwise the bridge would be too high above the ramps.  As a result the sunken bridge restricts the water flow even more, and especially at a time when maximum drainage flow is needed to allow the floodwater to drain downstream.

It has been said that the water level  elevation  on the north side of the  Bayou Sorrel Pontoon Bridge and the  south  side of the bayou  Pigeon Pontoon Bridge is as much as  11”.

If that difference can be validated, it means they are an significant impediment  to rapid drainage.

Which begs the question why the bridges can’t be in open position in the wee hours in the morning 11 PM to 4 AM except in cases of emergency.  There is essentially no barge traffic in The lower Grand river below the Bayou Sorrel lock

Note:  There are pontoon bridges at Belle River  and Pierre Part.

Problem# 3 - Lock  Structures 

Bayou Sorrell Lock on Lower  Grand River

Bayou Sorrel Lock & Dam

Lock structures have guidelines by water stages on when they cannot allow Boat traffic or leave open the lock gates. Boat traffic is ceased  at 6.5 ft at the Bayou Sorrel  Lock gauge. 

Even though  boat traffic  is  stopped the  lock gates remains  closed. You  would think opening the  lock gates,  that it would let some of the high water into the  Atchafalaya  Floodway, where there are no residents.

I presume the USACE has data to say the  flood pulse flow inside floodway  would overwhelm the Lower Grand River flow  and cause back water flow. 

An alternative proposal is a  large volume pump station somewhere north of Bayou Sorrel  lock to pump water over the levee into the Atchafalaya Basin during extreme rainfall  and  overbank  flooding. ( probably the most effective cost technology)

“Which brings to this point”

Will  the Bayou Chene Automated Barge Flood Gate alleviate all, most or some of the extreme Rain Water over bank flooding below Jack Millers Landing , through Bayou Sorrel, Bayou  Pigeon? 

Without addressing Water / Sediment  management and the pontoon bridges  situation and not being able to move  some of the high water out of Lower Grand  River  to the Atchafalaya Floodway. 

I think the answer is at best some relief  and most likely very little to none.

The water will still go out very slow.   Even if the  annual Atchafalaya Flood Pulse is  average.

Just saying …  We are still screwed !

Overbank Flooding Is An Economic Threat To Iberville Parish 

Overbank flooding is a threat to the sustainability and growth of the entire Lower  Grand River corridor. The Bayou  Pigeon Heritage Association is a voice for our local community we are pushing for flood protection that is critical to our survival and that will help us continue to improve our community and the ‘Down the Bayou’ part of  Iberville Parish.

Iberville  Parish  - The Eastern Gateway  To The  Atchafalaya

 

Bayou  Pigeon is the center point in the between I 10  and HWY 90

 

Bayou  Pigeon The Only Authentic Cajun Community In Iberville Parish

Aim Straight

Cliff LeGrange

Ms. Anite Hebert Gaudet Gained Her Angel Wing's - Closing In On Another ‘End Of Era’

 

Ms. Anite Hebert Gaudet … a native and lifelong resident of Bayou Pigeon. 
gained her  angel  wings … Feb. 16, 2021. 

Here are some things about Ms. Anite  Hebert Gaudet from our Bayou Pigeon book library.

Hebert is an Old Acadian name. Most Heberts in North America are descendants of two Acadian Hebert brothers who came to the New World in the mid-17th century. Today, it is one of the most populous groups of people with Acadian surnames. 

Though you will find Heberts around the world, the greatest numbers, thousands in fact, can be found in Louisiana.

Evariste and Margurite Hebert from Pierre Part had 9 children. Of the nine, five made their way to Bayou Pigeon.

Emile Joseph Hebert, the eighth of nine children of Evariste Joseph Hebert, was born 01 Jan 1893 in Paincourtville, LA, and died 17 Feb 1967 in Plaquemine, LA. He married Onesie Hue, daughter of Emile Hue and Odilia Templet of Pierre Part, Louisiana. She was born 1904 in Pierre Part, LA. 

Emile and Onesie moved to Bayou Pigeon sometime before 1920. Emile moved next door to his brother Ernest, north of the confluence of Little Pigeon Bayou and Grand River. 

In the  1930 US census, Emile listed his principal occupation as moss picker. 

In the early 1900’s practically all the men picked moss at one time or another during the off seasons for fishing and trapping. At that time, there was demand for Spanish moss to supply the numerous moss gins located through out south Louisiana. Moss picking was a steady way to make a living and moss was plentiful.

Onesie, Nellie (Na-lee) and Mr. Emile  Hebert

Anite second from left was the fourth of 5  childtren.

Mr Ed Gaudet & Ms Anite  Hebert Wedding  1952

Anite married Mr. Ed Gaudet  of  Bayou  Pigeon.  This wedding has the distinction of being the very first wedding to be celebrated in the Bayou Pigeon Mission Church, known at the time as Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Chapel. 

Fr. George Barbier, who was the associate pastor in Plaquemine, Louisiana, was the priest who married Ed and Anite in Bayou Pigeon. 

Anite said  they did not have a  formal wedding reception but that her parents did cook a big meal for entire wedding party.

The Gaudet Barroom, Dancehall  And  Grocery Stor

Gaudet  Barroom Dance Hall - c 1957

Paved Road  1958

Gaudet Bar, Dancehall and Grocery c 1960's

The business was part of Anite’s life. She had to blend helping run a business and raising her family in the same building.

When The  Original Gaudet  Grocery, Bar And  Dancehall was demolished  to pave Hwy. 75 , the  store  and a new  barroom  and dancehall were moved to the  east  side of  the road.  

Ed and  Anite  lived  in a  small house between the  store  and  Wallace  Gaudet’s house.

In 1964 they converted dance hall to living quarters and a grocery store.  

Then in 1975 they closed the store and remodeled the living quarters to what it is today.

The old bathroom in the dance hall with all the graffiti writing on the wall stayed for a while, until it was removed in the 1990’s.  

Glenda Gaudet Barlow says she wishes they would have taken pictures of it.  It was so unique, it was written history of the people who came to the dancehall.  The  Richard Brothers  band was extremely popular  and packed  the  people in.

Glenda, says  at the time the graffiti  was removed her mom evidently didn’t feel the history  and  heritage  of Cajun Bayou  Pigeon.  

30 + years later  we recognize  that we have  almost lost the Cajun French  language and we do not want to lose the  history of Gaudet Store, Bar and Dancehall it is a  part of the fabric of  Bayou  Pigeon. 

Closing In On Another ‘End Of  Era’ … 

Except for Ms Anise, all of the other children of Emile  and Onesie  Hebert are now passed.  

That leaves Anise as one of handful of people of Bayou Pigeon where Cajun French was the first language in the home growing up.

She leaves behind six grandchildren, Bruce, Brad, and Amy, Steven, Michelle, and Brenton and Nine great grandchildren… Lauren, Ryan, Andrew, Brayden, Lilly, Corinne, Chandler, Graham and Brantly.

Ed and Anite enjoyed playing bingo in their retirement years.  Diane  and I would see  them  at the  St. John  Fathers  Club bingo  when we  worked it on Tuesday nights.  They kept us up to date on all the people who attended the bingo and what they were talking about.

Anite  kept  her close ties  with the Gaudet  family after  Ed passed  away.  She  was a welcome everyday visitor to Diane’s mom, for many years.

Extended  Gaudet  Family 

Children, in laws, what ever… Cajun  families  stay  close to other

Anite attended the Rosary every Tuesday at Bayou Pigeon Heritage hall shrine room to Our Lady Queen Of  Peace.

Anite will be remembered as a devoted daughter, dependable sister, beloved wife, loving mother and proud grandmother.

R I P  - Anite … Diane and I are forever grateful for the time you  spent  with her mother in the last years of her life.

White Castle L & S Co. - Lake Natchez/ Railroad

Requiem White Castle  L & S Co. &  Lake Natchez/ Railroad 

By Clifford J. LeGrange  with assistance from Mr. James  ‘Fry” Hymel, Rick Phillips, Ethan Joffrion, Jeremey Coupel and Ian Marsac, Jeanerette  L&S Co. Land Manager

In the late 1800s, the swamp east of  Lake  Natchez in  Iberville Parish, lying between the natural alluvial high ridge of the Mississippi  River between Bayou Plaquemine and Bayou Lafourche was a primeval place.  

Until the 1840’s the mysterious interior repulsed all but the most intrepid hunters and trappers.  

The interior of this  area remained mostly impenetrable until the era of Industrial Cypress logging in late  1890’s and  early 1900’s

Today, where once stood the virgin forests that had weathered the storms of ages and sheltered the ancient tribes and wildlife for centuries, are now but a cemetery of the days gone by.  Each silent stump a mute head-piece to the majestic giants that towered aloft and once lived there.

The history of an area or time period  does not stay alive on it’s own.  Left unattended history fades away from the memory of people. History buffs and local historians are always excited about learning the hidden history of things, places, and or events.  

White Castle was established as a town in 1882.

It is amazing how fast the history of something can be lost in a relatively short period of time.  

Between 1880 and 1924 the history of White Castle Lumber & Shingle Company intertwined.

Just ask someone from  White Castle, La. under 60  about the White Castle Lumber and Shingle Co. and the Lake Natchez Railroad.  

You will most likely will hear, yes,  I think they went out of business in the 1980s and I remember Mr. Leon Baudoin and Mr. Russel Hymel worked there for years. ( ie., White Castle Lumber Ands Supply)

Where did the name Bowie St. come from, and what was the origin of the name of the ‘50 ft road’? 

All firsthand informants are no longer alive to preserve such a historic period for Iberville Parish, White Castle, LA. and the Atchafalaya Basin.

William Cameron died unexpectedly on Feb 6, 1889.  

The White Castle Lumber Co. SawMill was a separate corporation in which William Cameron and later Wm. Cameron & Co owned the controlling interest.

Upon the death of Mr. Cameron the estate, amounting to over $4,000,000, remained intact in the possession of his legal heirs, his widow, and his children. 

R.H. Downman, the son-in-law of William Cameron took over as CEO

Wm. Cameron & Co., Inc., sold its interest in the White Castle mill to Mr. R. H. Downman and his associates in 1903.

The outside world knew little of Mr. Cameron’s charities of various kinds. They were extremely large and extended over the entire country.

Wm. Cameron was one of the pioneers, with uncharacteristic vision he saw the opportunity; he heard the call for lumber and he set about to answer that call.

The Texas & Pacific Railway - 1882

The Texas & Pacific Railway fostered the creation of new towns and gave rural people access to the efficiency and reliability that rail transportation offered. 

4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler steam locomotive No. 332

1900 – 1912

White Castle originated because of the railway station or junction at its site.

White Castle was established as a town in 1882, with the influx of people and businesses brought by the railroad and the logging industry in the cypress swamps of the area. 

The town of White Castle was on the Texas & Pacific railway seventy-four miles from New Orleans and right on the river. 

The railroad at White Castle passed within a rock throw from the Mississippi River. After evaluation by the Initial group of investors, it was determined that the site location would offer both rail and marine shipment of products.

The Texas & Pacific Railway fostered the creation of new towns and gave rural people access to the efficiency and reliability that rail transportation offered. 

White Castle was established as a town in 1882, with the influx of people and businesses brought by the railroad and the logging industry in the cypress swamps of the area. 

The railroad at White Castle passed within a rock throw from the Mississippi River. After evaluation by the Initial group of investors, it was determined that the site location would offer both rail and marine shipment of products.

Sawmill Towns: Work, Community Life, and Industrial Development

Capt. George M. Bowie, who was well and favorably known in all the southland as a successful manager in lumber interests. 

He was named the first business manager in the fall of 1890. Bowie Street in white castle is named for him.

The sawmill was the most prominent building of the White Castle plant.  At the time it was the pride of the area.  

Over the north end of the sawmill were the large letters "Cypress Queen." 

The sawmill was divided into a ground floor, subdeck, engine room, dynamo room, and mill deck.  There was a boiler house and engine room on the cast side. A series of lumber sheds for storage and shipping. 

The piling (storage) grounds for the lumber held 15,000,000 feet of lumber in stock. 

A track of 40-pound rail over three-quarters of a mile long ran from the plant to the river for convenience in handling lumber etc. and bringing back freight brought by boat from New Orleans. 

The White Castle plant had electric lights,  350 16-candlepower incandescent lamps and seven are lights.

Robert Henry Downman Era

Upon the death William Cameron’s death, on February 6, 1899. 

In a division of the estate. Mr. R.H. Downman the son-in-law took over William Cameron’s assets. Mr. Downman  had gone into the lumber firm of William Cameron & Co. as one of the working partners of that business

Downman in this division received majority ownership of sawmills Bowie Lumber Company, Limited; the Jeanerette Lumber & Shingle Company, Limited, at Jeanerette, Louisiana; the Des Allemands Lumber Company, Limited, at Des Allemands, Louisiana; the Iberia Cypress Company, Limited, at New Iberia, Louisiana, and the White Castle Lumber & Shingle Company, Limited, at White Castle, Louisiana. 

Some forestry  people said at the time  that R. Henry Downman had  backed into the Cypress Logging Industry Business

Downman proved to be an astute and savvy leader. Downman in a short period, within five years, had turned  W. Cameron's assets in Louisiana timber operations into  $8,000,000 (in 1905 dollars) in value. 

His cypress enterprises controlled some 160,000 acres (250 square miles), roughly one-half of it in the Atchafalaya Basin 

Robert Henry Downman was President and General Manager of all the businesses of those companies. 

After 10 years, Captain Bowie left the management of the plant in April 1901, and at that time R. H. Downman purchased 70% of the White Castle Lumber and Shingle Co. LTD.

Under R. H. Downman's his leadership, these companies formed the largest operation in cypress lumbering and were considered among the six largest lumbering operations in the world.

The White Castle Lumber Company was a full-service lumber company and sawmill from 1898 until its demise.

Logging by Steam

In the late 1880s mechanical steam-driven skidder machines were developed to pull the logs from the forest to a landing point. 

Two types of methods/systems were developed and used in the cypress logging era.

1. The Overhead skidder

The Overhead skidder (high lead logging) was a steam engine, with cable system, blocks, iron spools, and gears mounted on a railcar in conjunction with the logging railroad system to move the bucked logs to a loading point. 

The steam-powered rig could drag logs from the swamp up to 900 feet in all directions.  When this equipment was used to pull logs along the ground it was referred to as a “ground skidder”. 

When the system of steel cables and pulleys was rigged from trees allowing logs to be suspended and hauled out above the muddy swamp, it was called an overhead skidder. 

The overhead skidder steam engine which could be moved from place to place was placed on a logging railroad flatcar. 

The steam engine drove a drum around which there was a steel cable that would draw in the logs to a loading point where they could be loaded on a railcar and conveyed then to the sawmill by a locomotive.

2. Pull boat Operation 

Pull boat Operation was a steam engine, utilizing a cable system, blocks, iron spools, and gears as the overhead skidder except it was mounted on a Barge. Which was located in a natural river, bayou, or dredged canal.  

The logs would be dragged on the ground from the swamp interior into the canal (ground lead logging) and moved to a larger navigable stream where they were rafted and towed via a log raft/boom by steamboat through natural waterways to the sawmill

By the 1890s mechanical skidders and steam engines had developed enough technology to make it economically viable to harvest the timber from heretofore un-reachable areas such as the Atchafalaya   Swamp. 

The White Castle L&S used the Lidgerwood Overhead skidder (high lead logging) and a logging railroad system to move logs to the mill location.

The Lidgerwood skidders revolutionized the cypress swamping industry in the swamps of the Atchafalaya basin. Large cypress mills were not profitable until a large supply log could be depended upon.

Three Steam-driven Lidgerwood skidders were used by the company.

White Castel Lumber Operations - Artist illustration of Lidgerwood Overhead Skidders on Rail Car

Lidgerwood Manufacturing  Co., 1905, Logging by Steam,  https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/lidgerwood-1913-cableway-skidder/

Working conditions around skidders were dangerous, and many injuries occurred to operators. 

Falling trees crushed loggers. Limbs snapped from a falling tree and ‘slingshotted’ back to strike loggers. 

A flagman signaled the skidder operator when a log was hooked on the line to be hauled to the track. 

The skidder whistle hooted twice to warn the men to watch for the flying log. You knew to stay away from a log on the skidder line. 

Mud and water in the swamp made quick movement by workers impossible. You couldn’t run; you worked in that mud. 

Death was an ever-present hazard in the logging operations. Six long blasts of the steam skidder whistle signaled a fatal accident. ‘That was a lonesome sound. 

White Castel Lumber Operations  - Artist illustration  of Lidgerwood Overhead Skidders on a PullBoat Barge

Lidgerwood Manufacturing  Co., 1905, Logging by Steam,  https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/lidgerwood-1913-cableway-skidder

Horace Butters of Ludington, Michigan is credited with the invention of the steam-powered skidder engine. 

But William Baptist of New Orleans is credited with successfully improving and putting his system into operation for the Louisiana Cypress Lumber Company. 

Among his innovations was a rehaul system and a cable on the ground, rather than an overhead cableway utilizing spar and tail trees.

Overhead Skidders versus  Pullboats 

The overhead skidder is easily distinguished in two ways from a pull boat system.

While the overhead skidder made runs perpendicular to the cleared right-of-way cut for the railroad. i.e.., Logs are loaded on a railcar and moved by locomotive to the staging area or directly to the sawmill.

The Pullboat made fantail-shaped Runs to dredged access canals.

The overhead skidder was faster than pull boating … Logs could be transported at a rate of six hundred feet per minute. 

The logs did not dig deep ditches or run like a pull boat.

Both were damaging to the environment, but the overhead skidder was considered more damaging to the environment. 

Particularly to the young trees and undergrowth, beneath the log being transported.

Some Timber companies opted to use both the Overhead Skidder and Pull Boat depending on the conditions in the swamp.

The difference is shown in this photograph.

Pullboat's made fantail runs, from the main/central canals.  

While the overhead skidder made runs perpendicular to the cleared right-of-way cut for the railroad.

Lidgerwood Manufacturing  Co., 1905, Logging by Steam,  https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/lidgerwood-1913-cableway-skidder/

In 1908 the portable steel tower was invented.  Loading and Skidding became much more proficient. 

It replaced the spar tree. The advantages of the portable tower were that the skidder stayed on the tracks, thus permitting much faster changing of sets, and assuring that all rigging was in proper alignment. 

With the skidder mounted to a railcar, only the rigging from the tail tree had to be removed to move the skidder.

 

The character of the country has absolutely no effect on the results secured. 

This skidder can maintain a capacity of 40,000 to 45,000 feet per day and if equipped with a slack puller it is believed that a daily capacity of 60,000 feet could be obtained.

Requiem of the  Atchafalaya Cypress  Swamp 

50-ton skidder pulling a 10-ton Log One End above the Swamp Floor

A 50-ton skidder could be heard a mile  away ...

“A 50-ton skidder pulling a 10-ton log one end above the swamp floor, thirty feet up into the air to 800-foot -heavy steel cable between the skidder tower and a back spar tree. 

At 500 feet per minute, it yanks the swinging logs to the railroad track, crashing them through the standing trees on the way. 

After thudding their load onto the log pile, the tongs race, open, and jump back down the cable into the swamp. Looking for more logs to haul out.  

The Choppers and the Sawyers, they lay the Timber low, The Swampers and the Skidders, they haul it To and Fro. "

Mud and Water and the Stumps of Trees. In every direction that was all there was. Bodies fell, but the trees died standing up."  (Josh Ritter)

How do you build a Logging Railroad In The Swamp?

 

In early the 1900’s it was a daunting task. Stories about gators, snakes, and mosquitos are not myths. 

How do you build a railroad in a boggy swamp …  first clear a right of way, then with a pile driver … literally build it as you go…

The Swampers - Backbone of the Cypress Logging Industry

The men exposed themselves daily to all sorts of dangers to make a living, Snakes,  Alligators, mosquitoes, spiders, fire, steam, mechanical cables and blocks, and summer heat.

The crew required for a Cableway Skidder is from seven to nine men in the regular skidding and loading gang and from two to three men in the rigging gang, or a total of nine to twelve men. 

Crews consisted of, fallers, sawyers, track layers, riggers, tong hookers, and signalmen. 

The riggers attached the logs to the cable which were attached to tall trees, the engine raised them, and they went swinging over the underbrush and/or water and dropped onto the cars. 

The loaders adjusted them and when the train was made up.

The train left the camp at  5:30 to the Slashing Area, (where the cutting of the trees was going on). 

The crews were made up of white and black workers.

Who worked from dawn until dusk.  They were paid $1.50 for a 10-hour day.

It was rugged dangerous work and as such ‘race’ issues just did not seem to be much of an issue, when you had to watch out for each other to survive.  

Main Line of the White Castle  Lumber &  Shingle  Co.  Railroad

White Castle L&S Company  Map from  Mill to Lake  Natchez

 

Objective evidence of the Main Line of the White Castle _Lake Natchez Railroad

 

Salvaged piece of Railroad iron found  Whaley  Canal and Texaco Pipeline… Ethan Joffrion Guide

Main  Line Railroad Overlayed  On  Modern Goggle  Earth  Satellite  View 2019

The total length of the main line is over 11 miles.

Rick Phillips and Cliff LeGrange observing a piece of railroad iron on Whaley Canal

The White Castle & Lake Natchez railroad had a total length all told, including the spurs in the yard and elsewhere, was more than  22 miles.

It is fair to say that it was the most expensive railroad that has ever been built to carry logs to a sawmill. Certainly the most expensive of any in the Atchafalaya Basin area. 

It took two years to complete it. Built on wood piles, running straight through the swamp.

Last log Cut 1913

 

The White Castle L &S Co. Sawmill cut out in 1913.

The White Castle L &S Co. Sawmill left White Castle as a resident business in 1924 and is mostly an absentee landowner.

White Castle was part of a thriving timber industry during the 1890 to 1915 period which ranked Louisiana in second place among lumber-producing states in the United States, behind the State of  Washington

It brought ample opportunities for employment to local people and many new entrepreneurs and business people moved to the area during the first three decades of the 20th century. 

Cut Out  & Get out Mind Set

A characteristic of The Cypress Logging Industry in The Atchafalaya Basin 1880 – 1930, was a “Cut Out and Get Out” mindset that developed over time. 

One early swamper described, "We just went in cutting down the swamp, tearing it up, and bringing the cypress out. The attitude was “cut out and get out,” we are here with all the heavy equipment and expense, we might as well cut everything we can make a board foot out of; we are not going to be coming back in here again". 

 It left large areas of denuded land, which in the case of White Castle L&S was turned into Agricultural Lands, ie., Sugar Cane.

By 1927, many other Atchafalaya sawmills had “cut out;” the mills were silenced, the final whistle had blown, and the mill laborers had come to seek employment elsewhere. 

Corporate Social Responsibility

The top-level managers who ran these companies were, for the most part, smart and well-educated. Yet one cannot help feeling that something fundamental was missing in the light of the ‘Cut Out and Get Out’ philosophy that they pursued.

There was some pushback at that time on the ‘Cut Out and Get Out’ philosophy.

Any industry which constitutes an important part of a community is under a real moral obligation to the community itself not to unnecessarily permit that industry to be destroyed” (Charles A. Scontras, historian and research associate for the Bureau of Labor Education). 

Mr. Harry Hardtner, a prominent lumberman in north Louisiana, authored a report for the Louisiana legislature in 1910 expressing the consequences of this approach that would not be understood for decades. 

“It is difficult to imagine the scale of the destruction of the once impressive cypress forests. The average citizen of Louisiana gained little from this exploitation. More than a thousand years of forest growth had been exhausted within a few decades, another Thousand would be required to replace it". 

In 1922, the then LA. Senator Hardtner campaigning for a Tax on natural resources severed from the soil or water” described the outcome this way: “No man has a right to use his property or waste or destroy it to the injury of his neighbor. 

The owner of a large tract of timber has no moral right nor should he have a legal right to waste or extravagantly utilize the forest for his enrichment by destroying the seeds of a commodity that could serve the future generations of the race".

The philosopher George Santayana, 1905, ‘The Life of Reason-the Phases of Human Progress’, “If we do not take time to reflect on our behavior, we may unwittingly repeat it”.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was not a serious issue in the early 1900’s.  The country was going through a building boom and it needed lumber to grow.

Today it appears to be a new philosophy developing among of the old Atchafalaya Cypress Logging Industry owners, i.e. White Castle Lumber & Shingle Co. and A. Wilbert’s & Sons and other Major Cypress Lumber Sawmill in Iberville Parish. 

New younger management has transitioned to managing their vast property holdings in Iberville Parish and the Atchafalaya Basin Heritage Area with a new mindset.

Land managers are continuously reviewing strategies that can keep forests resilient under multiple stressors so that they can continue to provide habitat for wildlife, clean air, clean water, and carbon storage, far into the future.

This includes fostering good stewardship of their land, protecting exceptional resources, promoting informed decisions, and strengthening the coordination with rural communities such as White Castle and Plaquemine.

It has been said we should be wary of ‘presentism’ – the judging people of another time by today's standards. Is it unfair to view how people reacted to situations around them within the needs for growth, constraints, and prejudices of the society they lived in?

In that time many of the leaders believed they were spreading economic success and progress for the USA by supporting the lumber needs of a growing nation

Captains of the Cypress Timber Industry to Oil & Gas Lessors 

The White Castle Lumber Co. shut down in 1913, whatever you want to call it, luck, know how to wait, providence, Oil, and Gas were discovered on the former cypress logging lands in the Atchafalaya Basin in the late 1920s.    

In the White Castle area preparation for the first well to be drilled was to open a right of way to the well location.  This right of way was made from Hwy 993 (Richland Road) to a point 5 miles to the west. 

The first producing wells in the Shell Oil White Castle Field were on White Castle L&S property.  

The first drop of oil produced from the White Castle Oil Field was sold on Nov. 9, 1929.  

A new chapter in land management was established.  Many workers from the timber industry moved to jobs in the Oil & Gas Business. 

Particularly the men with experience working with the steam boilers of log skidders found work easily.  The early oil rigs used steam boilers to run the Drilling Rigs. 

Before Oil& Gas companies came to Iberville parish, there were not many jobs that paid the salaries or provided the benefits the Oil and Gas industry did.  

The logging companies paid $1.50 a day during the boom years of White Castle L&S.  

The first  Shell Oil workers on drilling rigs in the mid 1930’s  were paid 1.25 an hour! 

Rough Necks on Shell rig # 4 in White Castle Field

C 1939. On the left is G.G. Roberson, the father-in-law of Mr. Fry Hymel who was killed in an oil field accident.

Hunting Leases –

Modern hunting leases first caught on in the southern United States in the 1950s. 

In the  Atchafalaya Basin area, the large landowners resisted leasing their land for hunting. The local folks hunted the land free and the landowners tolerated trespassing on their lands because that’s the way it was back in the day. 

 

After all the first full-time game warden in Iberville Parish was in the mid  1950’s. 

The area around the  White Castle Canal began to see many more fishermen and sport hunters i.e., with good jobs, money to spend, and as a result of an affluent America. 

They were armed with the latest high tech outboard motors boats and equipment  that many rural  folks  could not afford

Formation of White Castle Hunting Club

The White Castle Hunting Club was the first official chartered hunting club in Iberville Parish.

It is proven that Hunting leases can provide a viable and sustainable source of supplemental income for landowners. 

In this setup, the hunter (or group of hunters) typically pay a fee and has exclusive use of the property during all hunting seasons.

Many hunters believe they achieve a richer fair-chase hunting experience on leased land because there are rules and it requires discipline to follow them.  

Rogue hunters are usually weeded out qu It ickly.  

That is why hunters with modest incomes will save up for the yearly dues to belong to a hunting club.  

Recently the White Castle Hunting Club went to the new White Castle Lumber Land Manager and told them that they were in danger of folding up as a hunting Club.  

Their dues were higher than ever and the Landowner’s rule of not allowing hunting with dogs had reduced the deer being taken by hunters. 

The swamp was staying wetter every year and the deer were retreating to the wetter areas and were 100 % nocturnal except for the rut. 

Hunters were simply giving it up.

After producing their records that kill had been going down for over 10 years, despite not shooting does.

The new land manager agreed with their data and said they could go back to hunting over dogs during the state-regulated dog season.

He offered to give the hunting club Alligator tags to supplement their paying for their lease.

Part of strengthening the coordination with rural communities such as White Castle and Plaquemine.