Opening Battle of Vietnam War Changes Course of Bossier Parish Man’s Life

Christmas of 1965 is likely one that Plain Dealing native Dr. Tone Johnson won’t forget. He was recovering from wounds suffered in the first major confrontation in Vietnam between U.S. forces and North Vietnamese troops – the Battle of Ia Drang Valley. Prior to this engagement, American involvement had been mainly advisory. That changed with this battle and left a lasting impact on Johnson’s life. What follows is not an uplifting read, but one of courage and bravery in a fight for survival.

With echoes of the brutal Korean conflict still reverberating across East Asia, the United States stepped up its attempts to halt the spread of communism across the continent by sending combat units to Vietnam in the spring of ’65. That fall, Johnson’s outfit - the 2nd Battalion, 7th Calvary Regiment - faced an enemy that was “well-trained, well-equipped” and “prepared to stand and fight,” as stated in an article titled “Ia Drang Valley: Where the US Truly Went to War” on the military news website Stars and Stripes. The jungle canopy, chest-high elephant grass and vehicle-sized termite mounds gave the North Vietnamese a distinct advantage.

For Johnson, Ia Drang was literally a world away from the life he’d known growing up in Plain Dealing. The son of a farmer and a graduate of Carrie Martin High School, he enlisted in the Army at age 17 after graduation, and as a private first class, found himself among those souls airlifted into a nightmare.

Air mobility – landing and extracting troops and supplies by helicopter - was a new concept at the time and one the Army was ready to test in battle. For the 2nd Battalion, that test started on November 16th as the unit was dropped off at a point called LZ (Landing Zone) X-Ray to relieve the men of 1st Battalion, 7th Calvary, who had been in a fierce firefight for nearly three days with three enemy regiments. With the assistance of airstrikes and artillery support, the North Vietnamese were driven back, and the 2nd was ordered to march the following day a few miles to a new landing zone, LZ Albany, for extraction.

Marching in heat and humidity while exhausted and hungry was not a task the 2nd Battalion was eager to do, but ignoring orders was not an option. The march proceeded uneventfully, until the men stopped to rest. That’s when, as Johnson recalled in an article in The Times newspaper in 1997, the calm was shattered. Enemy troops hiding under jungle cover opened up on the Americans with mortar and sniper fire. The 2nd returned fire, but was outnumbered. Johnson fell unconscious after being shot and hit by shrapnel. During a Vietnam War summit televised by C-SPAN in 2016, Johnson described what happened when he awoke. “I felt my face, and it was like somebody had caked mud all over my face,” he said. “It was my own blood, and it was covering my eyes, and I couldn’t see.” Eventually, Johnson was able to continue firing, and as with the fighting at LZ X-Ray, airstrikes and artillery finally drove back the enemy, and Johnson and the other survivors were able to receive medical attention. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, 155 men of the 2nd were killed in the ambush in what the Stars and Stripes article calls “the U.S. military’s single bloodiest day in Vietnam through the entire war.” Seventy nine other Americans lost their lives at LZ X-Ray.

The Battle of Ia Drang Valley left no doubt that the conflict in Vietnam would be long and costly. It was detailed in the best-selling book “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young,” written by Lt. General Harold Moore and journalist Joseph Galloway, and in the movie “We Were Soldiers” starring Mel Gibson. For his part, Johnson would be awarded the Bronze Star for bravery. The care he received in the hospital convinced him to pursue a career in medicine. But Johnson is apparently uneasy being called a hero. In The Times article from ’97, he is quoted as saying, “I’m just an ordinary guy who made it through with a little bit of ….willpower. I really think if I wouldn’t have had a concept of God and country, I wouldn’t have made it.”

If you have any items or information relating to the history of Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the material to its research collection. Call or visit to learn more. We are open Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717, and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

• Dr. Tone Johnson/courtesy The Times, 1997
• Huey helicopter/courtesy Pixabay.com
• Book cover/courtesy Amazon.com

Article by: Kevin Flowers

Army Nurse Mary L. King

David L. and Janie King, it was reported in The Shreveport Times newspaper on September 30, 1943, were about to have two children overseas with the US Army. Their only son, William, a Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps, had completed the USAAC navigation school and was in his final training before heading overseas for combat duty. The Times reported that older sister Lt. Mary L. King was “one up on her brother,” because Mary, serving in Australia with the Army Nursing Corps, had already been stationed in the South Pacific for over a year as an anesthetist. Eight months of that time was in New Guinea. Mom and Dad King, originally of Lafayette County, Arkansas, which borders north Bossier Parish, were temporarily in Pascagoula, Mississippi because David, who worked as a cotton buyer in peacetime, was doing defense work there. (Younger sister Frances was still a teenager). By the end of the 1940’s, David King transferred to a defense job at Barksdale Field (now Barksdale Air Force Base) and the family moved to Bossier City. The Kings, it seemed, would be a perfect family to feature for Veterans Day. Having not yet written about a member of the Army Nursing Corps, or about anyone who served in the South Pacific, it is Mary’s story I will focus on here.

Born on April 6, 1916, in Stamps, Arkansas, Mary was a graduate of Stamps High School, attended Henderson College in Arkansas, and graduated from the Highland Sanitarium School of Nursing in Shreveport. On Dec. 11, 1939 she began her military career as a second lieutenant in the Army Nursing Corps at Barksdale Army Air Field, serving as an Air Corps station nurse when the US military’s flying force was still a part of the Army.

The U.S. Army Nurse Corps (ANC) was established on February 2, 1901, under the Army Reorganization Act, though of course women have been nursing American soldiers back to health since the Revolutionary War. In the years following World War I, the ANC’s rolls had declined, leaving fewer than 1,000 nurses in the corps at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Within six months of that event, which brought the United States into the War that was already raging on the other side of globe, the ANC’s ranks expanded to 12,000 nurses. Because the vast majority of these urgently-enrolled nurses did not have prior military experience, soon the Army instituted a formal 4-week training course for the Army nurses to learn military customs, protocol, and procedures, field sanitation, and defense against attacks, among other skills.

The next significant shortfall in nurse training that the Army discovered early in the war was that nurse anesthetists were in alarmingly short supply in every theater of operations. The Army developed a special 6-month course for nurses to become anesthetists, and Mary L. King availed herself of this opportunity, studying anesthesia at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC. Along with ultimately over 2,000 other nurses who trained in this specialty, she learned how to administer inhalation anesthesia, blood and blood derivatives and oxygen therapy as well has how to recognize, prevent and treat shock. It wouldn’t be long before Mary King, finding her niche, would literally be at the head of the class, as the instructor.

Serving in the Pacific Theater, Mary’s experience would have been unique among nurses serving on the European or Mediterranean theaters. On those fronts, nurses worked under fire close to the front lines, and performed more than admirably. However, commanders in the island-studded Pacific, for a variety of reasons but most ostensibly to protect the nurses from bands of Japanese guerilla fighters, chose to keep the nurses far from active combat areas. The nurses treated soldiers only once they were evacuated or the fighting on a particular island had stopped. According to the Army’s Center of Military History, “The Army Nurse Corps: A Commemoration of WWII Service” by Judith Bellafaire (1993), this decision, which meant that nurses only arrived on an island once it had come under Allied control, was an unpopular drain on morale for soldiers needing treatment and the nurses who were overseas to provide it.

While not near or under direct fire, this did not mean the Pacific nurses had it “easy” compared to nurses in other fronts. Only two specific details that Mary had written home about her time in New Guinea were shared in the Sept 30, 1943, article in the Times. One was that when she first arrived in New Guinea, her tent did not have a floor, and once one was installed, she felt like she was in a palace. The other detail was that she had to always wear boots, and never once wore a dress the entire 8 months she was there.

For a young woman from the South in the 1940s, wearing boots daily and never wearing a dress for three quarters of a year would absolutely be noteworthy. No further details were given about the environment in which she was serving, but both the excitement of having a tent with a floor and the constant need for boots could perhaps be explained through the writings of an ANC nurse in New Guinea who kept a journal with her at all times, Capt. Ruth Kinzeler, of the 4th General Army Hospital in New Guinea. The island was so covered in mud that Capt. Kinzeler recalled operating in a floorless tent while standing in mud up to everyone’s knees. And while perhaps not operating under fire, an ever-present threat to both the soldiers and nurses in this muddy and humid environment were tropical diseases, such as dengue fever, dysentery, typhus, and especially, malaria.

Following WWII, Mary King continued in the Army Nurse Corps. Later in the 1940s she was stateside serving at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and Fort Knox in Kentucky (nurse training locations). She advanced among the ranks, and in 1950 as a Captain, she was named the chief instructor of the Army School of Anesthesia at the Army’s 98th General hospital in Munich, Germany. In May, 1953, Bossier City’s Planters Press newspaper reported that Capt. Mary King would be sailing home for 30 days’ leave to be with her parents in Bossier City and would then report to duty at the Army-Navy hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Mary L. King retired from service in 1961 at the rank of Lt. Colonel. She moved to the Clearwater, Florida area soon afterwards, and continued to work as a nurse anesthetist, this time in a civilian hospital. She passed away in January, 2009 at the age of 92.

If you have stories of veterans from Bossier Parish, please share them with us the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center. The History Center in the Bossier Central Library complex remains closed while our new exhibits are installed. However, you can still contact History Center staff by phone or email. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. If you enjoy World War II history, please come to our next meeting of World War II’s Day, a monthly coffee and discussion program on a variety of WWII-related topics, will be Tuesday, November 10th at 10:30 AM in the Bossier Central Library Complex’s large meeting room. We hope you can make it, and stay tuned for the re-opening date of the History Center and its new exhibits!

Images: 

• Photo of Mary King in her nursing uniform, C. 1930s, as published in the Shreveport Times, Sept 30, 1943, pg. 7
• Photo of 3 Army nurses in Australia during WWII, from “The Army Nurse,” 1944, US Army publication
• Advertising postcard for the United States Army Nurse Corps with a color photograph of doctors and nurses wearing surgical gowns, caps, latex gloves, and face masks operating on a patient in an operating room. (Likely a nurse anesthetist by the patient’s head). Not dated, but pre-1951. From the Images from the History of Medicine (IHM) at the National Institutes of Health collection

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Fighting Forest Fires in Bossier Parish

One of the great draws to Bossier Parish, and Louisiana writ large, is our natural landscapes present here in the state, as seen in our lovely Bayou Bodcau and Lake Bistineau. This also goes hand-in-hand with the large timber industry here in the region, one of the primary agricultural exports of Louisiana. However, as many readers will probably be aware, the Northwest Louisiana region is currently (as of the time of writing this article) experiencing drought and high winds, and as such this area is facing increased fire risk. These fires can be devastating to both the natural beauty and the economic output of the parish, so therefore, what better time to write history of fighting fires here in Bossier Parish.

Initially, under the Louisiana Forestry Commission (created in the 1940s with a mission, in part, of preventing and extinguishing forest fires) the state was divided into several different districts of which Bossier Parish fell into district four. This fire district also included Caddo, Webster, Red River, Bienville, and the northern half of Natchitoches Parishes, and was headquartered in Minden, Louisiana. The initial infrastructure revolved around the installation of lookout towers, telephone wires, and strategically placing fire teams in areas where the risk was elevated. A not insignificant amount of this infrastructure was assembled by the Civilian Conservation Corps, with over thirty fire watch towers and several thousand miles of telephone wire to their name in Louisiana alone.

There were three year-round operated fire watch towers (located near Plain Dealing, Bellevue, and atop Giddens Hill near Haughton), with a fourth operated in a six-month span (located near Bolinger, which was north of Plain Dealing). These towers were tall 100-foot-high steel structures, built to provide the fire watchers with clear sightlines across the parish to look for signs of fire. They did this first by watching for the aforementioned signs, such as smoke, and calling to the other towers within the parish to confirm they see it too. Once this was done, the watcher then aligned his ‘alidade’ (the name of the tool sitting atop a firewatcher’s map to determine the angle of the fire from the tower), and conferred with his fellow watchers to get the angle from their towers. Once this was done, it was a simple matter of triangulating the location of the fire using string, allowing the fire watchers to accurately pin-point the location of the incident. All that was left was to deploy the firefighting teams assigned to each tower. These teams, one at each of the three primary year-round towers, were three-man crews equipped with the best equipment of the time for fighting these forest fires. Indeed, according to the July 5, 1946, edition of The Plain Dealing Progress, Louisiana was the first state to acquire the wartime model Jeep as a tool for fighting these blazes.

 

However, the best firefighting method isn’t extinguishing the flame, but preventing it from being lit in the first place. Therefore, Louisiana instituted penalties for anyone found to be conducting arson or obstructing fighting forest fires, and these penalties range from fines to jail time depending on the severity of the crime. Sometimes, however, these fires are accidental or environment, and preventing these fires is a wider community effort. As such, refer to any pertinent burn-bans or weather warnings, and report smoke to the emergency services immediately.

If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. The History Center is currently closed until further notice, though staff remains available. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

• Fire Watch Tower in District 4 (The Shreveport Times, Mar, 2, 1947)
• Examples of Fire Fighting Equipment (The Shreveport Times, Mar, 2, 1947)
• How the Forestry Service Finds Fires (The Shreveport Times, Mar, 2, 1947)
• How the Forestry Service Finds Fires (The Shreveport Times, Mar, 2, 1947)
• Louisiana Fire Jeeps Put in Service (The Plain Dealing Progress, Jul 5, 1946)

Article by: Jonah Diagle

Archaeology of the Caddo Indians and Louis T. Baker, Sr.

October is Louisiana Archaeology Month, and Northwest Louisiana, including Bossier Parish, has had some important and fascinating archaeological investigations conducted here. This is especially true of Caddo Indian archaeological sites, because Louisiana is part of the homeland of the Caddo Nation, which is now headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma.

If you’ve ever visited the “old” Bossier Parish Libraries History Center on Beckett Street, then perhaps you remember our diorama of Caddo daily life in a village along Willow Chute Bayou. This diorama was constructed by the late Mr. Louis Baker, an archaeology enthusiast from Benton in Bossier Parish. He was one of the local residents who was instrumental in the beginnings of the History Center, which started in 1997 as a room in the Central library and later moved into its own, but connected, building in 1999. Not only did this skilled craftsman build our diorama, but he also did much of the archaeological field work at the Caddo Indian village site of Vanceville along Willow Chute Bayou. The diorama is based on this work.

Louis Baker was born in 1930 in North Carolina. He served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War, met his wife Dot while stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, and they eventually settled in Benton. Louis worked in civil service until retirement, when he established Baker Heating and Air.

Louis didn’t take up his archaeology avocation until he was roughly in his 50s, but according to Jeff Girard, retired archaeologist from the Louisiana Division of Archaeology, Louis Baker’s contributions to Louisiana archaeology were immense, and his skill with a trowel was considered among the best around. He identified and plotted over a hundred archaeological sites in northwest Louisiana and worked with professional archaeologists on numerous projects in both Louisiana and Arkansas.

As told by Jeff Girard, when Louis began recording sites in Bossier Parish, he made extensive surface collections and kept excellent records. His favorite area of investigation was along Willow Chute Bayou, a stream on the eastern side of the Red River floodplain between Benton and Bossier City. Now largely developed by residential expansion, the area was cultivated in the 1980s and 1990s. Louis maintained close relationships with the local farmers and systematically surveyed most of the existing fields, recording almost 100 sites.

After Louisiana’s Regional Archaeology Program was established in 1989, Jeff Girard worked with Louis re-visiting these sites, making additional collections, conducting test excavations, and analyzing the extensive collections which are now curated at Northwestern State University. The broad and systematic nature of Louis’ endeavors enabled Louis, Jeff, and other archaeologists to interpret the area as home to a dispersed Caddo village relating to the Middle Caddo period, about 1200 to 1500.

The Caddo lived on the Vanceville site for approximately 500 years. Midden at the site was about six to eighteen inches thick, with lots of artifacts scattered in it. Midden, in archaeologist-speak, is soil that is a darker color due to the discarded debris of humans living on it, such as from years of preparing food and making tools.

As seen in the diorama, Caddo houses were large, housing groups of up to 18 or so people. The houses Louis and Jeff excavated locally were around 33 to 35 feet in diameter and about the same height, containing two stories. The upper story was used to for food storage for field crops like corn, beans, and squash. The grass roof had to be re-covered every fall to get ready for the cold rainy days of winter. The thatch used is a grass similar to what we call “saw grass” that still grows today in Willow Chute next to the banks of the bayou.

Louis Baker also was an accomplished craftsman and artisan. He replicated a set of Indian tools including bows, atlatls, shell dippers, knives, celts, and ornamental items of wood and bone. Many of the implements are comprised of stone tools made by local flintknappers and hafted by Louis into finely carved and polished bois d’arc handles. The tools and ornaments are housed at the History Center and History Center staff use them in public presentations and hands-on demonstrations for groups of all ages. (See our contact information at the end of this article if you’d like to schedule a program). Louis’ many years of field research and the inherent difficulty of carving bois d’arc, the hardest dried wood in North America, make these replicas even more impressive.

History Center staff will be displaying and demonstrating this set of replicas at the Annual Pioneer Heritage Day at the Pioneer Heritage Center at LSU-Shreveport on Saturday, October 24 from 10 AM–3 PM. Visit the History Center’s display in the general store, then spend the day exploring the historic buildings, watching demonstrations of historic craft and experiencing history in a whole new way!

For more information, visit https://www.lsus.edu/community/pioneer-heritage-center www.laexhibitmuseum.org.

In a new format, the Willow Chute Caddo Indian village diorama will continue to be displayed among our exhibits that will be opening soon in the History Center’s latest home in the Bossier Central Library Complex, 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City. This time, the diorama is inside a replica Caddo Indian grass house, where you can enter the house to view it, or peek through a viewing window. Watch this column or the library website, bossierlibrary.org or BPL social media for updates on our re-opening! You can follow us on Facebook @BPLHistoryCenter or check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

Images: 

Same caption for first two pics (can use one or both) Louis Baker at an archaeological dig on Loggy Bayou south of Bossier Point in 1999

Second two pics (can use one or both): View of the Caddo Indian village diorama inside a Caddo grass house replica that is among the History Center exhibits, opening soon.

Close-up of a figurine in the Caddo Indian village diorama at the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center

Article by Pam Carlisle

Haughton High Mascot Has Changed Through the Years

Buccaneers, Vikings, Panthers, Bearkats, Tigers, and Lions, these fearsome high school mascots can all be found in Bossier Parish. And each has remained the same through the years, except for one. For Haughton High School’s mascot, the image of a swashbuckling pirate hasn’t always been the case.

Haughton High was established in 1886 in a small, two-room building with a handful of students, and today has an enrollment of approximately 1,400. Much has changed on the campus through the years, including its mascot. While researching another topic, I came across local newspaper accounts from 1939 through 1946 of Haughton High sports events - mainly football, basketball and baseball - that referred to the teams as the Travelers. Items such as one from The Planters Press of November 13, 1941 were common: “The Haughton Travelers football squad stayed at home last Friday and defeated the scrappy Dubach eleven, 28 - 0, before a large crowd of fans. This makes six wins and one loss for the Travelers this season,” the item states. Surprised to see Haughton called the Travelers, I began looking into the origin of the name and attempted to find a reason for its selection to represent the school. Unfortunately, these same newspaper accounts weren’t any help.

Searching through newspapers such as The Planters Press, The Bossier Banner-Progress, The Shreveport Times and The Shreveport Journal, I had no luck uncovering any information about the school mascot name. Other than game scores and details of how Haughton won or lost, articles mentioned nothing about how or why the name Travelers was chosen. Time to find another source.

Former Haughton High Principal Gene Couvillion knows the school well and shared with me a piece of information that I hadn’t expected. Another mascot name existed before Travelers. Through much of the 1930s, Haughton High was known as the Lumberjacks. A search of sports stories from that era in local newspapers confirmed this bit of campus history. A story in The Shreveport Times from December 23, 1937, states, “Bossier High School Bearkats defeated the Haughton Lumberjacks in a hard-fought basketball game Tuesday night on the Centenary College court.” An article in The Times from 1932 highlights a football game between Bossier High and the Haughton Lumberjacks.

So, Haughton High School had not one but two other names prior to Buccaneers. Perhaps Lumberjacks was chosen because of the timber industry’s significant presence in the parish. Travelers could have indicated the school’s teams played more away games than at home. Thus far, I’ve been unsuccessful in finding documented evidence to substantiate these theories. But I’m unaware of any other current parish high school that has had more than one mascot name.

Airline High adopted the Vikings moniker with the school’s opening in 1964. The Panther mascot was used by Parkway when the school was a junior high and continued after the transition to a high school in 1968. Bossier High began calling its sports teams the Bearcats in 1926, although the spelling was changed to Bearkats about 11 years later. Benton High has been known as the Tigers since at least the late 1920s. An item in The Shreveport Times from October 21, 1927 mentions a basketball game between Elm Grove High School and the Benton High Tigers. Incidentally, Elm Grove High, now a middleschool with the name Eagles, called itself the Panthers. The Lion has been the mascot for Plain Dealing High School since at least the early 1930s. The Bossier Banner-Progress from October 8, 1931, has an article about an upcoming Lions football game. “The Plain Dealing High School Lions will engage the eleven bearing the colors of Sarepta High School here this afternoon …” the article states. Prior to desegregation, the African American high schools in the parish had mascot names such as Bears, Wildhogs, Yellow Jackets, Dragons and Panthers.

It seems Haughton High began calling itself the Buccaneers sometime in the late 1940s. An issue of The Shreveport Journal from October 15, 1948, contains a brief mention of a Haughton football game against Mooringsport and uses the name Buccaneers. By the fall of 1950, the name was being used extensively in sports stories about the school. But regardless of its mascot name, Haughton High is an integral part of our parish’s education system and can be rightly proud of the role it plays in preparing students for life ahead.

If you have any information relating to Bossier Parish history, the History Center may be interested in adding that to its research collection. Call to learn more. The History Center is currently closed for renovation of its exhibits, but staff is still working. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

• Haughton High Buccaneers mascot/image courtesy Haughton High School
• The Planters Press item, November 6, 1941

Article by: Kevin Flowers

Calisthenics Time: Fresh Air and Fitness in North Bossier Parish

One of my favorite photos in the History Center collection is a panoramic photo, circa 1930, taken by the Grabills, two of Shreveport’s most significant and talented photographers, father and son Burch and William Grabill. The sepia-toned photograph shows a panoramic view of a hundred or more girls of varying ages among the tall timbers surrounding Plain Dealing High School. The school at that time encompassed all grades, from first through high school. The photo shows groups of girls in their regular school clothes of skirts, blouses, tights and lace-up shoes, each posed in a different stretch. In the center of this scene are a group of tall, older girls playing basketball, sporting the classic women’s athletic gear of the early 20th century, bloomers and middy blouses.

Some groups of girls have both arms straight out on either side, and some have their arms at angles above and below their heads. One group is possibly doing push-ups. The exercises are being led by teachers, who are also in their regular workwear of cardigans, blouses, skirts, stockings and high-heeled but sturdy shoes. One can guess these young scholars and their educators are participating in the exercises known as “calisthenics,” loosening their limbs in order to stretch their young minds.

Calisthenics are free body exercises (exercises that use the body’s own weight) that include such motions as bending, stretching, twisting, swinging, kicking, and jumping, as well as such specialized movements as push-ups, sit-ups, and chin-ups. The exercises are designed to promote strength, endurance, flexibility, coordination, and improve wellbeing by putting the cardiovascular system to work in a controlled and steady way. Calisthenics arose in the early 19th century from the work of Germans who popularized gymnastics for the “everyday” person. Some physiologists stressed calisthenics’ importance in the development of education for women. In the United States, an early advocate for education for girls, Catherine Beecher (whose family of high-achievers included Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin), was also an early adopter of calisthenics. Beecher wrote Physiology and Calisthenics for Schools and Families (1857), and was among those who promoted calisthenics solely for women.

Despite Beecher’s and others’ emphasis on calisthenics for girls and women, the exercises became an activity for both sexes. In advertisements for private schools in Bossier Parish newspapers in the 1880’s, when public school offerings were still extremely limited in northwest Louisiana, calisthenics were touted in the curricula of schools of both sexes. The “Bossier Banner-Progress” in 1881 ran an advertisement for the Minden Male Academy that emphasized, “In order to promote the health of the students, and to cultivate a graceful movement and carriage, there will be regular exercises in calisthenics.” The Minden Female College Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies and Children ran a longer ad that laid out all their varied academic and musical offerings, while emphasizing that no matter what course (and tuition tier) one chose for their daughter, “Calisthenics, [are] a part of the daily exercises and free of charge.”

At Plain Dealing High School, calisthenics seemed to seamlessly fit among the other activities of the school day. An article from the “Plain Dealing Progress” dated April 9th, 1937, entitled “Art Exhibit Was a Huge Success Here During Last Week” stated that, “A very interesting literary and physical education program was conducted in connection with the art display and Mr. Phillips said the pupils especially enjoyed the exercise outdoors last Thursday afternoon.”

The Bossier Parish Libraries History Center can provide an abundance of interesting facts and photographs about Bossier Parish. We would also love to hear your stories and see your photos. With your permission we could scan them to add to our collection. Currently, the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center section of the Bossier Central Library complex remains closed while our new exhibits are completed. Watch our Facebook page or library website homepage for updates at www.bossierlibrary.org. You can also go the Resources/History and Genealogy page of the website to use our online resources. You may call us at (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. For other intriguing facts, photos, and videos of Bossier Parish history, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

• Panoramic photo (scanned in two parts) of female students exercising and playing basketball on the grounds of Plain Dealing High School, 1931. Photo by Grabill, from the Mayme Rae and Hunter Willett collection at the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center
• Advertisement for the Minden Male Academy from the Bossier Banner-Progress, September 15, 1881.

Article by: Pam Carlisle 

A Snapshot Of History: The Remarkable Career of J. Frank McAneny

Photography is a relatively recent invention, only present for around 200 years of approximately 6,000 years (or a little over 3%) of recorded history. However, in those 200 years, photographs and films have proven to be an invaluable contribution to the historical record. Written documents can tell us what people in the past were up to and how they viewed the world around them; photographs and films can show us those people and their world. They are an amazing resource for researchers, for historical re-enactors, for anyone who wants a glimpse into another person’s life, past or present.

Whether they are looking into the past or the present, one subject that people seem especially drawn to is disasters. Disasters, both natural and manmade, tend to draw a great deal of attention, and so those whose living depends upon attention, such as news stations, are naturally inclined to document and speak on disasters with far more effort than they give to reporting safe, wholesome, but “boring” events. In modern times, where anyone with a cellphone is carrying at least one camera on them at all times and it is virtually impossible to venture out in public without encountering at least a dozen security cameras, even a completely untrained amateur can document a disaster with the simple press of a button. While this can be helpful in many ways, it also means that we are more likely to take for granted the professional photojournalists who quite literally risk life and limb to bring incredible footage to the public. One such professional, who had a particularly dangerous yet fascinating career, was a man named Joseph Franklin “J. Frank” McAneny.

J. Frank McAneny was born in 1922 to Joseph “Mac” McAneny and Ben Ava Melat McAneny. His interest in photography began in adolescence, when he started taking pictures around his high school and college campuses with his mother’s folding camera and developing the film in a bathroom. After graduating from Centenary College, he decided to go into news photography, which he began by “shooting spot news pictures” as a freelancer. He would listen to a police scanner to learn about crimes and emergencies, so that he could drive to them and capture pictures and film of them, sometimes as situations were still unfolding. He was often the first photographer on the scene, and police and firemen joked that someday he might beat them to a situation. Because McAneny was, as he put it in a 1999 interview, “the firstest with the mostest,” he met with great success when he submitted his footage to newspapers and news stations. He freelanced for the Shreveport Times for eight years, then for the Shreveport Journal for forty years, and became Chief Photographer for KSLA TV for 35 years.

Though a lifelong Shreveport resident, McAneny traveled all over the Ark-La-Tex and beyond in search of footage. He captured photographs and films of many events in Bossier Parish, including disasters both natural and manmade, such as the shootout in rural Bossier Parish that killed Shreveport police chief E.G. Huckabay, a tornado that swept through Plain Dealing, and a 1959 crash of a transport plane that had attempted to leave Barksdale Air Force Base with three hydrogen bombs. Elsewhere, he shot footage of everything from murders to wildfires to explosions. Throughout his career, he risked being shot, burned alive, gassed, swept away in floodwaters, and a dozen other unpleasant fates. Despite many close calls, McAneny continued his work for nearly half a century, ultimately retiring in 1999. He passed away in 2002, at the age of 79.

During McAneny’s 1999 interview, he noted that there were many occasions where he submitted photos or videos to news stations, and received little to no credit when the footage was released to the public. As he observed, “You risk your life, and you get no credit…the photographer always seems to be the unknown spectator.” Fortunately, McAneny was able to hold onto a substantial collection of his own work. In 2000, he formed the J. Frank McAneny Museum, Inc., which showcased both his work from his years as a news photographer, and the documents, artifacts, and memorabilia he had collected as a part of his interest in history. Though the museum’s contract with the city of Shreveport has since expired, the Northwest Louisiana Archives was able to obtain many of his “photographic negatives…prints, exhibit posters, slides and movie film.” The Bossier Parish Library Historical Center, meanwhile, has a copy of the 1999 interview, titled “Lifetime of Miracles,” where J. Frank McAneny himself talks about his incredible career and the many harrowing experiences he had during it; the video also includes some of his footage of these experiences.

Though we are fortunate enough to know the man behind the pictures in J. Frank McAneny’s case, there are iconic photographs and films whose creators will forever remain unknown. As it becomes easier to capture, or even falsify, footage, it will also become even easier to take photographers for granted, which is sure to exacerbate this problem. However, whether we know their names or not, people who risk everything to document pivotal moments are providing a vital service not just to the public, but also to historians.

If you have information about other local photographers who captured important moments in Bossier Parish history, we would love to hear about them. “Lifetime of Miracles” is in the Bossier Parish History Center’s collection, along with other videos showcasing fascinating characters that played a role in Bossier Parish’s history. However, the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center, located in the Bossier Central Library complex, remains closed while our new exhibits are completed. Watch our Facebook page or library website homepage for updates at www.bossierlibrary.org. You can also visit the website to use our online resources. You may call us at (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org.

For other local history facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• J. Frank McAneny with mother’s folding camera, the very first camera he used. C. 1999. Screenshot from 1999 KTBS interview, “Lifetime of Miracles.”
• A 1959 crash of a plane carrying nuclear weapons, Bossier Parish, LA. C. 1959. Photo found in January 4, 1987 edition of Shreveport Times.
• McAneny and police in standoff that ended in Shreveport Police Chief Huckabay’s death, Bossier Parish, LA. C. 1954. Photo found in January 4, 1987 edition of Shreveport Times.
• J. Frank McAneny with flash bulb camera he used for news photography in 1940s. C. 1999. Screenshot from 1999 KTBS interview, “Lifetime of Miracles.”

 Article by: Jaylie Rester

The Lifelines of the Nation

It’s nearly that time of year again, as travel season here in the United States begins in less than two months. Therefore, let’s take a look at one of the country’s most important pieces of infrastructure: The United States Interstate Highway System. Often shortened to just the Interstate or “I,” this system of crisscrossing road ways are the arteries of United States inter- and intrastate travel. With the interstates, what would otherwise be heavy traffic and constant stoplights is replaced with steady movement and high speeds. This and more are all thanks to the work put in nearly a century prior, in the wake of the Second World War.

The purpose of the U.S. Interstate Highways is to help bring about quick and easy interstate commerce, with the added benefit of allowing for the rapid transportation of men and material for National Defense purposes. The idea was initially championed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and indeed the Roosevelt government would pass the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944, but the idea was never given real funding until the Eisenhower Presidency. Eisenhower’s reasoning behind his support for an interstate system dates to 1919, when he accompanied a military convoy across the country. Couple this with his developed appreciation for the German highway system known as the Autobahn, and the President was poised to create something similar here in the United States. From this would come about the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (more popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956), which would see the construction of the first of the ubiquitous interstate highways here in America.

The interstates themselves are managed and maintained by the states they are in, though they were built with federal aid. Here in Bossier Parish, there are two such national lifelines: Interstates 20 and 220. The reasoning for the numbering of the interstates goes back to the 1956 act, which according to the Federal Highway Administration, declared that “routes with odd numbers run north and south, while even numbered run east and west. For north-south routes, the lowest numbers begin in the west, while the lowest numbered east-west routes are in the south.” There is a similar numbering system for the auxiliary interstates, most of which have a prefix before referencing the original interstate. So, I-220 is named in reference due to its connection to I-20, with the two referencing its status with I-20 as its only spur within Louisiana.

Interstate 20 is the main throughfare, passing from Webster parish, through Bossier, and into Caddo, taking a similar route to the older Overland Dixie Highway (Highway 80). I-20 begins in eastern South Carolina, just west of the city of Florence, and ends in southwestern Texas after joining with I-10. Interstate 220 was built as a bypass for the Shreveport-Bossier metro area, allowing drivers to avoid the busy congestion inside the city limits.

For Interstate 20, construction began locally in the early 1960s, crossing through the parish quickly. By 1962, the construction of Red River Bridge had begun. The substructure would be finished by October of that same year, according to the October 31, 1962, issue of the Bossier Press. In 1966, the first part of I-20 in Bossier would be opened to the public with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

However, construction didn’t just stop in ‘66. As can be seen today, and has been seen for the past year, continuous improvements and repairs are done to the entire system to keep up with the demand and use of these vital roadways. Since our last look at the Interstate’s revitalization project here in Bossier, the project itself has been finished, with a ribbon cutting ceremony in June of this year, mirroring the original ceremony sixty years prior. In total, there are three-and-a-half miles of repaired roadway, which serve an estimated 100,000 vehicles per day according to the LaDOTD.

Looking to the future of the interstate system in Bossier Parish, a segment of the Interstate 69 is to be built in north Louisiana. I-69 begins near the border with Canada in Port Huron, Michigan and ends in Brownsville, Texas, at the Mexican border. Here in Bossier Parish, the local segment will begin after the interstate crosses into Bossier Parish from Webster north of Haughton, heading south to intersect with I-20, before exiting the Parish across the Red River near Elm Grove.

The U.S. interstates are as important as can be, both nationally and locally. These connective links pull together the various parts of the nation, and without them, the face of America would be radically different. From sea to shining sea, these highways are the lifelines of America.

If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

Bridge 605 & Foster Road Intersection, April 20, 1967 (Source: Louisiana Department of Highways (LaDOTD) - BPL History Center)

Barksdale Interchange at West End, looking east. April 20, 1967 (Source: Louisiana Department of Highways (LaDOTD) - BPL History

 Aerial view of Project Looking North, September 9, 1965 (Source: Louisiana Department of Highways (LaDOTD) - BPL History Center)

Aerial-looking E. from Barksdale Blvd., January 11, 1964 (Source: Louisiana Department of Highways (LaDOTD) - BPL History Center)

Article by: Jonah Daigle

From Trail to Highway: US 80 (Part 2)

Two weeks ago, this column took readers on a “horseless carriage” ride on the Dixie Overland Highway through Louisiana and Bossier Parish points like Red Chute and East Texas Street in Bossier City, and over the Red River into Shreveport. Named, not numbered, “auto trails” were the grass-roots answer to the public clamor for good roads that arose once mass-produced, more-affordable automobiles (such as the 1908 Ford Model-T) motored off the assembly line. By 1917, one of the most important, if now-forgotten, of these trails was the Dixie-Overland Highway. In this column, the ride continues later into the twentieth century on a more recognizable road for today’s drivers. By the middle of 1920’s, the United States government was waking up to both the national benefits and requirements of motorized travel, for pleasure (tourism), commerce, and defense, and with the creation of a national, numbered highway system in 1926, the Dixie Overland became US Highway 80.

                               

The Dixie Overland Highway had been only the second coast to coast auto route across the United States, coming after the Lincoln Highway, established in 1913, that connected New York City to San Francisco. The Dixie Overland, which connected Savannah, Georgia (and later, Tybee Island) to San Diego, CA, was the shorter of the two routes, and the only one that was considered year-round, given that it was not prone to the snowstorms that could make northern routes perilous or impassable. With the demand for good roads that arose almost overnight from new automobile owners, auto enthusiasts formed their own private auto clubs, formed the clubs into associations, and designed, surfaced, and maintained roads on a county by county, parish by parish, or town by town basis, over thousands of miles.

By 1920, the country was realizing if these automobiles could take us from one state to another, or even a handful of states, in only a day’s time, roads that were consistently maintained and easily navigated, were necessary. The U.S. was not long out of WWI, and wary of Bolshevism and a German invasion. WWI Army General Jack Pershing had extolled the efficient wonder that was the German Autobahn. Thus, the Federal Government was calling for a connected, well-maintained, physically resilient, as in able to withstand the weight of a convoy of tanks, national highway system. On February 20, 1925, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Howard M. Gore approved appointment of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways to design a uniform system of interstate numbering and marking to replace the national “hodgepodge” of named trails. On November 11, 1926, the US numbered Highway System was approved by American Association of State Highway Officials.

In addition to a federal highway system and administration, local roads departments also began to answer to or work with state and other more centralized highway departments. Louisiana had already formed its state highway department in 1922. The cause for good roads was eagerly taken up by Louisiana Governor Huey Long, who entered office in 1928. With less than 300 miles of paved roads in the state, Governor Long blamed his 1924 losing bid for governor on heavy rains that kept his rural supporters from the polls on account of deep mud. Long embraced the creation and paving of highways and the building of free bridges (as opposed to toll bridges, or ferries) to connect Louisianians that were far apart both in physical location and location on the political spectrum. He also saw paved roads as a way to put Louisiana on the national map, so to speak, with a goal of paving more roads, faster, than as many other states as possible.

                               

A photograph in the History Center collection shows Gov. Long, accompanied by his wife Rose, in 1929, cutting a ribbon at Fillmore (near Princeton and Haughton) in Bossier Parish to mark the opening of US Highway 80 from Shreveport to Minden. The Fillmore area was the last section to be paved on the Minden-Shreveport highway segment of Highway 80. In addition to paving, parts of the road were straightened, bridges widened, and hills made lower in order to make the highway less dangerous. This was especially so around Red Chute, which was considered one of the most dangerous points on Highway 80, according to the April 9, 1930, Minden Signal Tribune. The photo shows the first ribbon-cutting for a concrete road in the state, a visible reminder of the governor's theme to "get Louisiana out of the mud." A man identified in the Oct. 11, 1963, Shreveport Journal as Bossier banker and state senator V. V. Whittington, holds a sign that reads, “Gov. Long's Plan, 1932 Louisiana Will Lead the World in Good Roads”.

US 80 had the rare distinction that it very closely followed the original route of its “trail” or “trunk road” (main road) predecessor, the Dixie Overland Highway. Highway 80 as a coast-to-coast route has also been passed by, by the interstate highway system. I-20 was constructed here in the 1960s. Parts of US 80 have been decommissioned at a time, going eastward, so that currently the western terminus is in Dallas. The highway remains under an official historic designation in California.

Do you have any mementoes or stories of old US Highway 80 in Bossier? We would love to hear or see them. The Bossier Parish Libraries History Center, located in the Bossier Central Library complex, remains closed while our new exhibits are completed. Watch our Facebook page or library website homepage for updates at www.bossierlibrary.org. You can also visit the website to use our online resources. You may call us at (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other local history facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• US Dept. of Agriculture Bureau of Public Roads Map of United States Highways 80 and 90
• Ribbon Cutting, 1929, Highway 80 in Fillmore, LA, with Governor Huey Long.

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Bossier Parish Soldiers Gave All in Korean War

 On the evening of Sunday, July 26, 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower was nervous. The armistice ending the Korean War was due to be signed the following day, and according to White House Assistant Staff Secretary Arthur Minnich, Eisenhower feared “that there was the possibility that something would go wrong before the signing was complete.” Those fears proved unfounded, as the armistice was signed the following morning at 10 a.m., 73 years ago, ending the conflict which saw families across the nation burying loved ones killed in action, including three from Bossier Parish.

James E. Kelleher Jr. had been a resident of Benton since birth. Articles in The Bossier Banner and The Planters Press newspapers state that he was a graduate of Benton High School and entered the U.S. Army in 1948, training in California before being sent to Japan as part of the 5th Calvary Regiment, 1st Calvary Division. Rising through the ranks, he became a sergeant and, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission, was a recipient of the Purple Heart, Korean Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal, among others. After being wounded on August 2, 1950, he wrote a letter to his mother saying she shouldn’t worry about him. “I am not in too bad a condition,” he stated. “I did get shot though, and it didn’t feel very good.” A copy of the letter is in the History Center archives. Kelleher returned to duty in late August, but was wounded again during fighting on November 28, 1950. After recuperating, he rejoined his division in mid-January 1951. Approximately a month later, he was killed in action. He was 20 years old.

Lionel King of Plain Dealing also served in the Army, the 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. Born in 1922, this African American soldier earned several medals while achieving the rank of master sergeant. Among the service decorations listed for him by the ABMC are the Purple Heart, Republic of Korea War Service Medal and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation. Although additional information about King’s time of service was difficult to find, online records of the National Archives show that he was killed in action February 14, 1951, during fighting in South Korea. According to The Planters Press, his family was notified approximately a month later. He was 28 years old. Charles J. Steelman hailed from Plain Dealing as well, and like King and Kelleher, served in the Army.

He was a private first class with the 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, and his awards included the Purple Heart, National Defense Service Medal and Republic of Korea War Service Medal, according to the ABMC. Information about Steelman was also difficult to find, but National Archive records show he was killed in action in the South on February 19, 1951, aged 19.

Today, the Wall of Remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. commemorates these three men and the more than 36,000 other Americans who lost their lives fighting to defend South Korea. The names Kelleher, King and Steelman are inscribed there. At least two of the names can also be found here at home. Sgt. Kelleher was buried at Lay Cemetery in Benton, while Pfc. Steelman was laid to rest at Stevens Cemetery in Caddo Parish. The final resting place of MSgt. King was unable to be verified. Their sacrifice is stated simply but eloquently by the phrase attributed to Korean War veteran Howard Osterkamp, “All gave some; some gave all.”

If you have any letters, photos or other information relating to residents of Bossier Parish who’ve served in the military, the History Center may be interested in adding the material to its research collection. Call us to learn more. We are currently closed for renovations, but can still be reached by phone at (318) 746-7717, and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

Sergeant James E. Kelleher Jr. / photo courtesy of A Footstep In Time & Donna Hinton Warke

Grave marker for Private First Class C J Steelman/ photo courtesy of Family Miner

Purple Heart Medal/ photo courtesy of Clipart-library.com

Article: by Kevin Flowers

The Dixie-Overland Highway: The Coast-to-Coast Ancestor of US 80 (Part 1)

After the first massed-produced Model T Ford rolled off the assembly line in 1908, more and more Americans began a never-ending love affair with cars, along with a never-ending desire: Decent roads. The grass-roots answer to this wish in the early 20th century became a series of named, not numbered, “auto trails.” By 1917, one of the most important, if now-forgotten, of these trails was the Dixie-Overland Highway. The Dixie-Overland Highway, which later became US 80, was an ambitious sea to sea route that started in Savannah, GA, and ended in San Diego, CA. In between, it traversed Bossier Parish, went through the heart of Bossier City and crossed the Red River into Shreveport.

Mass-marketed in addition to being mass produced, the Model T automobiles continued rolling off the assembly lines by the millions. All these new automobile owners across the country wanted roads on which to not just drive, but to travel. Drivers didn’t wait for state highway departments to form and provide the roads they needed. In many states, like Louisiana, that would take another decade, or more. Instead, automobile owners formed automobile clubs, and these clubs advocated for and organized the original interstate “trails.”

The Automobile Club of Savannah, Ga. conceived of the Dixie-Overland Highway in July, 1914. First the club wanted a route across their state, but almost immediately they began to think bigger. The club conceived of the first Southern coast to coast route for automobiles. They wasted no time in forming an association, electing officers, and agreeing on a plan of operation to “promote the construction and use of a highway through the States of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.” The association determined a practical route and proudly determined that the Dixie-Overland Highway would be “the shortest, straightest, and only year-round (non-snowbound) ocean to ocean highway in the United States.”

On February 14, 1917, the Dixie-Overland Highway Association was officially incorporated in the State of Georgia for a 20-year period as a nonprofit organization headquartered in Columbus. Each state along the route had its own representatives. In Louisiana, where the highway followed the route of the V. S. & P Railroad, the state was represented enthusiastically by Caddo Parish businessman and planter Will Mercer, who was originally of Bossier and well-known in the parish. The whole eight-state association met yearly. In only its second year of existence, 1918, the Dixie-Overland Highway Association chose Shreveport, LA as the site of this meeting. The meeting started off dramatically with the hotly contested issue of which of two California cities would be the highway’s terminus, Los Angeles or San Diego. (Eventually, San Diego got the official honor). But one of the truly most urgent issues for the road had emerged only 2 months after the association formed; the United States’ entrance into WWI on April 6, 1917.

In 1918, the Dixie-Overland Highway Association focused its energies on obtaining “material assistance” from the Federal Government, urging it to put the newly-available asset of the “motor truck” to full and critical use. In an account of his own cross-country drive across the route in the spring and summer of 1918, which was published soon afterwards in the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, GA, on Aug. 4th, Field Secretary Leland J. Henderson hoped to make the case that wartime was making the road indispensable, and that helping communities finish their part in it was in the federal government’s best interest. Of the return portion of his trip, Henderson wrote, “A vast amount of freight is now being carried on the highway. Motor trucks and burro teams have the preference. The retarding of highway construction is causing a noticeable deterioration of the roads in many sections. Rail facilities are largely absorbed in carrying war material.” Then he asked the reader, “How will we keep up the commerce of the country without a dependable system of roads?”

By 1919, California had completed its section of the Dixie-Overland route, and Georgia already had theirs complete for a few years. Louisiana was at about 65 percent completion, which was “near the bottom of the column in progress made,” according to Will Mercer, quoted in the June 12, 1919, Bossier Banner-Progress. This work was being done on a parish by parish, as well as a state by state, basis, so road quality could vary greatly. Arizona was well-ahead of game, paving their section in concrete. Elsewhere, providing an improved, “hard” surface could simply mean a dirt road that was graded, widened and extra hard-packed, or that gravel was laid.

Stay tuned here for the rest of the story next month. By the mid-1920s, state highway departments developed and a federal numbered system of highways was created, including US 80. In addition, come to World War II’s Day (Tuesday) next week, on Sept 8th at 10:30 AM in the Bossier Central Library Complex to hear speaker Wesley Harris, historian from the Claiborne Parish Library. Mr. Harris will speak about Highway 80’s role in WWII. He will show us the highway’s importance to the US military from coast to coast, with special mention, of course, of Barksdale, then a US Army Air Field.

The History Center remains closed while our new exhibits are completed, but watch our Facebook page or library website homepage for updates at www.bossierlibrary.org. You can also visit the website to use our online resources. You may call us at (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other local history facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Snapshot of a Whippet touring car speeding west off Red Chute Bayou hill on what is now Highway 80, circa 1925. History Center photo, courtesy of Claude Corbett.
• Map of the Dixie-Overland Highway, 1918. From the American Geographic Society Library’s Digital Map Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Article By: Pam Carlslie 

An Age of Steam – Steamboats and the Red River

The Red River is the single most important geographical feature in Bossier Parish, broadly determining the Caddo-Bossier border. The Red, as is common knowledge, was once subject to the Great Raft, a great log jam that had built up over several centuries. In the wake of the American westward expansion, however, the American Government declared the necessity of clearing the Great Raft to facilitate river traffic. This decision would have lasting cultural and commercial effects, to this day, by allowing the transit of steamboats to the Red River above Alexandria, and into North Louisiana.

It is important to note that the Red River in Louisiana can broadly be divided into two distinct regions: above Alexandria (here-in the upper-Red River) and below Alexandira (here-in the lower-Red River). The falls at Alexandria, which give Rapides Parish its name, presented a major hurdle to river traffic during several months out of the year. Furthermore, the periodic times of lowered river levels for the Red River meant that the steamboats that did transit the Red River were forced to adapt their designs to have a shallower draft, helping to prevent getting caught in the dangerous areas of low water. This feature of the river meant that while river traffic on the Red was possible, it could carry risks either financial or physical. Nevertheless, the upper-Red River in Louisiana would develop a rich tradition of waterborne transit, particularly through the use of steamboats.

Shreve’s expedition, after the clearing of a large portion of the Great Raft, allowed for the building of Shreve Town, which would late become Shreveport in the future Caddo Parish. Bossier, at the time of Shreve Town’s founding, was still a part of Claiborne Parish. While much of the region’s economic activity would remain on the western bank of the Red River, the communities on the eastern developed ways to the river and beyond. For instance, Shed Road was purpose built to allow the transit of goods from the hilly and marshy interior of Bossier Parish to the Red River, wherein the goods would be shipped south towards New Orleans.

Shipping agricultural output was not the only use for steamboats in the region. Sometimes they were used in more interesting and exciting ways. For example, according to the July 1, 1954, edition of the Bossier Banner-Progress, in 1892 there was severe flooding in the region due to extended rainfall. This flooding left people fleeing for higher ground, and the roads and railroads became untraversable. Herein came Sam Willer, a prominent shop owner in the then-small town of Benton. At personal expense to himself, Willer navigated to the Red River and gained the attention of a passing steamboat. He chartered the captain to take him to Shreveport to acquire desperately needed supplies, before both Willer and the unnamed ship returned to Benton, sailing through the flooded lowlands of Bossier Parish to deliver relief. It was thanks to the particulars of steamboat construction that allowed the vessel to navigate the treacherous waters.

As mentioned earlier, however, the use of steamboats on the Red River came with potential risks, as both the river and the ships themselves were prone to causing incidents ranging from snags, fires, boiler explosions, or even collision between ships. One such incident is the tale of the Nat Dortch. The Nat Dortch was a steamboat built in 1889 in Jefferson, Indiana. After being purchased in 1984, the Nat Dortch began running a line between New Orleans and the Red River. Within a timespan of just over one year, the Nat Dortch sank twice along the Red River after hitting snags, with the second incident taking place at what is now Lake Ninock near the Lock and Dam #5. In total, there were 150 steamboat losses along the Red River, just between the city of Natchitoches and the Carolina Bluffs located in the northern part of Bossier Parish.

All great things, however, must come to an end. With the coming of the railroad as a function of the United States’ westward expansion, the widespread usage of steamboats on the Red River declined. That is not to say that they vanished entirely, as even today the image of steamships on the Red River persists in the local culture.

Of particular assistance in writing this article was a 1999 history prepared for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District titled Steamboats on Red River: A History of Waterborne Commerce And An Assessment of Steamboat Losses Along the Red River, Louisiana and Arkansas. This source, and a variety of others, are available in the History Center’s Circulating and Reference collections. 

If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. The History Center is currently closed until further notice, though staff remains available. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

• River boat at a landing on the Red River - BPL HC (2001.005.003)
• Sam Willer on a horse - BPL HC (2002.034.003)
• Wrecked steamboat near a bridge on the Red River - BPL HC (2001.051.017E)

Article by: Jonah Daigle