Bayou Bodcau’s History

Bayou Bodcau’s History

The Times: 09 Jan 1949

Bayou Bodcau begins in Southern Arkansas and drains the district lying south of Hot Springs. It flows south into Bossier Parish’s Red Chute Bayou and Loggy Bayou, then eventually to the Red River. The area was home to the Caddo Indians who used the bayou as a water source and for transportation.

Ezekiel Calhoun Long purchased property on both sides of the bayou in 1839 to operate a ferry. Long built a cabin on the land and since there was not yet a Bossier Parish Courthouse, the Police Jury met at his home for their July 1843 meeting. Newsome Durden and his family moved to Bossier Parish from Georgia around 1851. Durden purchased the Long ferry and cabin, which eventually burned down. It was rebuilt in 1925 by Newsome’s grandson, Ben Durden, and still standing today.

Benjamin Fort wrote in an 1881 Bossier Banner column that Bayou Bodcau should be studied regarding navigation and drainage. He examined the Bayou at a dozen different points and was convinced that making the channel more navigable from Loggy Bayou to Bellevue would not cost more than five hundred dollars. Fort said that the work required was to “chop out and blow out” any cypress stumps in the channel at very low water and clear away overhanging trees. If this work were to be done annually, the channel would deepen and have a greater drainage power. Once this occurred, Fort envisioned a permanent saw mill business on the bayou.

Although an act of the legislature passed to permit navigation as far as the Arkansas line, the area above Durden’s ferry was never cleared. Other reliable means of transportation came into the picture. The Shed Road that ran from Red Chute to Bossier City, allowed for all-weather travel and put an end to muddy wagon trips. The combination of new railroads and the 1890 relocation of the Bossier Parish Courthouse from Bellevue to Benton led the Durden’s ferry to cease operation.

Record floods washed over the region in 1905, 1930, and 1933, when fifty to sixty thousand acres below the proposed dam site were covered with water. Damage in each of these floods totaled over a million dollars. Many lesser floods hit the same bottomlands, wrecking the highly cultivated and valuable lands. In May of 1944, high flood waters left levees crumpled near Buckhall, Brownlee, and the Beene plantations. A solution to these frequent floods was urgently needed.

The US Army Corps of Engineers brainstormed for a coordinated Red River Valley flood control program. Local government agencies backed these federal efforts to reduce flooding. The first step to address regional flood control was the construction of Denison or Lake Texoma Dam, next was the Wallace Lake Dam below Shreveport. The third step would be the Bodcau Dam, followed by the Texarkana Dam and Reservoir, now known as Wright Patman Lake to honor a longtime East Texas congressman.

In 1945, the Bossier Parish Levee Board and the Red River Valley Improvement Association unanimously approved the federally-financed flood control project at Bayou Bodcau. The initial project was estimated to cost nearly three million dollars. Senator John Overton and Representative Overton Brooks offered their full support for the project. The dam would regulate water, releasing it gradually into Red Chute and Loggy Bayous. During flood periods, a forty-mile-long pool would fill to protect over 72 thousand fertile acres below in the Red River bottoms. It would also help shield Barksdale Field from floodwater, as well as the highways and railroads entering Bossier Parish from the east. The ground-breaking ceremony for the dam was held on 9 April 1947 with Volney Voss Whittington, president of the Bossier Levee Board, serving as master of ceremonies. Construction began in May of 1947.

The Federal government bought out the lands for the reservoir area. Ben Durden, whose cabin was mentioned earlier, did not want to move from his five acres of land and flat out refused. Construction of the dam was already underway. The US government chose to purchase his property and gave Durden a free lease while the home was in the family. The small Durden cemetery was included in this agreement. Carrie Cunningham was the last of the Durden family to hold the property. She signed the five acres back to the government circa 1996. The Corps of Engineers renovated the building for use in environmental education, and this reuse allows the historically significant home to be accessible to the public.

The Shreveport Times featured an article in January of 1949 titled, “Big Bossier Dam Rising From Earth!!” and included photographs of the construction progress. Costs had ballooned to five million dollars, two million above the estimate. The dam did not have gates to open and close; rather, the earthen embankment had two long outlet tubes. The reinforced concrete tubes were designed to release flood water at a controlled rate. A long concrete spillway sits at the north end of the dam. Should excessive flooding occur, water could flow over the spillway to protect the top of the earth dam from erosion.

When the dam neared completion, the Corps of Engineers advertised that most land was still suitable for timber, plus some farming and grazing in the upper regions. The land could be leased for these purposes, with the former owner or tenant offered first crack at the lease. Seventy-five percent of the rent from these leases was to be returned to the state for expenditures on public schools and roads.

The US Army Corps of Engineers continues to operate the Bayou Bodcau Dam and Reservoir for flood management, environmental stewardship, and recreation. Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries leases the property for its wildlife management area. One of the largest remaining expanses of bottomland hardwoods in northwest Louisiana is found here. For birdwatchers, Bayou Bodcau is a treasure. It’s located within the nesting range of the bald eagle and you can spot them during the winter months, along with over 140 other bird species.

Visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center to learn more about the bayous and flood control projects in our parish. We are open M-Th 10-8, Fri 10-6, and Sat 10-5. Our phone number is 318-746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Fighting Forest Fires in the 1940s

Historically, timber is Louisiana's top agricultural crop and is a multi-billion dollar industry. Forests cover a little over fifty percent of Louisiana's land area. They support the state's extensive forest products industry, provide habitat for wildlife, recreational opportunity, and other environmental benefits.

Forestry and forest products are not only a valuable source of income for the state of Louisiana but also for Bossier Parish. The value-added, to Bossier Parish alone, is over fifteen million dollars per year. Value-added represents the creation of new wealth and goes into the economy through payments made to workers, interest, profits, and indirect business taxes.

It goes without saying, the need to protect our forests is a high priority. Research of forest fires began in earnest in the early 1900s on a federal level. By 1940, the Louisiana Forestry Commission was created through an amendment of the Louisiana Constitution. In the early days of the commission, look-out towers, telephone networks, and fire-fighting teams were strategically placed, providing a network of protection for each district in the state.

Bossier Parish started with two towers, the Plain Dealing tower near Rocky Mount and the Bodcau tower near Bellevue. The towers were constructed of steel and ranged between 100 and 120 feet tall, depending on the elevation of each location. Atop each tower sat a seven-square-foot observation cabin enclosed in glass on four sides. All of the towers in the fourth district were interconnected by two privately operated telephone lines, which terminated at the district headquarters in Minden.

In 1946, a third tower was built on Gidden's Hill, the second-highest point in Louisiana. With Gidden's Hill being 525 feet above sea level, the 100-foot tower, on a clear day, could easily see Shreveport and Minden, and sometimes the Plain Dealing tower and the town of Springhill. A fourth and final tower went up in the Bolinger area in 1948. All of the towers operated 12 months of the year, except the Bolinger tower, which operated for six months of the year.

The fire tower watchmen were on call 24/7 except when there was a lot of rain. They typically lived in a cottage that was on the premises of or very near the tower. Because of this, there was a phone installed at the residence in addition to the tower. A typical day found the watchmen climbing up the 100-foot tower to the observation deck at least three times.

Preventing and squashing forest fires requires a group effort from citizens exercising caution when smoking or making campfires to local fire departments and citizens joining in the fight to extinguish the blaze. After a fire, an investigation takes place to determine the cause and catch those who start fires.

Bossier Parish Highway Department workers helped fight a forest fire that was consuming
hundreds of acres, 1952. (L to R) Hayet Whatley, Tom Sistrunk, and Clifford Jones.
Carol Young Collection: 1998.081.082.

Malicious burning of another's property is a felony. If found guilty, the maximum penalty for malicious burning was, during that time, a fine of $500 and up to six months in jail. And, negligent burning could draw a penalty of $300 or thirty days in jail. Today, the fines and jail time are much higher.

The Louisiana Forestry Commission also promoted forestry education among the general public and in schools. Rural schools began establishing school forests and offering forestry programs, such as the Plain Dealing High School Forest, which started in 1946. They also developed nurseries to grow saplings for replanting harvested timberlands, areas destroyed by fire, and planting school forests.

Today, "the Louisiana Office of Forestry is the only state agency with statewide wildland fire-fighting capabilities detected by aircraft or are reported by the public, and are then suppressed by trained forestry crews. It involves approximately 106 wildland firefighters equipped with trucks, tractor-plows and two-way radios. These professional crews are employed year-round. Statistics show that the tractor-plow operator in the southern United States has the most hazardous wildland fire-fighting job in the nation."

To learn more about forestry in Bossier Parish, visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. Be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB and check out our blog, http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/. There you will find photographs to go with this article and previous articles. We also have some fun and informative videos on Tiktok; follow @bplhistorycenter to see them.

By: Amy Robertson