Local legends abound in nearly every American town. Investigating the origins of some of these scary stories often reveals actual historical happenings. Let’s explore the history that could be behind a ghost story from the Plain Dealing area about a lumberjack ghost who appears with large boots and carries an axe.
Timber has been a thriving economic activity here since the last two decades of the nineteenth century, when Northern forests had largely been over-harvested, and the untouched forests here became more accessible after the clearings of the Great Raft of the Red River. 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. 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.)
Dangerous occupations or places are often the start of legends. Perhaps they might be meant to serve as warnings. Being a lumberjack, someone who went into the woods to cut down and transport trees, was an especially risky occupation. In fact, by 1948, due to its many deadly or life-altering dangers (loss of limb was also common), the Plain Dealing Progress reported on April 8th that the U.S. Secretary of Labor L.B. Swelling had issued a revised Hazardous Occupation Order which became effective February 2nd that prohibited the employment of minors under 18 years old in all occupations in the logging industry, with some exceptions, such as certain clerical, repair, clean-up, tallying or camp jobs.
First, the act of cutting and then felling the area’s tall trees could be deadly. Through the early 20th century, lumberjacks would cut down entire forests using axes or large, two-person hand saws. It was difficult, dangerous work even with more modern equipment like chainsaws. In 1959, Earl Whatley Jr., a 32-year-old El Dorado, Arkansas man and logging company employee was reported in the “Hope Star” in 1959 as being killed when struck by a falling tree. Logging also required some lumberjacks to live in very basic camps far away from the nearest towns and cities. Camp life itself was dangerous, with fights and violence among the isolated workers. It was often alcohol-fueled, as recalled in the S.H. Bolinger Company timber company history in the History Center’s collection.
For lumberjacks, cutting down the trees was only the beginning of the job. Once the trees were down, they had to transport them to sawmills for processing. Since they often worked in dense forests miles from the nearest road or railroad, this could be a complicated, risky endeavor. First, they used teams of oxen, and in more recent years, trucks. Serious accidents occurred, such as in 1936 when Dalton Dees, a 22-year-old man from Springhill, was crushed when a log rolled on him while he was loading logs onto a truck. The Shreveport Journal reported his funeral. Serious road collisions involving logging trucks also occurred, and their heavy loads made such accidents especially dangerous.
After trees are cut down, they’re often split into planks, or lumber, in sawmills. The machinery in the mills was highly dangerous. A photo of the inside of a Bolinger company sawmill shows a sign that warns: “Safety First. All moving machinery is dangerous. Visitors Keep Out.” With sawdust in the air, fire was also always a threat. Just a few of the mill fires from around the Plain Dealing area were: The 1895 Anthion Mill fire, the 1895 Cavill & Cavill saw and planing mills fire, the 1901 Bolinger sawmill fire, which entirely destroyed the mill, the 1938 planing mill fire at Alden Bridge, and the 1948 Ray Johnson sawmill fire in Plain Dealing.
To learn more about forestry in Bossier Parish, or local ghost stories and the splinters of truth within them, visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. Or let us know some stories you have heard! You may also enjoy our special program at the History Center, Haunting Performances: Spooky Stories of the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium on Thursday, October 19, 2023 at 6:00 PM. The Shreveport Municipal Auditorium is a National Historic Landmark known internationally for its music history. It also has another notable distinction as one of the most haunted places in north Louisiana. Former Municipal Auditorium tour guide and current Community Life Coordinator at the Stiles Apartments at The Glen, Teresa Micheels, will reveal some of this storied building’s favorite hauntings and unexplained occurrences. The History Center is 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
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Image:
- Transporting logs, Plain Dealing-area timber industry. Date unknown.
- Fire at the Ray Johnson sawmill near Plain Dealing in 1948.
Article by: Pam Carlisle
