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