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

Plain Dealing High School's Forest

Future Farmers of America with Oren S. McFatter, vocational instructor.
Plain Dealing High School Collection: 2004.013.020

In 1946, Plain Dealing High School Principal Felix G. Phillips called a meeting to discuss the organization of a forestry program for the school. Phillips explained to his audience that "he had been thinking of and was interested in forestry and the improvement of agriculture in general for many years; and for the past five years had been planning a forestry program for the Plain Dealing High School and had now reached that point where he could put those plans into effect.

"He explained that his idea was to develop a forest project on the land belonging to the school and use it to enable boys and girls to become familiar with forest development and management. In doing this it will also influence farmers in this section as well as other schools to become interested. The school is fortunate in having for its site about 25 acres.

"Mr. Phillips further stated that Bossier Parish is especially suited for the production of forest and forest products and he wanted to do all he could to get the citizenry interested. He believes this can be done by working through the children."

The meeting included members of the State Forestry Commission, Soil Conservation Service, Bossier Parish School Board, fire prevention, Louisiana State Forestry Commission, farmers, and the Southern Craft Paper Mill, an International Paper division. Those in attendance favored the idea and formed committees to see the project through to completion. By the end of 1946, Phillips' vision for a school forestry program became a reality after a 10-acre plot was dedicated to the program.

The District Forester, D.Y. Smith, brought 2,500 saplings for the occasion. That year's freshman class planted the first 500. Students in the Future Farmers of America club lead by Oren S. McFatter, Plain Dealing High School's vocational agricultural teacher; 4-H clubbers lead by Enoch T. Nix and other interested high school students planted the remaining 2,000 saplings. Over the next two years, an additional 4,000 saplings were planted in the school's forest.

Principal Phillips with sign O.S. McFatter presented
to him dedicating the forest plot in his honor, 1948.

In 1948, O.S. McFatter presented a plaque with a dedicatory inscription naming the forest plot in honor of Principal Felix G. Phillips.

Nine years after the program started, John Webb, a representative from the Louisiana Forestry Commission, visited the Phillips Forestry Project to inspect Louisiana high schools' first forestry project. Tommy Kohara, the official photographer of the Louisiana Forestry Commission, took pictures. Six months later, in celebration of the forest's 10th anniversary, a three full-page article appeared in "Forests and People," the Louisiana Forestry Commissions magazine.

According to Webb's article, "Since the dedication, small landowners in the environs of the town have planted many plots to pine. Oren McFatter, vocational agricultural teacher at Plain Dealing High School, is teaching forestry to agricultural classes each year, using the demonstration plot to teach planting and management. He and Glenn H. Crawford, present principal of the high school, plan on expanding the forestry project when and if more land can be obtained."

(L to R) C.O. Holland, James A. Gayle, B.L. Snyder, T.L. Rhodes
Dedication of Haughton High School Forest, 1961. Source: Bossier Press

Three years later, the school dedicated an additional 40-acres just north of the Arkansas-Louisiana line. In 1961, the second Bossier Parish High School forest was dedicated at Haughton High School. A 40-acre tract located just north of Fillmore, where vocational agriculture students studied under Frank Staten. Profits from selling forest products produced by both schools were used to buy equipment for vocational agriculture.

By: Amy Robertson