Saturday, February 29, 2020

My month in Louisiana

My take on Louisiana

where I went this month
Usually I try to organize my assessment into categories to help clarify my thoughts, but with Louisiana, all the categories flow into each other so thoroughly that I'm not sure I should bother trying.

Louisiana's history and culture and character all grow out of each other and out of the land around them.  For instance, the early settlers - both Native and European - wouldn't have spent much time here if it weren't for the mild climate and abundant wildlife and hospitable geography.

The vast majority of the state seems to be oriented around water in one way or another.  There's not just the extensive coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, but also the Mississippi River which defines the boundary with Mississippi state and dumps all its 2,300 miles worth of sediment and so forth onto the Delta.  And then there are the other major rivers and the bayous in every corner of the state. 

With all this water comes a vast array of wildlife - birds and mammals and reptiles.  Large numbers of species of birds either live here year-round or pass through here during spring or fall migration or spend their winters here.  They range from egrets and spoonbills and pelicans to freshwater and ocean-going ducks to woodpeckers and blackbirds to little juncos and warblers.  There are a variety of snakes and alligators and lizards and frogs.  There are any number of freshwater and saltwater fishes and shellfish.  And there are bears and deer and skunks and beavers and so forth - and these critters aren't just living here secretively but are frequently sighted.

And the land is diverse enough to support this variety of wildlife.  There are swamps and forests and farmland and hills and flat land.

All these natural features encouraged folks from the French and Spanish in New Orleans to the indigenous people in Poverty Point to settle here.  This is where the Acadians came when Nova Scotia booted them.  More than a century of European pioneers came and settled here because of Louisiana's bounty.

Speaking of bounty, Louisiana is the #1 producer in the country of shrimp.  And it may still be #1 in oil production, producing about a quarter of the entire output of the US.  LA still produces about 20% of the country's sugar and is second only to North Carolina in sweet potatoes.  Not to mention other agriculture and aquaculture products that come from here.

In general, Louisianans are proud of their state - they like living and working here, and they vacation here.  They like their history and their unique culture and their natural resources and their food that's found nowhere else in this country.

They drive with a wild disregard for ordinary automotive safety, but they are relatively polite drivers when think about it.  Actually, Louisianans in general are like that - not apparently interested in convention but very pleasant and helpful if they notice you need it.

What I didn't see that I wanted to see
I really made an effort to cover most of the state this month, and this map shows I did a pretty good job.  It ranks right behind Alabama in size, but maybe its arrangement in a boot, rather than a rectangle, helped me get around to more of it.  The weather was much better in February than in December, too.

Still, all that running around was at the cost of missing some things I'd wanted to see.  And the flooding across many areas and campgrounds in the state didn't help.  Aside from the places I mentioned in my daily posts, here are some of the other things I'd want to come back for.
*  The most obvious place I missed was New Orleans.  If I'd had more time, and if I hadn't wanted to avoid the Mardi Gras crowds, I could have boarded the dogs and taken a ferry to the city from Bayou Segnette State Park, or even rented a hotel room for a night just so I could walk around the French Quarter before dawn with a cup of coffee and begnettes from Cafe du Monde (my favorite thing to do in that city).  Maybe next time through that's not in the month preceding Mardi Gras.
*  I'd intended to take a swamp tour - they're offered all along the coastal part of the state.  I'm not sure why I didn't, though I was having trouble then separating my fear of the dogs meeting an alligator from my own not-particularly-serious fear of them.
*  Sulphur, in far southwestern LA, has a Brimstone Museum, the only museum in the US to spotlight a particular mining process to acquire sulphur (the modern, non-Biblical name for brimstone).  In fact, I think the mine here is the world's largest producer of sulphur.
*  I'd read that near Alexandria there's a Wild Azalea National Recreational Area, though all I can find online is a Wild Azalea Trail, which has been designated a National Recreation Trail, in the Kisatchie National Forest.  It's a narrow 26-mile-long trail through an untouched natural landscape and, while it sounds lovely in the spring when the azaleas bloom, isn't at all what I was expecting.  I read about it in a children's book, and this trail doesn't sound like a child's trail to me.
*  Shreveport has its flowers, too: the American Rose Center is located there, and I'd have visited except that it was raining when I was there, and this isn't anyway rose-blooming season.  But they have 20,000 rose bushes and I'd love to visit at another time of the year.  It's the largest park in the country that's dedicated to roses.

My conclusion
I liked Louisiana very much, both the state itself and the people living here.  If I didn't have to worry about encounters between my dogs and various forms of wildlife, I'd like to come back.  But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to live here - I have a feeling the insect population is out of sight any time but winter, and I see no reason to go looking for discomfort.  But in the winter, it's been nice.

Rain is common throughout the state throughout the year; it was unfortunate that the state was getting an unusual amount this year, thanks to the unusual weather patterns that are likely the result of climate change.  Speaking of which, anyone considering moving to Louisiana to live should give up the idea of living near the Gulf because of rising sea levels.  New Orleans itself is already 8' below sea level (hence the need for the levees) - in fact, it's the official lowest point in the state.  That situation will only be exacerbated in the coming years, I'd think - and that's likely to be the case throughout the southernmost parts of the state.

But Louisiana has a lot of charm and I can easily see why so many people are so attracted to it.  I enjoyed my month here and am delighted to be able to leave without seeing alligators or black bears.


Louisiana - Day 29 (a bonus day)

Lake D'Arbonne State Park
Saturday, 29 February 2020

The campground is about half full, and it's apparently unusual to be that full because the host told me all these people are here for the annual croppie fishing tournament.  He said all the cabins are full because even professional fishermen come to this thing.

And indeed, it seems like at least half the campsites include a skiff on a trailer.

There are plenty of gum trees here along with the pines.  I know these are gum trees because of all the gumballs underfoot.  In fact, I've been seeing them throughout Louisiana, it seems.  In some places, the balls falling on the RV roof sounded like rain and it sometimes took me time to realize what was causing the noise, once I'd realized it wasn't raining.

At least one campsite here has several little kids in it, and all those kids shriek frequently.  It makes Gracie very unhappy and has really limited where we're able to walk.  She starts getting panicked when we're half a campground away from the kids, which means we never get to walk very far.  Good thing Dexter is good-natured.

Today I looked up from my typing and noticed a young person sitting in the roadway.  And when several older people came up to this person I realized it was someone who'd been skating and had fallen down.  It wasn't until I went over myself to see if any of my bandages would be useful that I learned, from her voice, that this person was a she.  With her very short hair and multiple tattoos and extra weight on her body, I genuinely couldn't tell. 

She turned out to have the same sort of injuries I keep getting - scraped knees and hands and elbows and thighs - looked very familiar.  I'd already used so much from my bandage supply on my own injuries I didn't have much to offer, but what I had turned out to be useful.  I need to spend some time in a CVS getting stocked up.

I suddenly realized the whole month has gone by and I've not yet posted a photo of a state license plate.  So here it is.


They use another version with just plain lettering and no pelican, but I think that's used for trucks and things, and not on cars.  This is what I see the most of, anyway.


Louisiana - Day 28 - Monroe & Coke

Lake D'Arbonne State Park, Farmerville
Friday, 28 February 2020


today's route
The drive to Monroe
I stopped once more at the Brookshire Market in Delhi, so as not to have to find a store in Monroe or Farmerville down the road.  That took me past a large new Delhi Community Hospital in the process of being built.

Going along Historic Route 80 again, I passed the Delhi Livestock Auction building and miles of cropfields and cows and multiple grain silos.

In Dunn I passed a plant labeled Trans Canada Pipeline - yes, it's all the way south to Louisiana.

In Holly Ridge I passed multiple rice silos - I know because they were labeled.  I also passed very large cotton fields.  So when I got to Rayville, which calls itself the White Gold Capital of the South, I wasn't sure just what product they were talking about.  And I still don't know.  Nothing online wants to tell me.  I know they've got both rice and cotton growing in this area, so take your pick.

In Rayville, I saw a billboard that said:
   YOU DIDN'T HAVE IT COMING
   THE ABUSE IS NOT YOUR FAULT
And it was sponsored by The Wellspring, which I've discovered offers services to victims of domestic violence in northeastern Louisiana.

Everything is context.  When I saw that sign, I figured it was for people with drug and alcohol problems, and I was surprised at how hard I was finding it to convince myself that substance abuse problems might not be someone's fault, though I know that's very often the case.  But now that I see it's aimed at people who are being physically or emotionally abused, I have no trouble at all understanding it.

In Rayville, I passed a sign telling me to turn left for the Tim McGraw Sports Complex.  A few miles and a cypress swamp later, I came to the town of Start - "Home of Country Great Tim McGraw" according to its sign.  Apparently, he was born there but his single mom moved down the road to Delhi for a while when he was growing up.  Still, when you have fewer than 1,000 residents, you want some claim to glory, and this is theirs.

A few miles later, I crossed the Bayou Lafourche (unlabeled, of course) and found myself in Ouachita Parish.  I'll tell you now what I learned later, which is that Ouachita is pronounced WASH-it-aw.  I saw several stands that advertised pecans for sale and concluded they're grown around here.  And after diligent research, I found at least one pecan farm in West Monroe, Monroe's twin city.

I passed a Woodman of the World Lodge.  And a sign saying I'm on the Heroes and Heritage Trail.  And another sign telling me to turn to go to the Chennault Military Museum - which would tend to confirm the "heroes" part. 

Claire Chennault's best known for forming the Flying Tigers; he's been variously described by British observers as: (1) a Southern Gentleman, a "Good Ol' Boy" who accepted "human foibles" as natural (he opened a brothel for his airmen on the grounds that they would go to one anyway and it was better they go to one where the women were regularly inspected for venereal diseases); and (2) "a very gallant airman with a limited brain."   Probably both accurate assessments.

In Monroe, I passed the University of Louisiana at Monroe, the sister campus to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

I was heading to the Biedenharn Museums by the Ouachita River.  Once I'd parked there, I figured I'd better walk the dogs before I went inside, which turned out to be a mistake.  It looked like there were plenty of sidewalks in the neighborhood, so down the street we went, only to discover the first cross street was blocked off by construction, and the second didn't have sidewalks along it, so on to the third.  By this time the walk had taken longer than I'd intended so we turned down the third street, even without sidewalks.

That was okay, but then we got down to Riverside Drive, which the museum fronts on, and I found the first block had a sidewalk but the second didn't.  I decided to cross the street, rather than dodge high hedges on our side of the street, but half-way across, one of the dogs wanted to stop and sniff something - only without warning and right in front of me, so I tripped and fell.  And suddenly the street that had seemed empty had a dozen cars coming from both directions.  Really.  A dozen.  And I was lying right in the middle of the street, unable to get up with any speed at all, with scraped knees yet again, making getting up even more painful than it might otherwise be.

Fortunately, the closest driver stopped while I tried to get my feet under me - but then I saw the car in the opposite lane that didn't seem to have seen me and the dogs (all these drivers were talking on their phones, by the way) and I was afraid at first would clunk into us, but then he stopped too, and cars started to pile up behind them.  But I limped off the road and tried not to look too pathetic, because every car was slowing to ask if I was all right and did I need help.  I'd expected irate drivers but instead got kindness.  Very nice of them.

And we still had 2 blocks to go to get back to the museum, during which I had time to learn that my knees and hands and assorted other joints were sore and unhappy.  Back in the RV I found that in fact I hadn't broken any skin to speak of, mainly because my jeans protected my knees from the worst of the asphalt.  I was just sore.  But I was also still shaking so waited a bit and had some lunch before going into the museum.

Biedenharn's Coca-Cola Museum
The Biedenharn Museum is actually a collection of museums.  They have some spectacular gardens (I hear) and an outstanding collection of Bibles, as well as the family home which is a museum, and the Coke Museum.  The whole tour is an hour and a half, and I just didn't want to take the time to do all that, especially given my shaky condition, and the fact that the woman at the desk told me the Bible museum was in transition so some things weren't available to see today, and the fact that in late February few gardens are worth paying to see.  I'd really just come for the Bibles and the Coke museum anyway, so decided to give up on the former and stick with the latter.  Which turned out to be worth my time.

One of my biggest surprises was to learn that the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. is exactly that - a bottling company.  It does not own the formula to Coca-Cola.  That has always resided in Atlanta, GA, and is there still.  More on that shortly.

Coke was created in the 1800s by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton, who was not in good health.  He was a Civil War veteran and likely suffered from PTSD, in addition to other war-related wounds.  His profession gave him access to all kinds of herbs, one of which was the coca leaf.  Using that, he created a syrup of coca leaf and kola nut which, when mixed with soda water, helped ease his pain.  When he grew closer to death, he sold the formula to fellow Atlanta pharmacist Asa Candler.  Both men dispensed small doses of the beverage in their pharmacies to customers - mixing 1 part syrup to 5 parts soda per dose.

Candler decided to distribute the drink beyond the Atlanta region and put it in gallon jugs.  These were eventually shipped as far away as Vicksburg.

Ouachita Candy Co. &
Coca-Cola Bottling Co.
Herman and Henry Biedenharn lived in Vicksburg, where Herman had a shoe shop and was partners with Henry in the Ouachita Candy Company.  Herman's oldest son Joseph quit school at age 14 because by then he was working full-time in the candy company.  This company, which became the Biedenharn Candy Co., sold sweet drinks as well as candy.  One of those drinks was Coke. 

an early bottling device
In those days, drinks like this were sold only by the glass - one jerk of syrup to 5 jerks of soda (hence the name "soda jerk") plus a few cubes of ice.  In 1894, Joe was the first person to suggest bottling the beverage, since the syrup was already being bottled. 

Joe sent the first cases of Coke to Asa Candler, who said it tasted fine and didn't say don't put it ready-packaged in individual bottles with the candy company name on them.  So Joe kept on doing it.

Hutchinson seal
They used what was called a Hutchinson seal.  Each seal was shoved down into the bottle to open it, making a popping sound as it did so (hence "soda pop").  When the empty bottles were washed and refilled, the seal floated back up to the top where the bottler grabbed it and pulled it back into position to seal the bottle.  Knowing nothing about disease prevention, the bottling company was using ordinary Mississippi River water to wash the bottles.  Definitely a healthful beverage if people weren't getting sick from drinking out of these bottles.

Candler, the pharmacist, finally objected to several parts of this system.  First, he wanted the bottles to be sterilized 5 times between usages.  Next, he wanted a better seal - Crown tops, much like today's crimped-on bottle caps.  Finally, he wanted his product to be bottled in his own bottles instead of those with the candy company name on them. 

left to right: glass was the original serving; 1st bottle was the candy co.'s;
2nd bottle was too nondescript for Candler; 3rd bottle - his choice - was hard to ship;
4th bottle was what became THE bottle for decades; 5th bottle had first printed label &
first to use the name Coke; 6th is today's bottle;
the white urn in the background was used to dispense the original syrup
His first choice for a new bottle was certainly distinctive, but the bulbous shape didn't ship well; however, this bottle had the ribs on it, taken from a coca pod, now used on all Coke bottles.  The 4th bottle - in the middle of the photo above - was a modified bulb but still with the ribs, the shape used for many decades.

an early delivery truck
Joe turned out to be a marketing genius: it was he who developed a delivery network for his product and began buying and franchising local bottling plants to distribute the product in their localities.  The Monroe Bottling Company is one of the earliest, and Joe and his family moved here in 1913.

He had 7 brothers, and they fanned out around the area to run bottling companies in Shreveport, San Antonio, Uvalde and other cities.  They each used Joe's delivery network system and used "Every Bottle Sterilized" as a sales slogan.  Coke's success wasn't just in the product but in Joe's franchising and delivery network systems.  The company still uses these systems today at their plants throughout the world.

Here's another thing that surprised me: those plastic bottles aren't shipped in their finished shape; instead they're shipped as those little tubes you see in front of each bottle.  Take up a lot less shipping space, don't they?  Each little tube is blown into its finished shape at the bottling company.  Logical but it never once entered my mind.

Meanwhile, the Biedenharns never possessed, let alone owned, the formula for Coke.  That stayed in Atlanta and has stayed a secret all these years because no one company makes the entire product.  Coke has different parts of its formula manufactured in different plants - one is made in Monroe, LA - and then sent back to Atlanta where the parts are combined.  That combination is then shipped to the bottling plants.  This method has ensured Coke's ability to retain its own flavor for so long.

The Coke museum isn't large but has lots of memorabilia, which will be meaningless to today's young people but bring waves of nostalgia to those of us with some miles on us.  For instance, I'd forgotten that the bottles used to have the names of the bottling plants imprinted on their bases until I saw a display of them.  Then it all came back to me - how we'd look at the bottoms (trying not to spill the Coke) to see where they'd come from.



Maybe I'm just sentimental, but I like the looks of the old vending machines better than those of today.

One of Joe's sons created what became Delta Air Lines out of some cropdusting planes.  He used them during the Depression to deliver mail for the US Postal Service to small communities along the Mississippi River Delta, hence the name Delta Air Lines, and managed to create and maintain jobs even during the Depression.  The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. too continued bottling its product to maintain jobs and its place in the marketplace.

As another by the way, cocaine hasn't been a part of the product since the early 1900s.  Back then it was a legal drug, but today caffeine is substituted for the coca properties.

Very interesting place.

Back on the road
The Ouachita River separates Monroe from West Monroe, and we crossed it a mile from the Biedenharn house.  On the Monroe side there's a high grass-covered berm; on the West Monroe side there's a wall: I saw a sign saying "Welcome to One Mile of Love."  That was followed by a mile of murals, completely distracting from the fact that this was a high wall they were on.  They were almost all stick figures and simple cartoon characters, in bright colors showing vignettes - farmers and families and soldiers and so forth.  The murals were followed by a long section painted to look like a fancy metal fence.  Then the road turned away from the river.  It was a very nice touch.

I passed a church with the sign in front saying: "He is Divine.  We are Debranches."  It took me a few miles to figure it out.

The Bayou D'Arbonne seemed to be on both sides of the road.  Some body of water was on both sides of the road and I'd gone over the bayou that actually had its name on it, which is why I'm guessing that's what I was still seeing.  But it was an awful lot of water.  Lots of water everywhere.

Then I passed the D'Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge, where the roads were 3' under water.  I don't know what was going on here, but I'll bet it's causing problems for some of the wildlife, and for the rangers who are supposed to protect them.

At the town of Cross Roads I saw a sign for Ole Southern Boys Mobile Welding.  With a name like that, I'd have hired them.

I passed a field with half a dozen or so Shetland ponies.

And then into the Lake D'Arbonne State Park, where they told me at the office, when I asked about deer, that yes they have deer.  One of the campground hosts feeds them every evening.  And I thought swell, I'll never be able to let the dogs out of the RV if deer are actually being encouraged to congregate near there.

But I talked to that host who said he does feed them around 4:00, and the deer stick around until they've eaten all the food, which takes about 15 minutes.  So I figured I could live with that.


Louisiana - Days 26 & 27

Poverty Point Reservoir State Park
Wednesday, 26 and Thursday, 27 February 2020

Our campsite here looked level, but turned out not to be, so I had to keep using my rubber boots as doorstops.  But I'm only getting charged $14/night, so I can deal with needing doorstops.

The campsite's water spigot had a feature I haven't seen before.  Once I'd attached my hose to the spigot, I searched in vain for how to turn the water on.  No handle of any kind anywhere near the site's water line.  Finally, I saw a little lever not quite a ½" long hidden behind the spigot.  And that was the magic lever - it produced water.  But really, it was an ordinary spigot - haven't these folks ever heard of getting spigots with handles on them to turn the water on?

Once I discovered that one of the campers and his dog were leaving on Wednesday morning, I decided to stay over an extra night, so as to have more time to catch up on things.  I feel like I'm always playing catch-up - catching up my blog posts and cabin clean-up and window washing and everything else in life these days.  It's been a long time since I felt like I was reasonably on top of things, and for someone who has to control OCD tendencies, that's an uncomfortable situation.

Of course, there I was feeling confident that we'd have few problems with other dogs now that that one had left, and suddenly dogs seemed to come out of the woodwork.  One person after another after another walked their dogs by our campsite on Wednesday afternoon, and there we were - stuck because of having already paid for the extra day.  I don't know how we're going to avoid them.

In fact, Thursday morning when we went on our first walk, we ran into 4 dogs - 4 of them.  The most I've ever met on our first walk was 1, and here there were 4. And 3 of them weren't on leashes!  I had to cut the walk short just to get us back to the RV without trouble.  Felt sorry for my dogs, since yeah, they should be more laid back around other dogs but it wasn't their fault that other owners were so irresponsible.  On Friday morning I risked bears and deer and any other wild critters that might be out before dawn and took my dogs out well before sunrise.  That worked and we could walk as much as we wanted without rude encounters.

Another unsettling thing about this campground are the signs posted everywhere: BLACK BEAR HABITAT - DO NOT FEED WILDLIFE - REMAIN ON PATH.  So I asked at the office and she said yes, they do indeed have bears and yes, they're around now even though it's cold and yes, they do have plenty of deer too.  Fortunately, she also said no, they don't have any alligators right now because it's too cold for them - they'll be around in a few months.  One out of three - ah, well.  But when the dogs alerted on our walks, I paid attention.  Never saw anything but other dogs, which was just as well.

What I also saw, when we walked over to the boat launch not far away, were lots and lots of birds.  There were at least 2 dozen White Pelicans, and at least 18 Vultures sitting in a few trees, and at least 18 Anhingas doing ditto (different trees), and massive numbers of ducks that I'm certain were Scoters.  I first saw them in Alaska and got to be able to recognize them with certainty.

Black Scoter
And when I looked them up, I found that yes, that's what they had to be.  That's not my photo, but it looks exactly like what I saw a bunch of, and got a pretty close look at.  The Black Scoter is the only all black duck we've got, especially with that yellow patch on its bill.  Well, the other all-black duck is the Muscovy Duck, which looks more like a goose than a duck and isn't supposed to be anywhere north of Central America at any time.  

The Scoter isn't usually supposed to be here either, because the bird book says it's strictly a northern bird that winters along east and west coasts - a sea duck.  The Gulf waters off the Louisiana coast are the "extent of irregular or irruptive range in some winters."  And we weren't on Gulf waters.  We were on a reservoir that was formed out of a bayou in northeastern Louisiana.  Which should have meant these ducks were something else.  But there simply wasn't anything else in the bird book that looked like a duck and acted like a duck and was all black with a yellow patch on its bill.  Nothing.  So why were there so many of them?  I saw maybe even a hundred of them hanging around the boat launch area.  Very odd.  Extending their range?  Needed a vacation in the better Southern weather?


Poverty Point World Heritage Site

Poverty Point World Heritage Site

World Heritage Site designation
The physical creations left by a society that once existed at this site are one of 23 sites in the US to be designated a World Heritage Site; of those, it's one of 10 that have been designated for their cultural significance (e.g. Independence Hall); the others are listed for their natural significance (e.g. Mammoth Cave).

Here's what the park's museum has to say about the designation:



In other words, not only is the landscape that these folks created unusual, but the fact that this was not an agricultural society makes it unique.

These people were hunter-gatherers, and they continued to be for the entire time they lived here.  They were not farmers and didn't become farmers while they lived here.  Yet they stayed here for hundreds of years.  Hundreds.  Much longer than Europeans have lived on the North American continent so far.  Yet these typically nomadic people stayed not just on the continent, but in one place only.

Sure, they traveled long distances for trade, but they always came back to this one place and the society that they created here.  What nobody here at the museum said, but the implication is clear, is that they stayed because the richness of the ecosystem here allowed them to stay.  They didn't have to travel hundreds of miles for game or fish or berries.  All those things were here for them to take without traveling.  Both the location and the culture that lived here were unique.

Views of the Poverty Point site




the site with surrounding waters
and cooking fires burning















this view is oriented sideways, south (on the left) to north
Museum's summary
In my opinion, the museum was not well organized.  They had several different kinds of exhibits that each gave similar information.  It looked like these exhibits were created at different times and, instead of integrating each new batch with what was already there, the museum just tacked the new batch onto what they had.  I found what I consider to be an overview of the whole thing at the end of the displays, and I'll put it here in the beginning.  Some of these photos aren't easy to read, though I did my best to edit them.  The museum's lighting and, in some places, direct sunlight, made glares and shadows that were hard to adjust the camera to.

Where these people came from:























What they built:

aerial photo, annotated




sources of stones found
at Poverty Point























Building for the stars:
Poverty Pointers as astronomers

more astronomical theories








Daily life at Poverty Point:
The museum had numerous exhibits showing the indigenous mammals and birds; their efforts at procuring enough food to feed the 1,000-3,000 folks that probably lived here; their skills at decorating objects, creating effigies, engraving stone, crafting tools.

For example, we know, because we've found the remains, that they used ovens and cooking balls to produce heat.



For the same reason, we know they used tools for hunting big game.














And having found the plummets, scientists didn't need much imagination to figure out how they were used in these rich Louisiana waters.
















Poverty Point Culture's place in the historical timeline:
The museum had a graphic that was both clever and hard to understand, and also almost impossible for me to photograph because of glare.  But what it said was that the Poverty Point site was used from about 1900 BC until 700 BC, with its heyday in the centuries between 1700 BC and 1100 BC.

For comparison:
   the Old Kindom of Egypt existed 2664 - 2180 BC
   India's Indus Valley Civilization dates 2500 - 1800 BC
   the New Kingdom of Egypt was 1554 - 1075 BC
   China's Chang Dynasty was 1523 - 1075 BC
   Hinduism was established around 1000 BC
   Homer wrote The Odyssey in 850 BC
   South America's Olmec Indians thrived 800 - 400 BC
   the first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC

In other words, Poverty Point flourished when other civilizations around the world also flourished.  They allow North America's people to be something other than an afterthought of history.

What followed the Poverty Point culture:


And, on a less high-brow note, the James brothers and the Younger brothers stayed in the area for some years, using Poverty Point to hide out after some of their robberies.

























I guess the remarkable site calls to unusual people.

Site Tour
The museum offers a brochure for a self-guided driving tour of the site, which I opted not to take, since the afternoon was wearing on and I needed to run errands before getting to the campground.

They have a short film that they'll show anyone who wants it, and I found it helpful and informative.

They emphasize the landscape engineering that these folks practiced that allowed them to thrive in this location for centuries.  Scientists today are also impressed with their extensive trading network, and the lapidary expertise they developed to further their trading success.

I got almost as much information from the ranger at the admission desk as I did from anything in the museum - she was young and I figured if they had her staffing the pay-here counter she must not know much.  Boy, was I wrong.  I ran out of questions long before she ran out of answers.  She told me they've found no burials anywhere on the property, which is remarkable when you think of how many people lived here for so many years.  (The exceptions were graveyards for the family that lived and farmed here in the 1800s - one for the family and one for the enslaved people who worked for them.)  They've found very few artifacts on the six mounds but hundreds on the ridges, so they've concluded the mounds were kept for ceremonies, while life was lived on the ridges.

although it's only 70' high now,
Mound A (beyond the stop sign) was likely originally 100' tall,
erosion by wind and rain having done its usual work

The ranger told me that, although the Macon Bayou along the edge of the property hasn't changed course much, the Mississippi River was about 6 miles closer then than it is now - and it was periodic flooding from the river that kept the bayou stocked with fish.

When I asked why these folks ever moved on, she said that although Poverty Point itself didn't flood, they've found evidence that the surrounding areas did.  They're guessing this would have caused enough disruption in the city's ability to feed itself that they had little choice but to go elsewhere.

They know some of the Poverty Point people moved to Florida, but they haven't tracked where others went.  What they do know is this culture wasn't replicated anywhere else, which is again remarkable, considering how successful it was.  Maybe it truly was unique to the location, and nowhere else could support such a life, especially for hunter-gatherers.

There was a great deal more here at the museum, but this gives the basics of the amazing civilization that flourished here long long ago.


Thursday, February 27, 2020

Louisiana - Day 25 - to Poverty Point

Poverty Point Reservoir State Park, Delhi
Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Mardi Gras!

Dexter pointed out to me that the squirrels in this campground look different than we've been seeing - they're much more red.  Though I did see one with a tail so white it showed up like a white flag, even in the early morning light.

a Newfie
I also saw a lot of dogs in this campground and am glad I wasn't planning to stay (not with no wifi or hotspot signal).  One of them was probably a Newfoundland (nearly up to its owner's waist and a whole lot of black hair) and looked very sweet.  If I end up living in a cold climate, I might try to adopt one.

today's route
Back on the road
I discovered that being so close to the Mississippi River meant I was close enough to pick up a signal for MS public radio, or MPB Think Radio, as they call it.  What I heard in the hour I was close enough was a weekly program called Money Talks - very interesting.  Then I turned west and was stuck with classical music again.  I've concluded the classical music I like is what I was raised with.  I was lucky to have had that, but I haven't expanded my repertoire since I left for college lo those many decades ago.  Maybe I should take a music appreciation course when I settle down.

Most of today's drive was through farming country, and some of the fields were part of LSU Ag Center's Northeast Research Center.  I saw several college-age folks get out of a car at an irrigated field and guessed they're part of LSU's agriculture program.

I passed a historical marker for Balmoral Mounds.   https://www.hmdb.org  Considering the trouble geometry students have in learning to calculate equilateral triangles, creating one in 1000 AD out of mounds made by hauling baskets of dirt is pretty remarkable.

I passed an orchard of some kind, though I don't recognize the tree type.  They were taller than I'm used to seeing fruit trees so maybe some kind of nut?

I passed yet another dead critter by the road and this one looked just like a wolf.  A real wolf, not a wolf-cross dog.  I looked it up and apparently Louisiana does have wolves, so that's probably what I saw.  Such a shame for it to die like that.

I came to the Historic City of Tallulah, the sign says, and from their Wikipedia page, I agree it's got a lot of history.  I'm including the link  https://en.wikipedia.org/Tallulah because of the 1899 lynchings of 5 Sicilian businessmen, at least in part because they didn't honor Jim Crow laws, and the subsequent protest by the Italian government and charming response by the US government.  Also the origins of Delta Air Lines and some events from the Civil War.  This town looks like it was once beautiful and is now just tired.  I thought most jobs might have left, and Wikipedia agrees, because the economy is primarily based on agriculture.  But there's a correctional facility with massive amounts of razor wire almost right in the middle of town - not too picturesque but maybe a good source of jobs.

I passed a sign telling me I was on the Historic Route 80 Byway.  Never having heard of Historic Route 80, I looked it up and learned that back in the olden days, this road that runs from Georgia to California was known as the Dixie Overland Highway.  The website says I can "drink in vistas of verdant farms and forested landscapes.  Swaths of open land give the area a feeling of remoteness, but the byway is also an important route for farmers and loggers."  Although it didn't seem too verdant when I was there (this being February), I guess this description is otherwise accurate, though a bit flowery.

Dexter and a non-verdant vista
I'm guessing all the fields I was passing along here were for cotton, though some might have been rice.

I passed a sign for the Tendal Mound, which is a square mound about 6' tall with a flat top, likely built sometime between 400 and 1000 AD.

I passed a town called Quebec, that I assume was established by the Acadian refugees.

I crossed Bayou Macon and found myself in the town of Delhi.  Of course, it's not pronounced like the Delhi in India; this being not only the US but also the Southern US, it's pronounced DELL-high.  Its original name was Deerfield, which seems a much more sensible (and attractive) name, and I can't find any information about why it was changed, or why it was changed to Delhi, of all names.

Tonight's campground is a few miles from the main part of town, and I stopped off to get myself registered and walk the dogs.  Then farther on down the road toward Poverty Point.

The campground is, as the name suggests, on Poverty Point Reservoir, and along the road I saw a lot of houses taking advantage of the reservoir.  For instance, I saw one 15-house subdivision of very nice, expensive, houses situated right on the waterfront.  They were all built on slab foundations.  I noticed that several houses in the area that had clearly been built a while back were raised about 3 steps up from the ground.  I understand reservoirs are usually kept at a stable level, but would it really be that much more expensive or less desirable to elevate these expensive houses a bit too?

At a point where the reservoir came right up to the roadway, I saw about a dozen Anhingas perched in dead trees in the water (looked like they'd been killed when the water for the reservoir had been impounded) looking like vultures - or Snoopy's version of a vulture, at least.

Poverty Point World Heritage Site
This is an important site and I want to do it justice - plus I have a lot of photographs - so will do a separate posting for that.

Back to Delhi
I was down to just over a quarter tank of propane, and it occurred to me that I might want more if it got cold overnight.  I found a place in the brochure the campground handed out that said they could pump propane for me but their gauge wasn't working, that they usually only fill separate tanks so they can weigh them.  I told them I'd found I took about 7 gallons when I was down to a quarter tank left, and though it wasn't quite as empty as that I was willing to pay extra just so I didn't have to worry about being cold.  It turned out to be a small feed and supply store, and they filled me up and I paid a little extra, and they helped me back the RV out into a busy street, and everybody was happy.  (The sun had finally come out today so it was easy to be happy.)

I then went on to the Brookshire Brothers Market I'd found online that's in the middle of town; this is a small chain I've learned to like in my travels and, sure enough, this one didn't let me down.  Each night before bed I give each dog a Milk-Bone and Lily a few kitty treats.  What I've always given her, and she's always liked, are soft treats made by Meow Mix.  Despite that being a well-established brand, I have a really hard time finding them, but I'm afraid to experiment with anything else because Lily seems to be a picky eater.  Well, I was nearly out of them and had tried 3 stores in other towns already with no luck, but this grocery store had them.  Yea!  While I was there I got a few other things I wanted, so once again I was happy.  (You know, there's really nothing like some sunshine after a bunch of gloom.)

The nice woman who checked me out at the grocery store said she liked living in Delhi because it was quiet and there wasn't any drama (her phrase).

So back to the campground.


Louisiana - Day 24 - Alexandria and St. Joseph

Lake Bruin State Park, St. Joseph
Monday, 24 February 2020

Today is Lundi Gras (Fat Monday)!  Too rainy where I was for celebrations, I'm sorry to say.

today's route
On the road to Alexandria
Sadly, I had to deal with rain pretty much all day long.  I don't mind rain much myself, but it's lousy for driving on Louisiana's lousy back roads.  I found a big difference even before I left the campground, which suddenly had big puddles on all the roads.  And out on Route 71 there were more puddles on the road (nerve-wracking to drive through because of hidden potholes) and flooded fields all along the roadside.  The odd thing was that the rain only started about 3:30 this morning (I was already awake), and it only rained off and on for several hours, so the ground must have been thoroughly saturated to produce this much pooling so fast.

I passed Bagdad Community (Bagdad? Koran? where did these names come from?) and Rock Hill (which solved the visiting-neighbors problem by having short roads parallel to Rte. 71 and the houses fronting on those short roads), and the Community of Hudson Creek (you can see this is not a highly populated area, with all these "communities" instead of towns).  And then into Rapides Parish.  Rapides is pronounced ra-PEEDS.  (I took Spanish in school, not French, and simply don't understand that language.)

I heard on the radio that Katherine Johnson died today at the age of 101.  She's the mathematician who worked at NASA on the first Apollo mission space flights, and who's one of the main subjects of the movie Hidden Figures, which is the last movie Momma and I saw together.  I should watch the movie again to honor her memory.

Alexandria
My impression is that this is a miniature version of a big city.  There's only about 47,000 residents here, but the downtown looks just like any big city - only much smaller.  The Red River runs right through downtown and there's a nice little pocket park along part of it.

I learned all this accidentally by getting lost and having to get found again.  Actually, I'd intended to drive around downtown anyway, just after I'd done my errands, instead of before.  It has a nice feel to it, and even though I was completely turned around and had no idea of where I was supposed to go (until I parked and turned on my computer), I didn't feel intimidated as I have in some cities.

I drove out of downtown and passed the zoo and a golf course and houses, and then ended up at the mall.  Google promised me an Albertson's and a Target there.  And they were there.  But the Target was the odd thing.  The city's own solid waste website claimed the official place for me to recycle glass in Alexandria was at the Target.  And when I called Target to ask where, they told me to come inside the store and there'd be bins.

I didn't believe them.  The recycling drop-off bins I've seen everywhere I've gone have been dirty and messy and there's no way on earth a Target would have something like that inside its store.  I mean sure they might have bins for plastic water bottles or coke cans, but not for my household glass jars and things.  But they did.  Two bins, each about 3' high and 2' across lined with big plastic bags, just for glass, and others for plastic jugs and aluminum cans.  So I went back out to the RV to get my things (I hadn't taken them in with me due to lack of faith) and got rid of everything except paper.  The Target refused to accept any paper for recycling, which is usually the only thing I can find a place for.  Who would ever have thought it?

It was still pouring rain so I had a terrible time finding a place to walk the dogs that wasn't saturated or inaccessible due to puddles.  The dogs refused to understand me when I was explaining all this to them, so out into the rain we went for a short walk in a part of the shopping center parking lot.

I liked Alexandria.  It seems to have everything a big city has without the big city attached to it.  Nice.

Back on the road, heading east toward the Mississippi River again
The afternoon consisted of driving through one parish after another - La Salle, Catahoula, Tensas - and through one small town after another - Jonesville, Ferriday, Clayton.

I passed field after field and finally decided they were mostly cotton fields when I saw one with soggy leftover cotton in it.

I passed Frogmore Plantation and, unlike most plantations that seem to ignore who actually built them and did the work on them, this one apparently encompasses the whole cotton farming situation both then and now.  The tour sounds quite elaborate and very interesting, including old and new cotton gins, and I'd like to go if I'm back this way (and it's not pouring rain).  Here's the description.   http://www.frogmoreplantation.com

I saw a sign saying I was reentering the Atchafalaya (emphasis on the CHA) Heritage Area, now that I'm heading back toward the Mississippi and its tributaries.

I saw a billboard that read: "Luke 5:2-5  Repent or Perish."  I don't know why I was curious but I was, and that's not at all what that part of the Bible says.  Those verses tell about when Jesus met up with Simon who was called Peter (it says) and his brother Andrew who had been fishing for hours without catching anything.  And Jesus sat in Simon's boat and taught the men.  That's what it says, no matter which translation you look at.  Oddly, the version of that story in 2 other gospels is vaguely closer to the billboard's message.  In Matthew 4:17, just before telling about the boat part, it says that Jesus said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."  And in Mark 1:16, again before telling about the boat stuff, it says Jesus said, "Repent and believe in the gospel."  Luke doesn't say "repent" about anything connected to that story, John doesn't even mention the incident, and none of the four mentions the word - or concept of - "perish."  [And with all this, I simply don't understand how someone can believe that every word of the Bible is true and literal.  Even those who claim to have been there have the same sort of accuracy in reporting that most eyewitnesses do today.]

That billboard was the most excitement of the drive, which was across flat land, some fields with cows or a few horses, most with crops - before, during or after growth.  Lots and lots of bare trees.  And rain.  Mostly steady, sometimes hard, for most of the afternoon.  Made everything look gray.

So here's a question: why does the one Louisiana Public Radio (broadcast statewide) program classical music from 9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00 five days a week?  If they insist on programming music, why can't they switch up genres?  Mississippi Public Radio does.  It's not like Louisiana is devoid of wonderful home-grown music and musicians.  Why on earth so very much classical music - statewide - in this part of the country?

In that 12:00-1:00 non-music slot today, I heard a report on mosquito research (very relevant to Louisiana, even in February, I'm sorry to say).  Scientists have noted that mosquitos gravitate to lactic acid and to smelly feet, and that a person's attractiveness to mosquitos, or lack thereof, seems genetically associated.  The moral of that story is (I suppose) to watch the sources of lactic acid you give your body, keep your feet covered, and hope you're on the right side of the gene pool.  I seem to have the wrong genes.  Scientists are working on a way to use that genetic information to find a way to repel mosquitos, since ridding the planet of them altogether would do terrible ecological damage.

In Concordia Parish, I came to the very small town of Waterproof, which is now 92% African-American.  In the 2000 census it had 834 residents and now has fewer than 600, 24% of which are over the age of 60 (meaning the population will be declining even further).  The problem is it's a farming town, and the farms have switched from family-owned and labor-intensive to today's industrial-scale mechanized farming.  Cotton, mostly, supported by corn and soybeans.  Though a flood in 2008 ruined the corn crop (a risk for this year too, I'd expect), and the current tarriffs are likely ruining the soybean market.  The town just has little for a job base, so it's hard for young people to stay.  I've included the Wikipedia link because it quotes an NPR story from awhile back that explained where the name Waterproof came from.   It also says General Claire Chennault was raised here.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Waterproof

On to the nearby town of St. Joseph, where my brother's mail drop was waiting for me in General Delivery.  That's a tiny post office that looks like a one-man operation: open 8-11:30 and 12:30-3:00, Monday through Friday.  It looks like there's just enough work to fill a workday for the postmaster and seemed so peaceful, I was ready to apply to fill the position if he ever wanted to move on.

I saw a historical marker in town that explained why St. Joseph is more like a New England town than a southern one.   https://www.hmdb.org

From there a few more miles down the road was tonight's state park.  I knew I'd stayed here 2 years ago when I was first heading up to Pennsylvania at the start of my trip, and I thought I remembered it.  But it looked so completely unlike what I remembered that I must have been thinking of someplace else, though I don't know where.

The campground is right on Lake Bruin, which is an oxbow lake left over when the Mississippi River changed course some time ago.  It's not named for bears, as I'd assumed, but instead for the owner, Bruin, of a then-nearby plantation.  I'd expected bears.

Instead what I got was a lot of water.  Many of the campsites were half-flooded; mine was fine as long as I didn't want to use the barbecue grill, which had a moat around it.

On the other hand, I had a good view of a spectacular sunset.

looking toward the lake

a few minutes later



























Louisiana - Days 22 & 23

Colfax RV Park
Saturday, 22 and Sunday, 23 February 2020

It's so comfortable here that I decided to stay an extra couple of nights.  Their wifi signal is strong, it's well maintained, and almost everybody left early Sunday morning so I've got the only dogs here.  In fact, it's so comfortable I was ready to stay here the rest of the month, but I've still got places to see.

sunset my first night here, looking toward the Red River
This campground is all about birds, it seems.  There are birdhouses everywhere, all handmade.  Some are singles, some are duplexes, and some are condos.  I saw birds at the entrances to the houses several times.  In fact, I saw a blackbird that was clearly househunting - it put its head into each of the 9 openings in one bird-apartment building.

A flock of easily 100+ Red-wing Blackbirds seemed to have taken up residence.  After listening to them be raucous for a few hours and watching them swoop around and perch in this tree or that, I started thinking about Hitchcock's The Birds.

There were Mockingbirds and Cardinals and a pair of Bluebirds.

I saw at least 3 dozen White Pelicans floating in the Red River early each morning.  And there were usually several egrets over there all day.  Of course there were chickadees and sparrows and other birds, but these bigger ones really made their presence known.

One morning when the dogs and I were out I heard a Mockingbird singing at least 12 different songs in a row.  And right in the middle I heard a crow say Caw!  I really felt sorry for the crow to have such a completely unmelodic song, especially compared with the vast variety of a Mockingbird.

I was more than a week behind on my blog posts, so it was good to have some time when I could just sit and do some catching up with a decent wifi signal.  But the dogs and I walked every day over to the river and found some interesting signs there.

the Cane and Red Rivers join
just a few miles north of here, near Natchitoches

I don't remember seeing a sign like this before and
assume it's related to the dam operations just across the way -
didn't seem to bother the birds swimming around there, though

a south-facing view of the Red River,
boat ramp on the right, cypress tree in the foreground

I thought this sign was odd
partly because of all the boating hazards it describes and
partly because there's not a "the" in front of "Red River" in 2 places
This is a nice place.  I felt safe here, even when it was nearly empty.  Not too many lights, so I could sleep.  The camping area had large areas covered with mown green grass - perfect for deer - except it was fenced in all around, making deer unlikely, so I could walk the dogs in peace.  Each campsite was set a good distance away from its next-door neighbors; they could have put at least 40 sites here where they have 25, and I'm glad they didn't.  With the flatness of the concrete pad and the good wifi signal and the half-price admission, this place is hard to beat.