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Traditions of Louisiana’s Fading Timber-Centered Communities

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Today’s Timber Industry

  • Centralized organization (often based in the Northwest)
  • Highly computerized; minimal staff
  • Organized around interstates
  • Focus on engineered wood materials
  • Highly regulated (safety, environment, etc.)
  • Southern Yellow Pine (loblolly) plantation management

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Castor, Louisiana

  • Bienville Parish
  • Population 200 (c.)
  • Sawmill Founded 1933 by Roy O. Martin
  • Sold to Hunt Lumber Co. in mid 1990s
  • Closed in 2000

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Narrators

  • Bud Bogan, plant superintendent
  • Margaret Bolyer, plant employee in 1980s
  • Frances Guin, wife of long-time sawmill employee
  • Billie Gene Poland, director of the Bienville Parish Historical Society
  • Ellis Martin, son of Roy O. Martin and plant manager for almost 40 years.

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Mill �Features

  • Steam-powered
  • Extraordinarily innovative in its time and place
  • Lumber mill with diverse products
    • dimension lumber
    • keel blocks
    • hardwood flooring
  • Marketed around the world

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Mill Features

  • Mill Commissary
  • Mill Bank and Payroll Office
  • Shotgun Housing

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Getting Around

  • Most walked to work
  • Mules and carts used in logging and mill work
  • Jitneys
  • Tracks and Trams

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Healing Traditions

  • Administered by family matriarch
  • Purgatives and Preventatives
    • Whiskey and asafetida
    • Castor Oil
    • Grove’s Chill Tonic
  • Topical Remedies
    • Coal Oil (Kerosene)
    • Turpentine

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Danger Stories

  • Production was key to survival
  • Equipment was without safety guards
  • “Man in the Chipper” story

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On The Homefront

  • Work extended beyond the sawmill
  • Play traditions
    • flying jenny
    • tomwalkers
    • scraps of wood

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Legends: Bonnie and Clyde

  • Bonnie and Clyde
    • Couple met their fate on their way to Castor
    • Rarely spoken about among older residents

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Preliminary Conclusions

  • Many employees of the mill, as well as lifelong residents of Castor, still live in the area.
  • Residents are optimistic that the town’s size and character will remain intact.
  • These people still possess the memory of these traditions and are willing to share them, but don’t seem them as relevant to society anymore.
  • Traditions have not been passed down to their children.
  • While unique in some ways, data from this study could be applied in a broader study