New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-02-08
NORTH LOUISIANA.

Rough Notes of Interior Travel-Dificul.
ties Of Communication with the City
improvements which the Country. City
and state are Interested in Making
Prospect for the Northern Parishes.
The steamboat Carrie A. Thorn, Captain
Charles Shelter, master, from MInden and
the lake country, has just arrived at this
city, with 1900 bales of cotton, having been
occupied in coming down, owing to obstruc-
lions ia Ouachita bayou, seven days. The
Carrie Thorn brought down a half dozen
prisoners charged with violating the ku-
Kluz law, and number of merchants and
other visitors to the city during carnival
week The distance traversed could have
been made by train of cars in a few hours,
but occupied as much time as voyage
across the ocean. Below we give some OF
the random jottings of one OF the passen-
gers, made in reference to the first portion
Of the journey.
Dorchite bayou sends out yearly about
q. 900 bales Of cotton, but it has in it an old
cypress stump, upon which every boat that
passes up that way gets aground. from the
days of the old Beesoring, forty years ago.
to this time. 1t cost the Lotawanna $1,000 to
say good-by to that stump, and during the
three days that the Carrie Thorn rested
upon it it probably cost as much. II would
! be easy enough to blow this stump UP. and
| some others. in the dry season. when the
! bayou is not deep enough to water your
! cattle. for two or three dollars. and if this
| was done there would be good navigation
! in the bayou for six weeks longer In the
wear. But nobody has done it so far, and
J there is not much likelihood for the present
I tina: there will be. Captain Joe Morgan, an
! old pilot up that way for many years, fished
off OF it one summer, and, while doing SO,
| conceived the idea Of having it improved by
legislative appropriation. Fifty thousand
| dollars was ultimately voted for this pur.
pose. with his name and Others set down to
| do this work: but. when it came to signing
the bill. the pilots name was omitted, and
others inserted; the money was spent, and
the bayou probably made worse by the few
dollars actually spent in improving it than
| il ever was before. The stump, at any
rate. was never taken out. and the
engineers sent to examine whether or
not the State had been defrauded (tor fear
undoubtedly Of getting aground himselfl
did not even go up the bayou to look after
the stump at all. Consequently, that stamp
continues to impose a heavy tax on every
| bale of cotton and visitor that comes to the
CITY. and doubtless will wear out steamboat
cables and provoke profanity for many years
to come. a good many other travellers will
doubtless have to put on a clean shirt on
| an average for every 300 yards of travelling.
| and spend days and nights among the bit.
terms and rank sedges.
( To those readers who are not familiar
| with this country. it may be explained that
the Dorchite. Lake Bisteneau and Loggy
bayou are names given to the same body of
water, at different points, penetrating in a
northeast direction from Red river. into the
interior; the so.called lake being nothing
more than an expansion of the Dorchite. in
passing through a cypress swamp, or. more
correctly speaking, the backing up Of the
waters Of the Red through the Loggy
bayou. The lake is beautiful meadow in
! summer. supplying the best heritage waist
higbl for cattle. and forming range. where
thousands Of hogs could be fed at no cost,
if few herdsmen, who understood the
business would take hold of it. The
thing, in fact has been done already,
| and bacon here sold at one time as low as
one and a half cents pound Though it is
worth twelve here now. before everybody
I ~, oT
Midway in it are the old Confederate salt
works, where 5000 bushels OF salt were
made day by boiling down tie water from
saline wells dug here for the purpose. These
wells never went below q depth of eleven
| feet, and apparently rested upon a bed OF
rock. which was never cut through. These
/ are to be found for three miles along the
lake, and the suppOsition is that large de.
! post OF salt exists somewhere below. Rocky
! specimens Of copper arc also to be found.
Thousands resorted to the salt works
during the war from adjoining States,
camping on the bank Of the lake in tents,
I and the remains of few stakes are still to
be seen. as an evidence of what was once a
| great industry. A few farmers come here
and make salt still, and Frenchman es
: tablished works here once on 4 time, but
The thing fell through--the Turks island
article being found the cheaper of the two
None Of the springs have any owner.
Commercially speaking, the country north
Of Red river is bounded, as to trade routes
on the south by Red river; Loggy bayou
Lake Bisteneau and the Dorchete Cd the
| west, the Ouachita on the east. and the ful
ton and Cairo railroad beyond the Arkan
sas lnej on the north. The communication
l with the outer world tends toward one
route or the other at different times Of the
year, it being proper 60 observe. in passing
that the old fashioned white-tOpped wagon
with half a dozen pestle-tailed mules al
ways does the immediate hauling from the
} centre OF this region) OF from thirty tC
! seventy miles. The distance TO water or rail
| road communication is estimated rather by
! the hills and swamps, weather and good OF
bad condition of the roads, a fact, too. which
accounts for the great delay in getting the
| crop to the market. The Fulton railroad
thus far has been found of little use to
North Louisiana, as the roads south from
it are in a miserable condition, and no
freight, with the exception of bacon and
-four. can be laid down SO cheaply as they
can be brought up by water.
Until st. Louis probes down 90 ward
Homer with her iron rails. this block OF
country will still continue to float off her
]