Photography by Amie Vanderford

On July 7, 2009 Larry Smith took me and some folks from the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy on a canoe tour of the Wolf River, Ghost River section. It was stunningly beautiful with all of the Tupelo Gum and Cypress trees. We saw plenty of snakes, both poisonous and not, but none of them bothered us, in fact, they most often jumped off their perches if we tried to get closer to them. I also learned that there are fish-eating spiders on logs and trees that have fallen into the river. Creepily fascinating. It's a nature wonderland really, so if you haven't canoed it before, you really should check it out! The light was constantly changing on our tour, but for every type of light, there was something uniquely wonderful to see.

I recently returned from a week long trip to Baton Rouge, LA. While there, I photographed extensively along the Mississippi River's Great River Road between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and then south as far as the roads would allow, which turned out to be Venice, LA. On the day I traveled south of New Orleans into the River and Bayou lands of southernmost Louisiana, I noticed a small sign for a Grand Bayou Village. I decided that I would pass on checking that out until I was on my way back up. It was late afternoon when I headed north, but I did not forget how that little sign had intrigued me, so I made a U-turn on LA23, and started down the gravel/dirt road to this village. Now I do drive a little Honda Civic, and not an SUV, so while that never stops me from off-roading, I hesitated for a moment on this road, because it was surrounded by water, quite rocky, and I just did not know what I would find at the end of the road. I decided to Google Grand Bayou Village on my iPhone, and the pages I came across informed me that this place no longer existed. Hrm. I started to turn around and leave, because it was a sketchy road for my little car, I'd already had a pretty full day, and if the village didn't even exist, perhaps it wasn't worth it. That's when I noticed a truck pulling onto the road. I flagged him down and asked him if there was a village at the end of the road. He replied that there was indeed a fishing village, and in fact, he was headed down there to deliver a mattress to his friend who had a fishing cabin down there. He (Ken) then told me that he and his friend (Robert) would be happy to take me out and about on his friend's boat if I wanted to follow him down there. Incredible! I'd had similar kind tour guide offers the previous day, so I accepted without hesitation, and was on my way.

As I arrived at the end of the road, I noticed a number of shrimping boats that were docked. This was apparently because shrimping season's official start was a week out yet, so the shrimpers were still fixing up their boats to prepare for the start of the season.

Ken was speaking to his friend Robert when I pulled up, and they were maneuvering the mattress and also a table (whose legs didn't make it with the bumpy road) onto Robert's boat.

They were joking back and forth, as it turns out they'd been friends since they were in grade school, and then they invited me to have a seat next to the mattress, and we were off. As we passed by the boats, I noticed that several were in varying states of submersion, and Robert explained that even those boats that appeared 'sunk' were actually repairable due to being made from Cypress tree wood, which petrifies in water instead of rotting. This rang true to me after seeing all of the Cypress trees growing and flourishing here in Tennessee up at Reelfoot Lake.

We passed by several fishing cabins before we arrived at Robert's, and while some had been rebuilt and repaired after Katrina, 4 years later there were still some that had not. Robert and Ken both explained that speaking about life down there revolved around a time table of Before Katrina and After Katrina, much like BC and AD for a time reference comparison.

We arrived at Robert's cabin, and were greeted cheerfully by his full-blooded pet wolf. She was an absolute doll, stunningly beautiful and quite friendly. He told me that she was seven years old, and although she was healthy and happy, she was beginning to become more frail and arthritic, so she had to rest more often than she used to.

After they unloaded the new mattress, I received a tour of his cabin. There were several neat things about it, including his rain water collection system which he used for bathroom water (shower, toilet, etc.). He showed me how he collected rain water from the roof and funneled it down to his large water collection tank, which then connected with his plumbing system.

While he didn't use this water for drinking purposes, he did also have a water purification system in the bathroom so that guests could brush their teeth with the water.

I noticed that he had marked on one wall the various levels of flooding he'd endured with each hurricane, which surprisingly showed that Rita had higher water levels than Katrina. He explained that it was due to the direction Rita had entered the area, which was the opposite direction of Katrina.

When he evacuated to FL for Katrina, he took with him his freezer full of meat, so ended up feeding himself and fellow evacuees the best meals of their lives for a solid week. After that, local churches fed them, and numerous denominations worked together to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner at a variety of locations. Robert said that many dinners were prepared by local renowned chefs. Despite all of this, he was so worried about his cabin, even moreso than his home, that he couldn't completely enjoy the beach or great food, and he hadn't known how it'd fared for two months. He said the village is much smaller post-Katrina, and that for two years he practically had the entire place to himself, and for much of that time he had no electricity which made the stars even brighter and the place quite peaceful (minus the sound of his generator).

Shrimp catching can be done without boats in the Bayou simply by hooking shrimp net to a rectangular frame (One example above) and lowered into water. The current that passes by the cabins is strong enough that shrimp just float into it. He caught something like 200 lbs. in one day once. He does not sell the shrimp, crabs, oysters and fish that he catches. He gives (& cooks) them for friends & family. He also told me that down there the women don't cook, that's the man's job. :)

After my tour of the cabin, they took me back out on the boat to tour around the Bayou away from the cabins. He showed me that the natural gas lines were marked by white posts, but that the tree line also marked it, because the dredging that occurred along this line raised the land level about 4 feet which allowed trees to take root high enough above the salt water to collect rain (fresh) water and grow. We did see several dead Oak trees out in the Bayou, however, where the ground had sunk, and the roots became exposed to the salt water.

He showed me the dams that were built to control some of the powerful flow, and how ineffective they were, because the water always found a way around.

He took me over to see the natural gas pumping station platforms, and explained that they eventually just let them sink into the bayou as they aged and succumbed to the elements, so it was not safe to boat around them because while one was currently in process of sinking, there was an even older one that had completely sunk somewhere else in there.

Sinking Natural Gas Pumping Station 05-02-09

As we headed back to the village, he checked a couple of his crab traps, and showed me the blue-clawed crabs that he'd caught so far (only a couple on this particular day). Apparently in this species of crab, the female crabs have red-tipped claws, like nail polish, while the males have the blue markings.

I sat and chatted with Robert and Ken for awhile after that and heard many fascinating stories. I learned that Ken & he were friends since grade school, and that Ken had moved to Texas for a number of years, but returned. His daughter used to spend summers with Uncle Robert, and it was years before she learned that Robert was not her literal uncle. Robert's son currently helps him run the family appliance business so that Robert can spend more days at his fishing cabin. He told me a rather funny story about his son (in his teenage years) getting arrested and taken to a country jail because they didn't have record of payment of a traffic ticket. Robert had called a judge he knew because he worried about his 17 year old son getting hurt in some back-woods jail, and wanted to make sure he would be safe. It turned out that the judge got him out of jail, but the jail had been a pleasant experience. They had just put him in the cell with tv and vcr, food and poker chips, even left door open, but told him not to leave. His son had been having a grand ole time playing poker and living it up when he was released.

They invited me to stay for dinner, and were grilling up steak, but unfortunately by this point it was already after 7 p.m. and I still had a 3 hour drive back to my hotel in Baton Rouge, so after a very full day, I had to decline the wonderful offer. This was one incredible experience though, one which I will remember when I am old and gray. The hospitality and kindness I experienced in Louisiana is certainly the best I have experienced in all of my travels anywhere, so I highly recommend that if you do travel to Louisiana, that you stop and talk to the locals.