Going home

[jdupre']

Went back to my hometown for a nostalgic trip. After the big gas leak, Dow Chemical bought out almost everyone in the small town, including my mother. The town was started by my great grandfather because of his timber business. He harvested the old growth cypress from the surrounding swamps.

The slab in the center is our old carport, the one on the right is the driveway and garage of our neighbor of 60 years. The slab on the left is from our family grocery store.

I put in the bayou and paddled down about a mile to see if I could find the old boiler I remember. I found it in the grass about 30 feet from the bayou.

It's a boiler from the steam winch on a pull boat used to drag logs out of the swamp 100 or so years ago.

About 50ft. away is the opening of a pullboat trail still navigable after all those years. I filmed a couple of short videos of me paddling down the trail.

http://s198.photobucket.com/albums/aa10 ... 0_0981.mp4



http://s198.photobucket.com/albums/aa10 ... 0_0982.mp4

Joey

 

[oldsparkey]

Videos no workie for me.

 

[jdupre']

Chuck, I just tried them again and they worked for me.

 

[oldsparkey]

Has to be the way I have this computer set up , no go , just a black screen that said loaded but did not fire. Does take me over to face book and all the still shots in the album work. No big problem I enjoyed the rest of the trip report.

 

[Jimmy W]

The videos work fine for me. I passed by there a couple of years ago. I saw a pair of Fulvous Tree Ducks just to the left of your second picture. The only ones that I have ever seen. I had to look them up in my field guide to find out what they were.

 

[Wannabe]

I really enjoyed the videos Joey. You should do more of them.
Thanks,
Bob

 

[jdupre']

Jimmy, I remember you mentioned those ducks a while back. Not long after that, I saw a pair of them about a mile down the road down Bayou Corne. I had never seen any around here before that. Very unusual to see a duck land in a tree. They have a very distinct call, too.

Joey

 

[catfish]

joey nice vidieo. it worked for me too. thanks for sharing sparky must have a dionosar. :mrgreen: :lol: joey i have to ask what does dupont make there?

 

[jdupre']

Catfish, it's Dow Chemical and they store natural gas in wells in a large salt dome about 1.5 miles across. A few years ago( on Christmas day, no less) the pipe from the surface to the dome ruptured and released 300 MILLION cubic feet of gas into the underground aquifer. It migrated 3/4 of a mile and surfaced in my hometown. My mother and about 12 other families were moved out for 2 months while the gas purged out. Long story short, there was a buy-out offer by Dow and all but 2 families sold out. Almost everyone that sold out moved the houses to a new location. Kinda sad that the town disappeared in that way.

Joey

PS. That little $99.00 camera continues to amaze me at what it can do. 800 pic capability, timed pics, video, sound, and a pretty powerful zoom-- features that 30 years ago would have cost several hundred dollars or not been available at all. All in a package a little bigger than a deck of cards. Amazing.

 

[seedtick]

thanks for sharing, good pics and good clips

need to take a metal detector to the boiler site and see what other artifats are around

 

[jdupre']

Tic, that boiler is sitting in about 2 feet of water and 3 feet of grass. I don't have one but can a metal detector handle that kind of situation? As a kid, I remember as few relics from the logging days. There were the remnants of one of the pullboats on the edge of the bayou in the weeds. There were still a couple of upright HEAVY posts with rusting through-bolts attatched to really heavy deck beams all silted into the mud. I couldn't find any traces of that yesterday. In low water, we would sometimes find piles of rusted together log dogs on the edge of the bayou.

Joey

 

[catfish]

joey that is weird how they store it. also kind of weird they have their hands in it. ive only known them into cemicals. :shock: i guess anything for a buck.its amazing the different things companies are into.

yea that is sad when big companies come in and you are the litle man and don,t want to give up your land or house let alone leave town. :x

 

[jdupre']

Catfish, the buyout was strictly voluntary. But the town was aging, people were already moving out and most of the people left were in their 80's. My mother was 85 at the time and she would have been about the only one left. The family figured it was time to sell and, in hindsight, it was probably for the best.

Joey

 

[rpecot]

Nice pics and video Joey.

 

[Kayak Jack]

That Eskimo boat worked well in the slurpy bayou. You could even do an Eskimo roll!