Where Have All the Trees Gone?

With the recent oddly strange shortage of toilet paper, I decided to look into shortages from our past.

In the 1500s, England began to find itself short of firewood. A population explosion, bigger cities, paper products, and construction, the forests of England were being decimated. The growth of the forest couldn’t keep up with the demand.

The shortage hit the poor hard. Unlike the landed gentry, they didn’t have vast expanses of land to cut for their own firewood, and as the shortage became more dire, the price of wood rose faster than any other commodity of the time. No firewood meant no fire, no food or warmth in the brutally cold winder months.

The poor had two options: wait for an answer or freeze to death.

Because of this hopeless situation, many decided to take their chances in the colonies. While England’s forests were being depleted, the situation in America was the complete opposite. Early settlers were met with an seemingly unlimited supply of trees available for the taking.

England did find a solution as they soon resorted to coal for heat and cooking.

A similar situation hit Germany in the 18^th century. Wood became so scarce that, in winter, fence posts, steps and all kinds of wooden objects, that were expendable in the short term, were burned as firewood. 

The recent deluge of fires in Australia aren’t the first. The Black Friday bushfires of 1939 saw brushfires burning for the whole summer and ash fell as far away as New Zealand. Approximately three-quarters of Victoria was affected by the disaster and the entire county was badly damaged by fires and extreme heat. As of November, 2011, the event was one of the worst recorded bushfires in Australia and the third most deadly. Over 4,900,000 acres of land in Victoria, and 71 people were killed, and several towns were completely obliterated. The Royal Commission stated that “it appeared the whole State was alight on Friday, 13 January 1939.”

Such a sad commentary that brought tears to my eyes when I read it, especially given the recent devastation from brushfires in Australia. 

Other historical tidbits that I dug up revealed decimated forests in France, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, all across the world all across time. Seems that trees and our various usage for them (fire for warmth and cooking, building, paper products, just to name a few) is one of our most prized possessions. And while they are renewable, they don’t grow overnight, do they?

And, remember the recent toilet paper shortage? 

Yep, TP comes from trees. Go figure!

CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com

History of the Rodeo Clown

This week an icon in the PRCA rodeo passed away.

Lecile Harris (1937-2020), died in his sleep Wednesday night after the final show of the Dixie National Rodeo and Livestock Show in Mississippi, my home state. At 83 years young, Mr. Harris was still doing what he loved, being a rodeo clown. And he was good at it.

It was a shock to hear the news on Thursday morning, and it got me to thinking about the history of rodeo clowns.

When competitive rodeo became all the rage in the early 1900s, promoters hired cowboys to entertain the crowd between events. Prior to that, let’s just say the games and matches played out on the plains between cowboys matching skills and wits, there wasn’t really any need to “entertain” between the events that the cowboys themselves had come to see. But once there was a paying audience, those people wanted a lot of bang for their buck, and wanted to be entertained every second they were at the “show”. Much like the people at the medieval jousting matches and the Roman Coliseums.

The cowboys whose job it was to entertain the crowd started wearing oversized, baggy clothing, and some even painted their faces just as circus clowns do. The rodeo clown took a lot of cues from circus clowns and court jesters as their job—initially— was the same: to entertain the rowdy crowd. It wasn’t exactly dangerous… unless the crowd became unruly, I suppose.

But soon the crowds grew bored and wanted more danger and ill-tempered bulls were brought in for the bull-riding events. As most of us know, bull riders are only expected to stay on for 8 seconds and after that, that mean, ornery, I-will-trample-everything-in-my-path bull is out for blood.

[Photograph of Rodeo Clowns], photograph, June 24, 1959; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth531666/: accessed February 14, 2020), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Erath County Genealogical Society. 

So the rodeo clowns stepped up to distract the bulls from the rider so he could get to safety. Many times the clowns worked in pairs, and I’ve seen as many as three or four in the arena. In the 1930s, Jasbo Fulkerson introduced a wooden barrel as a barrier and a way to escape the enraged bull. These days, a heavy duty plastic barrel does the trick, but still, it all looks quite scary when you see a bull butting one of those things and you know a bullfighter is inside!

These men are professional athletes and the proper term for them is bullfighter all across the globe. Many still wear baggy bright clothes and all kinds of flashy things to get the bulls’ attention, but make no mistake, they are highly skilled at what they do. When a rider is injured or hung up, they risk their lives to free that rider. Honestly, they are some of the bravest, most skilled men I’ve ever seen in action.

In larger rodeos, there are bullfighters who are 100% focused on the bull, and then there’s the rodeo clown (sometimes called the barrelman) whose job is to poke fun at the bull, the riders, the other bullfighters and entertain the crowd, while also convincing everybody he’s the tough one out there in the ring. But even that seasoned old cowpoke who might be a bit over the hill has paid his dues, and at one time, he was the one with an angry bull breathing down his neck.

Such was the case with Lecile Harris. He started out wanting to ride bulls, but his tall, lanky frame wasn’t suited to the job. He fell into the job of bullfighter when another guy failed to show up one day, and the rest is history. He was a natural and was always a “class clown”, so he loved hamming it up for the crowd. At the age of 52, he was injured in the arena, which ended his career as a bullfighter, and he spent the next 30 plus years in the ring entertaining the crowds as the main attraction, the Rodeo Clown. Six decades in the ring, and he’d performed a few hours before he drew his last breath.

RIP, Lecile Harris.

Lecile Harris (1937-2020)
www.lecile.com

For more older photos of rodeo clowns, visit Lecile's FB page and scroll through the photos. Or go to Youtube and search for rodeo clowns or rodeo bullfighters to see some of these guys in action!

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Civilian Conservation Corps: Roosevelt's New Deal

Several months ago, My Cowboy and I were riding around on the backroads of Mississippi one Sunday afternoon. We meandered down one road and crossed the “canal”, then later we crossed it again on a different road.

Something niggled at my brain and I asked if he thought the canal was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). A research trip (online) was in order! While I have yet to discover if the canal was built by the CCC, I did find tons of amazing things that were constructed in my neck of the woods.

But first, a bit about the CCC.

The CCC was a voluntary public work relief program to create jobs, education and skills for young unmarried men in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It was the brainchild of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal that provided manual labor where needed in rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments.

In operation for nine years, the CCC saw 3 million young men pass through its ranks. The outbreak of World War II brought a halt to the program as young men were drafted into the armed forces.

Here are just a few of the projects completed in and around where I live…

Union High School, Union, MS: The National Youth Administration constructed the 1938 1-story vocational building at the Union High School. Superintendent of construction was Simon Brown. The building remains in use by the school system.

Leake County Courthouse, Carthage, MS

Photo: Susan C. Allen © Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 10/03/2015 

Leake County Courthouse, Carthage, MS. The three-story, brick and cast stone Art Deco courthouse was constructed 1935-36 as Public Works Administration (PWA) Project Miss. 1042. It was remodeled in 1976.

Neshoba County Library, Philadelphia, MS

Photo: Susan Allen © Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2013 

Neshoba County Library, Philadelphia, MS. The rustic log cabin was the first library built in Philadelphia, Mississippi, although the library had been established several years earlier in space in two other buildings. It was a community effort spearheaded by the Twentieth Century Club. The WPA also provided the first paid librarians.

The building, relocated to a park when a new and modern library was constructed, was almost totally destroyed by a tornado in 2011. Only the flooring, chimney, and fireplace remained. It was reconstructed in 2013 in a joint effort of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and City of Philadelphia.

Shockaloe Trail, Bienville National Forest

, Source © 2016 Trail And Ultra Running

Bienville National Forest Improvements, Forest MS. The CCC workers built roads, cleared trails and took on the task of reforestation, but they also reeducated locals with the idea that “public land was to be appreciated and was not simply a place to log, trespass and burn.”

This is just a sample of the many projects the CCC completed in the nine years it was in existence, not to mention the lives it changed in the young men who got to be a part of it. It was a fascinating period of history and I can’t help but think that many young men and women would benefit from being involved in a similar program in this day and age.

Do you know of a CCC project where you live? If not, check out this resource on the Living New Deal CCC Projects in your stomping grounds. You might be surprised!

The History of Packaging and Shipping

I love antique wooden boxes and crates. I’m not sure why they have such a fascination for me. Once, I had a lovely old box that we used as a prop in a Christmas play at church. I loaded everything on my husband’s truck to take back home after the play, and he headed toward my mother-in-law’s house to deliver borrowed props to her first. I was watching from the church parking lot when my crate fell off the truck and shattered in the middle of the highway. It was a total accident, but I was sad to lose the old box.

Vintage Armour Canned meat crate found in my husband's grandfather's old barn.
It's now on display in my den.

But even through my fascination, I can see why manufacturers, shippers, and merchants would prefer the lighter, more easily handled and recyclable cardboard boxes we have today. And, after you watch the video at the end of this post, you’ll realize that we’ve come a long way from gourds, leaves, and hollowed out logs!

The cardboard box was invented in 1817 in England. The box was a flimsy paperboard similar in design to today’s cereal boxes. Kellogg Cereals started using this type of box in the mid-1800s and popularized its use. This type of box would never do for shipping heavy cans or jars.

Enter the corrugated box. Corrugated (or pleated) paper was patented in England in 1856 and used as a liner for tall hats, but entrepreneurs soon realized the benefits of the stronger material for other uses. Single-sided corrugated boxboard was patented by Albert Jones of New York City and saw use as a shipping material as early as 1871.

Corrugated means “(of a material, surface, or structure) shaped into alternate ridges and grooves.” The ridges and grooves strengthen the box. There are three basic types of corrugated cardboard boxes/crates. Single, double, triple walled.

As a former purchasing manager, I can tell you that all corrugated boxes aren’t the same. More than once, my shipping department rejected boxes because they were inferior quality that wouldn’t hold up to the rigors of shipping. Or we received product in flimsy boxes. Both scenarios cause a major headaches. Most shipments up to 20 lbs or so can get by with a single walled corrugated box. Triple walled corrugated boxes can handle up to 300 lbs and are quite sturdy.

I realize that it costs less to produce and ship corrugated cardboard boxes all over the world, and that cardboard is easier to recycle, but that still doesn’t stop me from longing for the days when some little mercantile in the middle of nowhere received a shipment of wooden crates with all kinds of goodies inside. Although I seriously doubt those merchants were as enamored of all those adorable wooden crates as I am.

Here’s a fun little video regarding the history of packaging.

 

CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com

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Food Taboos Then and Now

I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but in my neck of the woods, sugar is getting a bad rap these days. America’s current fight against obesity, diabetes, and heart disease has a lot of doctors advising folks to avoid sugar, along with several other carbohydrates like white bread, white rice, pastas, and potatoes (the five whites).

This propensity to point toward certain foods as the root of all that ails us got me to thinking. Which foods in history were frowned upon and why? Furthermore, which foods are taboo in other cultures to this day? Let’s take a look.

Let’s start with the obvious. In Leviticus, God gave the Israelites instructions on certain foods to eat and those that were deemed unclean. They could partake of animals that had cloven hooves and chewed the cud. But they were not to eat the camel because it didn’t have cloven hooves, the coney (type of rabbit), the hare, or swine because these didn’t chew the cud.

God also instructed the Israelites that they could eat fish that had scales and fins, but those that didn’t have fins and scales were an abomination. Again, scripture isn’t clear on why swine and scaleless fish were taboo, but in the South, fried catfish is a delicacy. Catfish do not have scales and are considered bottom-feeders. Kinda reminds you of the pig’s eating habits, yes?

If scholars can’t agree on why God listed certain foods that the Israelites couldn’t eat without explaining in detail the reasons, far be it from me to try to come up with an answer. But I do have a theory. The Israelites were called the “Children of God” and God might have thought it best to just say, “Thou shalt NOT”, followed by “Because I said so!” (Any parent reading this will understand!)

What about non-Biblical forbidden “fruit”? Did you know the tomato was once frowned upon?

Originating in the Andes Mountains, the tomato found its way to Europe in the 16th century. A misclassification by botanists listed it in the nightshade family (it’s actually a fruit) of which many species are highly poisonous, so many Europeans were reluctant to add them to their meals. Tomatoes were found in North America as early as 1710, but was more ornamental than part of the culinary palette. But, even then, the green and black horned tomato worm was believed to be poisonous and kept people from enjoying the fruit. Thankfully, all these fears have been dispelled and the tomato is alive and well worldwide.

Potatoes (ah, the poor potato!!) had a bad rap as far back as 1570s Spain. Similarly to the tomato, they were misclassified in the nightshade family, and their misshapen appearance was disconcerting to some. Interestingly, in Switzerland, it was believed that eating large quantities of potatoes caused scrofula, an infection of the lymph nodes in the neck. (I find that interesting because of the current trend toward avoiding starches due to inflammation. But I digress…)

Food Taboos, Their Origins and Purposes. Okay, I found this entire article fascinating, but I’ll only hit the high-lights. Tribes in West Malaysia and Papua New Guinea have some very strange food taboos, many reserved for women, especially pregnant women. The gist of some of the taboos just seemed to leave all the BACON for the men! (Just kidding…Sort of! See below…) But, regardless, it’s extremely likely that most of these originated from some pregnant mother eating bananas or pawpaws and delivering a deformed baby hundreds of years ago, and all the women agreed not to eat bananas ever again. In our society, we’re the same way. “Don’t eat oranges… they gave my uncle stomach ulcers.” In Papua New Guinea, differing tribes have different taboos. Where one food is banned by one group, another embraces it, so they have no qualms about trading foods that they themselves can’t eat.

And lest you think I was kidding when I suggested that some cultures implement taboos in order to benefit a select few (ahem!), the author of Food Taboos states, “Observations on food taboos of the inhabitants of mid-west Nigeria were chosen as they represent a particularly good example of a people, in which food taboos appear to have been imposed on society mainly to serve the interests of the 'strongest' section, i.e., the reification of social hegemonies of the society: in particular the menfolk.” In parts of Nigeria, meat and eggs are not given to children because it is believed it will make them steal. Hmmm… I’ll just leave that right there.

I found the Hindu taboos most fascinating. I didn’t realize that the Brahmins eat no meat, fish, or eggs. The other three caste systems do, but even then, in moderation. There is a section in this article that elaborates on Jewish traditions as well, which we’ve discussed already. Unfortunately, the author of Food Taboos wasn’t able to answer the question looming large…

Why did God forbid the Israelites to eat swine? I mean, HELLO. BACON!!!!

Scripture isn’t clear, but scholars have pondered this question for ages. If you’re interested, click on the article below (Why Does the Bible Prohibit Eating Pork?) that lays out the various reasons that swine is/was considered unclean. If I had to choose, I’d go with their unsanitary eating habits, which I’ve chosen to block from my mind in favor of focusing on my beloved bacon!

What say you? Bacon or no bacon?

I’ll just claim Acts 10:15.

For more reading into this fascinating topic, visit the following articles:

Why Does the Bible Prohibit Eating Pork  * Once Forbidden Foods  * Food Taboos, Their Origins and Purposes

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Sharecropping in the 20th Century

When I was a kid, I was fascinated with people who just picked up everything and moved to a new town or out of state. I was in awe of anyone who went abroad … like the missionaries who came to speak at our church. Having lived in a total of three places my entire life, all within about 6-7 miles apart, I’m still intrigued by others’ ability to just pick up and go.

In farming parts of the country in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, it wasn’t unusual for families to move at the drop of a hat. I remember Mama telling me about one of her uncles who had a whole passel of kids. They’d just up and move in the middle of the night. One day they’d be there, and the next, they’d be gone. A few months later, they might show up on some other farm a few miles away. 

Cleveland, Mississippi, sharecropper with children.

1930s Farm Security Administration photograph.

Courtesy, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

This would have been in the late 1950’s, 1960’s, long before I was born. (Okay, not THAT long before… ahem!) The old tarpaper shacks they lived in wasn’t much, and they wouldn’t have had much to move, but still, I can’t imagine just piling everything in a wagon (or an old beat-up jalopy of the day) and lightin’ a shuck, at least not without a good bit of thought beforehand.

They were sharecroppers. They didn’t own any land of their own, but would agree to work for a landowner in exchange for a place to live and a share of the crops grown or some other form of payment. Cash was hard to come by, so in some cases, payment might mean a cow, horse, wagon, or simply the profit from their share of crops. If the crops failed, everybody lost… and it was going to be a hard winter. It wasn’t unusual for sharecroppers and tenants to work all year just to feed their family. And even that was in scarce supply some years.

Tenants and sharecroppers were similar, but also different. Tenants usually paid the landowner rent money, had his own tools, plows, and horses/mules. Obviously, the landowner and the tenant farmer could come to any agreement they chose, but the most common was that the tenant farmer would reap all the profit from the land he farmed, but he was also taking on all the risk, usually buying seed, feed, fertilizer, etc. on credit.

Sharecropper family on wagon in Lee County, Mississippi.

1930s Farm Security Administration photograph.

Courtesy, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Sharecroppers might have nothing more than a few changes of clothes and a bit of furniture. They depended on the landowner to supply everything needed to farm, and they received a percentage of the profit from the crops only after the crops were sold. If the crops failed, everybody lost… and it was going to be a hard winter.

There were good, honest, and fair landowners, and there were those who preyed on the poor. There were good, honest, hardworking tenants and sharecroppers and there were those who took advantage of their employer (the landowner). It was a beautiful thing when honest, hardworking farmers paired up and became successful together.

My father was one of the most hardworking men I ever knew. He pulled himself up by his bootstraps. He started out with nothing in the fifties. Married to my mother at 18, they were young (so young!), poor, and hungry, but they were hard workers. They had a couple of good experiences and a few not so good as sharecroppers.

My parents came in on the end of the tenant/sharecropper period in Mississippi. In the mid-20^th century, landowners took advantage of new technology and began replacing tenant farmers and sharecroppers with tractors, cultivators, disks, cotton pickers, harvesters, and pesticides.

Woman and child picking cotton in Lauderdale County, Mississippi.

1930s Farm Security Administration photograph.

Courtesy, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Yes, it was a hard life, but life was hard on most everybody back then, and they didn’t really know any different. But even as hard as it was, my parents used their skills, determination and desire to succeed to make something of themselves. By the time I was born, they’d managed to purchase 40 acres of land, were in the process of clearing it and had started a Grade “C” dairy farm with a handful of Jersey cows. A few years later, they switched to Grade “A” milk. When Daddy passed away suddenly at the young age of 54, they had a thriving dairy farm and a herd of beef cattle.

He and my mom were truly part of the American Dream, made possible by sharecropping.

So, did you move around a lot as a kid? As an adult? Any sharecroppers here? Tenant farmers?

CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com

Pharr Mounds Burial Grounds in North Mississippi

Continuing my posts concerning all things Mississippi, today I’m going to share about the Native American burial mounds in my state. At first glance, the burial grounds don’t look like much, just a pile of dirt heaped up that any bulldozer worth its salt could do in a couple of hours or less.

But Pharr Mounds was not built by bulldozers, but by nomadic Indian hunters and gatherers who returned to Northern Mississippi to bury their dead.

By Unknown - Copied from this picture, shown on this National Park Service website,

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8088977

Eight mounds sit on 90 acres of land near Tupelo, Mississippi along the Natchez Trace. And, yes, the Natchez Trace played a huge part in the reason these burial grounds are in this location. In addition to the rivers and streams in abundance in Mississippi, the old trace was the primary trail bison used to follow the ridges between the salt licks in Tennessee and the Mississippi River. It was only natural that the natives would also use the same paths cut from the forest for ease of travel as well as the game to be had.

Along this path, Native American settlements began to crop up. Pharr Mounds, estimated to have been settled during the “Woodland Period”, was one of these settlements. This is a generic term for prehistoric sites that fell between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the more settled agriculturalist Mississippian cultures.

By Fredlyfish4 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44646450

Modern day farming techniques almost wiped out some of the mounds, but reports of artifacts and stories passed down through generations resulted in archaeologists swooping in to save the mounds. In 1966, the National Park Service excavated four of the mounds.

The archaeologists found fire pits and clay platforms at the base of the mounds. They also found human remains, as well as various ceremonial artifacts, many of which were made from materials not native to the area. They recovered copper that hailed from the Great Lakes area as well as greenstone, galena, and mica which proved the connection of the local people with the larger Middle Woodland people of the time.

By Herb Roe, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12066172

Due to the work of the archaeologists in 1966, and with the confirmation that the mounds were of great historical significance, they were added to the National Registry of Historic Places on February 23, 1978, and can be seen on The Natchez Trace Parkway at Mile Marker 286.7.

www.pamhillman.com

Islands of the Mississippi River

While writing my latest novel, I discovered my story needed an island on the Mississippi River big enough for a group of river pirates to hide out.

Are there any islands on the Mississippi River large enough live on permanently? Turns out the answer is yes. (I’m guessing some of you already knew this, but color me clueless!) Some islands have a history of providing safety, security, and trading opportunities for travelers while others harbored danger to all who drew near. And like the pirates in my story and the mist along the river, over long periods of time, these land masses come and go at will … and sometimes with a little help from the Army Corp of Engineers.

Bloody Island appeared in 1798. Situated opposite St. Louis, MO, the densely wooded island became the preferred meeting spot for duelists since it was not under Missouri or Illinois jurisdiction. After a few years, the growth of the island threatened the harbor of St. Louis. In 1837, the U.S. Army Engineers established a system of dikes and dams to wash out the western channel and join the island to the Illinois shore.

Farmland on Grand Tower Island in Missouri
By Nyttend - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29413915

Davis Island, located 20 miles southwest of Vicksburg, MS consists of 30,000 acres. Formerly a peninsula bounded on three sides by the Mississippi River, a shift in the river cut it off from the mainland in 1867. Owned by Jefferson Davis’ brother, the Davis family built two sprawling plantations on the island. After the Civil War, former plantation overseer Ben Montgomery and other freedmen leased the island and continued to operate a successful farming operation on the island before losing the lease in 1876 when crops failed due to catastrophic floods. Today, Davis Island is owned by the Brierfield Hunting Club, with access only by water.

Rock Island, (Arsenal Island) comprises 946 acres and is located on the Mississippi River between the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. The Rock Island Arsenal is home of First Army headquarters. The island was originally established as a government site in 1816, with the building of Fort Armstrong. It is now the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the United States. 

The House-In-the-Woods, Campbell's Island, Illinois

At the turn-of-the last century, Campbell’s Island in Illinois was bought by a street-car company with the intentions of turning it into an amusement park. There were many summer cottages and The House-In-the-Woods, built in 1904, offered dining and concerts. Today, Campbell’s Island is home to a suburban community with many of the island homes built on stilts to withstand seasonal flooding.

Grand Tower Island is known for its prime farming land. Kaskaskia Island, with a population of 14 at the last census has seen its numbers swell to SEVEN THOUSAND in the past. Pike Island was an internment camp for more than 1600 Dakotas in 1862.

Kaskaskia Church, Kaskaskia, Illinois
By Charles Houchin - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3726290

And then there is Stack Island, located in north Mississippi, the island I based my fictional Cottonmouth Island on. Sometimes called the Crow’s Nest, Stack Island was notorious as a hideout for horse thieves, robbers, counterfeiters, and murderers. Samuel Mason and the Harpe brothers (Micaiah Jones from The Crossing at Cypress Creek is loosely modeled on the villainous Micajah Harpe) were among the vicious outlaws who frequented the Crow’s Nest.

Cave-In-Rock, Illinois
By Karl Bodmer - Maximilian, Prince of Wied’s Travels in the Interior of North America, during the years 1832–1834http://www.gallery.oldbookart.com/main.php?g2_itemId=30172, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26707096

This is just a sampling of the twenty-four or so land masses on the Mississippi River that qualify as islands. I find the idea of island life on the Mississippi River fascinating! So, have you ever visited an island on the river? Or, be still my heart, lived on one?

Don't miss The Crossing at Cypress Creek, the third and final book in Pam Hillman's
The Natchez Trace Novel Series

CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com

Timber Rafting

Have you ever heard of timber rafting? It is fascinating! I knew from the first time I stumbled on this type of transporting logs that I wanted to use it somehow in my writing.

Unlike driving loose logs down a river, timber rafting consists of tying the logs together in massive raft-like structures and floating them down wide, quiet rivers like the Mississippi. There is evidence of this practice dating back to the sixteenth century and up into the 20th century, possibly even today.

How does timber rafting work? Think of the way boxcars are coupled together to form a train. This is kind of like the long, snaking timber sections coupled together to keep the whole shebang traveling together, but allowing each section to break with the bends in the river. Each section was linked together with flexible coupling poles so the raft could maneuver around bends. Sometimes hardwood or sycamore was used at intervals to make the raft more buoyant.

The size of timber rafts depended on the width and swiftness of the river to be navigated, how serpentine the river was and how many men the logging operation had to work the raft. 

According to one Wikipedia article, “Timber rafts could be of enormous proportions, sometimes up to 600 metres (2000 ft) long, 50 meters (165 ft) wide, and stacked 2 metres (6.5 ft) high.” It could take up to 500 men to drive such a huge raft. And since these raftsmen were living on the raft and the river for weeks at a time, they build cabins and galleys on top of the rafts.

Raftsmen had their own lingo and terminology for the tools they used. “Chain dogs” or “raft shackles” were two iron spikes on either end of a short chain to hold the poles in place. “Steering oars” and “steering sweeps” were used more like rudders to guide the timber raft down the river and to keep it from running aground more than they were used to paddle.

TIMBER RAFT By Frances Anne Hopkins, Public Domain

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FAHopkins_Lumber_Raft.jpg

The “sweep man” was at the mercy of the raft’s speed in the current. Massive sweeps were mounted at the front of the raft on a special bolster. It had a hole in it to accommodate a large peg that was the pivot for the sweep. Think of the rudder on the back of a boat, but instead mounted not the front and much larger. The sheer weight of such a beast would have made controlling it almost impossible. But the raftsmen did have a few tricks up their sleeves. “Pike poles” or “jampikes” were used by men stationed at points along the rafts to keep it shoved off rocks, sandbars, and snags. “Snub poles” were often made of hickory and used near the rear to slow the raft down. Depending on the depth of the water, longer poles were inserted between the logs to drag the river bottom and slow the raft down.

There were ways to tie off on shore on slower moving rivers, but it was risky and the crew had to work together to accomplish such a feat. Long ropes were kept at the ready and men had to either swim for shore and tie up to trees along the way.  Each section of the raft would need to be secured at exactly the right time or it could be disastrous for the crew. 

Check out this video from an almost a century old German documentary 16mm silent film. This may be the Hozu river near Kyoto.



In my research, I developed a healthy respect for the tough men who became raftsmen on these larger than life timber rafts. Just from watching the videos, it’s obvious they had to be quite skilled at their jobs.

Timber rafting makes an appearance in The Crossing at Cypress Creek, the third installment in Pam Hillman's Natchez Trace Novel series, the O’Shea brothers cut a path through the wilderness between the lawless Natchez Trace and the Mississippi River. Their plan is to drive logs down the river to feed the booming construction in the city of Natchez.