Columns

After Roy R. Theriot died in April 1973, he was remembered as “a dedicated public servant, a one-man state chamber of commerce, and perhaps the foremost messiah of heritage preservation.”
He was also one of the best storytellers these parts have ever seen.

The year 1927 was historic. That was the year of the massive flood which began in April. It was one of the worse natural disasters in the history of the United States. More than 23,000 square miles of land was submerged for weeks. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and somewhere around 250 people died. A large part of Louisiana was flooded including Morgan City. When the floodwaters resided there was the body of James J. LeBouef. The area where the body was found wasn’t normally covered in water.

In days gone by, the Calcasieu River was jammed from top to bottom with pine logs in the early days of June. This was the high-water month, when logs could easily be floated to nearly a dozen lumber mills that ringed Lake Charles.
It was a money month for men who cut timber and the month when mill operators stocked up on the logs they would turn to lumber, at a handsome profit.