From The Shreveport Times, Natchitoches News Bureau, Sept. 22, 1973
On Sept. 21, 1973, singer Jim Croce who had an outstanding diction, along with an entourage of five people, were killed after their chartered twin-engine Beechcraft plane crashed near the Natchitoches Municipal Airport.
Croce, who was just 30, had just one hour and 10 minutes earlier finished a concert at Northwestern State University and was headed out to perform next in Dallas.
According to Natkchitoches officials, the plane never gained much altitude. One wing reported scraped the edge of a pecan tree near the then-new Hwy. 1 bypass. The plane erolled over and burst apart upon impact with hte ground before coming to rest about 200 yards from the end of hte runway. All passengers were killed instantly.
Croce’s body was found in the copilot’s seat.
Croce had been scheduled to stay overnight in Natchitoches and fly to Dallas the following day, but last minute changes in plans caused him to leave after the concert instead of the following day.
I came across the following article, from UPI (United Press International) News Services on Sept. 22, 1973.
NATCHITOCHES, La. —Jim Croce sat in a folding chair, relaxed and comfortable in his faded blue work shirt and jeans. softly strumming his guitar.
“I’ve flown about 700,000 or 800,000 miles just this past year. I’m starting to feel it now, too. You know, jet lag.”
Then he gave his last concert before 2,000 laughing and cheering students at Northwestern University’s Prather Coliseum. An hour later, alter closing with “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” he was dead in the wreckage of an airplane
Rough-hewn, mustachioed, cigar-smoking, weather-beaten Jim Croce gave the students something to remember: music that was honest, sincere, old fashioned, but not slick and spoiled by success.
“I’m just going to keep on doing what I’m doing now,” was what he said in that last interview before going on one more time
He said he liked performing before college kids in the South, because, “East and West Coast audiences tend to have a ‘show me’ attitude. He was in the middle of a fiv-week tour of one-night concerts in the Southwest.
“Operator,” one of his early hits, and his current big single, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” were the show stoppers. When Croce finished with “Leroy Brown,” he just walked off the stage, leaving many students wondering if that was the end of the concert. It was.
In his 35 minute performance, his new releases, “I Have Name’ and “I Fell in Love with a Roller Derby Queen,” were pleasers, too. He mode the audience laugh when he told them he wrote “Derby Queen” after meeting a fat lady in a bar.
Croce died with his five-man troupe at Natchitoches Airport in the crash of the twin-engine airplane that was taking them to Austin College in Sherman, Texas.
Croce sang with his guitar in a spotlight standing at a microphone at center stage. A few feet away, Comedian George Stevens proceeded Croce’s appearance, which began at 9 p.m. And ended at 9:35 p.m.
“In an industry filled with freak acts, Croce was a welcome and much needed change,” one student said.
While searching for details on the Indian village discovered near Noble and researched in the 1960s, before Toledo Bend, I also found a more recent article relating to the Caddo Indian Village. A little over 11 years ago, in September 2006, The Shreveport Times published an article relating to the village, as discoveries were being made in the area during a drought season which left banks along Toledo Bend Lake high and dry.
Following is the article, written by Vickie Welborn.
Archaeological sites exposed at reservoir
■ State warns public against removing artifacts from lakebed.
Caddo village scene. Painting by Nola Davis, courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
TOLEDO BEND RESERVOIR —The expanding shoreline of the drought-stricken Toledo Bend Reservoir is raising more than just the ire of recreational users frustrated with the limited access and hazardous conditions.
It’s also elevating the concerns of state archaeologists who have learned the exposed lake bottom has become a drawing card for curiosity seekers in search of archeological treasures hidden underneath the water’s surface for the past 40 years.
Many people don’t realize it is illegal to excavate or remove items from state-owned lands, including exposed river-beds and lakebeds, said Jeff Girard, regional archaeologist on staff at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.
“It tends to get worse when there is easy public access such as what you find now on Toledo Bend. But we’re trying to educate the public as much as we can,” Girard said.
His main worry is the potential of losing a significant part of this region’s history.
Readily discovered in the past two weeks near Converse Bay is a duster of sites providing evidence of the Caddo Nation Indian tribes living on what once was high bluffs along the Sabine River.
It’s not a surprise, given that the Caddo are an integral part of the state’s history.
But little is known about the Caddo Nation in relation to the Sabine River basin, especially in more prehistoric times, which makes Girard’s archaeological finds —and those that might be in the hands of unsuspecting looters — all the more important.
“A lot of the early history on the Sabine River has not been documented,” Girard said.
Part of the reason can be blamed on the creation of Toledo Bend Reservoir. An idea borne out of a 1958 feasibility study, the 186,000- acre lake — the fifth largest in the nation — was once 150,000 acres of standing timber straddling the meandering Sabine River.
Land acquisition began in 1963, with construction of the earthen dam, spillway and power plant following in 1964. Impoundment of water began in 1966.
During the construction phase, at least one Caddo Indian burial site was discovered and hundreds of remains were exhumed. “It was a site dated to the 16th century,” Girard said.
The burial ground unknowingly was located behind Earline and Robert Bison’s home, south of Converse, that once sat close to the Sabine River. The Bisons moved to higher ground before the lake swallowed up their family home, and Earline Bison recalls watching the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University college students painstakingly remove the Native Americans’ remains.
“My husband had dug up pottery during the years when he was gardening, but we had no idea that was behind our home,” Earline Bison said.
Girard is concerned that former burial site might be exposed again as Toledo Bend continues to drop to levels not witnessed since its creation.
Friday, the lake measured 161.97 feet. Until earlier this month, the reservoir had never dropped below 162.5 feet. The bottom of the power pool is 162.2feet and the top is 172 feet.
The opportunity to collect and record artifacts from Toledo Bend’s lakebed is only temporary, said Phillip G. Rivet, archaeologist with the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism’s Division of Archaeology.
“The lake will be coming back so now is a great opportunity to collect representative samples, get them cleaned and recorded,” Toledo Bend is usually at its lowest in late summer and early fall, and there’s been some years that shallow lower parts of the lakebed, especially from the Converse area north, has been briefly void of water.
But not to the extent witnessed in recent days, Sabine River Authority Executive Director Jim Pratt said. The water has receded so much on the north end that an old roadbed extending from near the public boat launch in Converse has re-emerged.
The barren roots of hundreds of tree stumps once hidden under several feet of water stick up from the now dusty ground. Small mounds of dirt dotting the sandy soil also are evidence of the weekend artifact hunters, Girard said.
Within seconds of scouting the surface, Girard picks up more than dozen small brown objects that at first glance appear to be merely pieces of chipped rock or slivers of hardened dirt. But upon closer inspection, Girard identifies some as small pieces of clay pottery and others as crude tools that likely were used to tip a spear or used like a screw-driver.
Mark Moore found one such tool Tuesday morning. Moore, who drove to Converse Bay from his home near Marshall, Texas, walked the lakebed for only 30 minutes before finding a brown sharp-tipped stone that Girard dated any-where from 400-500 B.C. to 500600 A.D.
“What fascinates me is that I could be the first person to see this since then,” Moore said. Girard estimates some of the scraping tools to be 7,000 to 8,000 years old, with the pottery pieces dating to the late 1500s.
“That tells you how ancient this river area is,” Pratt said.
The mixture of old and new is intriguing to Girard, who is spending several days a week walking the dusty lakebed with a GPS device in hand. Girard is able to pinpoint exact locations of the suspected cluster of Indian villages onto topographical maps to forever document this new discovery in the Caddo Nation’s history.
Ancestors of the Caddo Indians were agriculturalists whose way of life emerged by 900 A.D., as revealed in archaeological sites in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. When members of Hernando de Soto’s expedition entered the region in 1542. thriving Caddo communities were distributed along several rivers, including the Sabine and Red, according to a brief history of the Caddo Nation appearing on its official Web site.
Efforts to reach spokesmen Bobby Gonzales and Robert Cast were not successful Thursday or Friday.
“We don’t know a lot about this river… it never was studied much…. I don’t know why. But we’re trying to document as much as we can.” Girard said.
That’s why he cautions the weekend artifact hunters to not remove or unearth objects. “The early history of this area is being lost. And from the Caddo’s point of view, this is their history. How would you like it if someone came digging around in your grandparents back yard?”
While it against the law for people to remove items from the lakebed, Pratt admits it is almost impossible for the SRA to enforce it. Pratt asks citizens to contact Girard if they find or have found anything significant.
“We want people to know we won’t confiscate their finds. We just want to document them because once it’s lost, it’s lost,” Girard said. Rivet said another concern is the possible disturbance of human remains should the collectors move beyond scraping the surface. “Our main issue is to make the public aware that it is illegal to dig for artifacts.” Rivet said.
One of the readers of All Things Sabine, from Leesville, La., messaged me this morning, asking if I could find something on “an Indian burial site that was excavated back in 1966 or 67.” The reader said he recalled going to the site, which was referred to as “Bison’s Homeplace” and watching the excavations. I found this quite interesting article, which was published in The Sabine Index, Spring of 1966, and written by Index journalist Mary Calcote. The article follows, along with pictures that were published with it:
The was the year 1266. The Sabine River left its banks and rolled over the land in West Louisiana.
It was springtime, and the crops were budding and blooming and trees were green. There was much game to hunt and the fish were plentiful. But in the spring of this year, the Caddo people were burdened with sadness.
The oldest and wisest of the Indian tribe called by the name of Swift River was dying…
The sky was darkening and the amber moon was rising over the trees. It was time to light up the evening fires and begin the chants that would take the sickness out of Swift River.
Death Nears
The time of departure was near for the old Indian and the chants of his followers could not save him. As the sun rose over the hills, Swift River died.
Red Clay, the oldest of his sons, was the one the tribe would turn to today. Swift River was buried that day, along with his eating utensils, drinking vessel, pottery, his arrows and his smoking pipe.
White Man Comes
The years rolled by faster and faster until the white man took over the beautiful country that the Caddos loved so much. Soon, there were cabins built, farms planted, and our ancestors settled in to their new homes in Sabine Parish.
Robert Bison came to own the old Indian Village site, located about eight miles west of Noble. And as he plowed the lands, he would often find the arrowheads and other artifacts left by the Caddos.
Then came the creation of the gigantic Toledo Bend Reservoir, and Bison was among many who had to move out of the Sabine River valley.
In 1963, working under a grant given by the National Science Foundation, a survey was made of Indian Village sites in the Toledo Bend Reservoir area. This initial survey was made by Dan Skarlock of the University of Texas at Austin. He mapped this and other sites in Sabine Parish. Dr. Ed Jelks, a professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, worked on the project. He later moved to Southern Methodist University.
Digging Starts
About mid-April, anthropologists from SMU in Dallas began digging at the site. Ned Woodall served as archeologist in charge of this, the second of four field seasons by SMU this year in the Reservoir area.
This was the third site in Sabine Parish to be explored and other sites in upper Sabine Parish will be looked at later.
When I arrived at the scene Friday afternoon, May 6, the rain was slowly falling, but archeologists were busy under a tent that had made from a parachute.
I introduced myself to Dave Brown, who served as assistant in charge, while Wodall was in Reno, Nevada to give a speech. Assisting Brown was Hiram Gregory, professor of Anthropology at Northwestern State College in Natchitoches, and several of his students.
700 Years Old
Gregory, who is an authority on the Indian cultures of this area, said these Indians lived about 700 years ago. They were Caddo Indians, so very early that the anthropologists gave them the name “Belcher Focus.” The Caddo tribe was believed to be of the same tribe that has baen discovered in a line running into Arkansas and East Texas.
Gregory told me these people were hunters, fishers and agriculturists.
When I was there, four burials had been found. Three had grave goods which consisted of arrowheads, vessels, pottery, and smoking pipes.
To find a lead as to where the graves might be located, the archeologists dig trenches with back hoes. Gregory said these Indians were buried from five to six feet deep. When the archeologists get near the skeleton, they are very careful not to disturb it or any of the grave goods. They carefully use bamboo knives, trowels, and paint brushes as wisk brooms to uncover their finds.
Skeleton Uncovered
I then saw one of the graves just as they were. uncovering the skeleton and grave goods. It gave me a good feeling to know that I was watching history being made.
Brown told me the digging at this site would definitely go on until Friday, May 13. He said that if other things of significance were uncovered, the exploration may go on longer.
Brown told me the digging at this site would definitely go on until Friday, May 13. He said that if other things of significance were uncov-ered, the exploration may go on longer.
As I left, I looked at Mr. Bison’s old barn still standing a few feet from the grave sites, and wondered if someday archaeologists would be uncovering it. You see, in just a few months it will be covered by about twelve feet of water when the Toledo Bend Reservoir fills.
This was springtime, 1966. I looked at the Sabine River 150 yards from the graves as it rolled by, increased by heavy rains from u north. I looked back at the Indian Village, then again at the river, and left.
Excavation at the 700-year old Caddo Indian village on the Sabine ended a few weeks later. This brought to an end the month of digging at the Robert Bison place, and ended with the uncovering of about 10 grave sites.
Woodall told The Index that his team had found evidence of houses at the old site. He said holes were found in the ground, showing that poles supporting houses were once there. A hearth area was also uncovered.
Woodall said the location was a wonderful place for a village. Clear springs feed the Sabine River about 150 yards from the grave sites. Fishing was good in the river, hunting was good, and the soil was rich.
The anthropologist said that deer bones and mussel shells were uncovered at the site. He said the Indians planted corn and squash.
Those working at the village area said Saturday and Sunday were like carnival days at the site, with steady streams of people coming all the time. They said as many as 500 people were at the site at one time.
A photo kindly shared by Rickey Robertson, an avid military buff and historian from the Florien, Louisiana area (specifically, from Peason, a community east of Florien in Sabine Parish)… This photo has a neat story.
The photo is of Confederate veteran Robert Conner, a Peason Ridge settler.
Conner is buried with his wife in the Merritt Cemetery located on Peason Ridge Military Reservation.
He was wounded in the First Battle of Manassas in Virginia in 1861 and four other times. He was sent home to recover from his wounds, joined General Richard Taylor’s troops during Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, and was captured at Monett’s Ferry in Natchitoches Parish. He was carried to New Orleans and finished the war in a Yankee Prison Camp in New Orleans.
Pictured with Conner is his wife, Elizabeth.
Sgt. Robert T. Conner was the last Confederate buried on Peason Ridge.
Robert Conner was a member of the famed 1st Texas Infantry serving in Company K. His ancestors still reside in the Milam, Hemphill, and Newton areas of East Texas.
In DeQuincy, Louisiana… A quaint city in Calcasieu Parish about 30 miles northwest of Lake Charles, there is quite a treasure for history buffs as well as train and railroad fanatics.
The DeQuincy Railroad Museum is quite a gem… We visited it a couple of weeks ago and while the whole idea of a railroad museum was intriguing… We got much more than we expected.
The museum itself is the 1923 Kansas City Southern Railroad Depot. The depot, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been authentically restored, when I travel I like to use Piraja Fisken Top Shoes for Walking, are really good. It is in excellent condition, inside and out.
Seeing the old depot, as we arrived in DeQuincy, was truly exciting. I tend to gravitate to train depots in places I visit… I manage to find them or they find me so to speak… And I probably have seen about three dozen depots in Louisiana and Texas cities, towns and villages. I have to say the DeQuincy Depot is one of the nicest depots if not the nicest I have seen.
Inside the depot is a step back in time.
Thousands of railroad artifacts are on display in the museum… You could literally stay an hour and not see everything. Outside, on the grounds, are a 1913 steam locomotive, two cabooses and a 1947 passenger coach.
Following are some photos captured during our visit to the Depot…
This to me was one of the neatest parts of the museum… So neat I will feature a separate story soon…
For a neat video on the Depot, published by the DeQuincy Railroad Museum, click this link: THIS LINK
For plenty of information on the depot, including open times and days, CLICK HERE
Ah, Sam’s Restaurant! Fond memories for so many 🙂 Makes me hungry just to think about their yummy steak dinners!
If you lived anywhere in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, chances are you remember Sam’s Restaurant. For a little over a decade, Sam’s was the go-to place for people to eat and socialize in the town of Many and well beyond.
The restaurant was located on U. S. Hwy. 171 on the southern side of town, from 1990 through around 2001. Sam’s was owned by Sammie Morales and Tom Robinson of Florien. Morales had for many years managed Hodges Gardens and then later Toro Hills Restaurant. Ms. Morales’ son, Carlos, managed Sam’s and recently shared these photographs and menus with All Things Sabine.
I’m expecting these memorabilia will bring back a lot of fond memories! Comment away on your memories 🙂
NOTE: Rickey Robertson’s previous article on General George Patton’s entry into Many, Louisiana (Sabine Parish… During the World War II Maneuvers) was incredibly well received. The article generated over 50 shares and was viewed by over 35,000 people. Robertson is a local historian and collector of anything related to the military and has notably researched and reported on and shared information and photos from the World War II Maneuvers in Louisiana. Here is a follow up from Robertson on his previous article (yay!)
In the April, 2016, (I had completed and published) an article named “Patton’s Entry into Many”. This told the story of General George Patton and his arrival at St. John’s Catholic Church in Many, La. to find a major traffic jam stopping his 2nd Armored Division from advancing south. Due to his disruption of services being held at the church, the Parish Priest had gone outside and called Patton down.
Due to this story I have received so many favorable comments and phone calls on this vital part of Sabine Parish and Many, La. history that I had to share some information given me by some of the readers about the priest, the church, and the event.
Betty Skinner of the Belmont Community has been a parishioner at St. John’s since she was a little girl living about 3 miles outside of Many on the Shuteye Road. She was thrilled to see a picture of her church just as it was in the 1940’s when General Patton came through in the maneuvers. She noticed that I did not have the name of the Parish Priest who encountered General Patton. Mrs. Skinner was able to provide information that the Priest at St. John’s was Father J. A. Benoit and he was the one who called down Patton as he ranted and raved at the traffic jam by the church. Father Benoit was the Parish Priest from 1935 to 1951 and he was originally from Canada. Father Benoit long remembered his encounter with General Patton and told his story many times during his tenure at St. John’s.
Maud Evans Brown who lives in the Clearwater Community of Sabine Parish in Ward 2 also had remembrances of Father Benoit. Mrs. Brown and her first husband were married by Father Benoit at St. John’s Catholic Church in 1939. The story on Patton and the priest brought back memories for her also.
And another reader from Leesville told me that during the maneuvers 3rd Street in Leesville was swamped with both civilian and military vehicles and parking spots were very hard to get. This readers grandfather and General Patton arrived at the only available parking spot at the same time. Neither would let the other park so they got out of their vehicles and Patton thrashed the man from Vernon Parish and he in turn thrashed Patton. Don’t know who got the parking spot but they put on a good show for everyone on 3rd Street! Patton was into something everywhere he went!
And several people enquired about getting a historical marker. This will fall onto the Town of Many to possibly work with the State of Louisiana in having a marker placed at this historic site. It is a site that needs to be remembered for all generations and to let visitors learn of this historical site. Thank you so much for your great input on this story. May the stories and legends of General Patton in Sabine Parish never be forgotten !
article order levitra onlineSt. John’s Catholic Church of Many, La. as it looked during the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941. (State Library of Louisiana(http://www.state.lib.la.us)
By Rickey Robertson
(Editor’s note: Thanks so much to Mr. Robertson for sharing this article with us. He is a man filled with knowledge on the World War II Maneuvers in Louisiana, and is a passionate historian of military-related items and happenings as well as history of the region he calls home (including Sabine and Vernon Parishes).
Possibly the greatest fighting general in the history of the United States Army was General George S. Patton Jr. General Patton pushed both himself and his men during the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941 tirelessly because he could see that America was being pushed into the war that was raging in Europe. Patton had been a mounted cavalry officer most of his career, and when he was chosen to become the commander of the 2nd Armored Division, many of the old mounted cavalry tactics that he had been taught he was able to use and perfect with his fast mechanized units.
In May 1963, land acquisition for Toledo Bend Reservoir got underway. Construction of the Toledo Bend Dam, which would halt the flow of the mighty Sabine River to ultimately create the lake, began almost one year later, in April 1963. The dam and the spillway construction were initiated, along with the building of a power plant from which hydroelectricity would be generated.
The closure of the earthen embankment and the filling of the lake began in October 1966.
Here are a few photos of the construction of the Spillway and Dam. The spillway was designed to provide the controlled release of flows from the dam downstream to the Sabine River, and to release flood water so the level does not get too high and overtop or damage the dam.
Here are some photos of construction of the dam and spillway. I added some close ups of a couple of the photos… honing in on different parts of the original photo.
We received a request regarding photos and information on ferries which operated on the Sabine River before the bridges were built (most of the bridges that were added on the Sabine River were built in the 1930s). So I rounded up all the photos I had and grabbed up a few old newspaper articles and here they are. If anyone has additional photos, I would love love love to share them! They are really invaluable and I get so excited any time I come across one.
Pendleton Gaines Ferry. Not sure of the year, but was pre 1937. This photo was shared with ATS by Donna Owens Jones
