[Music] at the state line far north of shreveport louisiana's highway 1 is in less than an inch called texas highway 77. silks is what this tiny corner is called on only the most detailed maps an odd name but then the nearby town of rodessa was called frog level when this area was settled about 1850. zilks is far more famous now as a cartographic oddity a foot high marker will tell you an inch north and you're in poor arkansas an inch west and you're in a dry texas county an inch south and you can't help but run smack dab into the aptly named oasis bar saloon lotto tavern whatever you want to call it it's hot arkla texas james terry is a texan who's crossed the line many times in many ways people don't come here and push people around here they don't take it but it's really not that rough they're nice people they're good people it's always had a name because people won't take nothing around here it's arkansas louisiana and texas but there are good people around here and it can get rough they must figure a tourist is searching for the official land marker we heard it was a rough and tumble corner but passers-by are friendly enough to stop and tell you all about this geographic vortex at this spot you could walk between texas louisiana arkansas and back all you wanted to oh you can go right to hunter and sit on the block and all three states the same time where they all meet they see that block right over here that you young all three of them at one time that's something you can't do you know too many places which you sure can but it's nobody's we don't never think it's just home you know we don't consider arkansas losing air in texas really at each landmark along louisiana's highway 1 there are stories to hear and people to meet if you'll just pull over the road starts back there and it ends far south at the gulf of mexico better than 400 miles later along its route and in this program we'll stop at some of the mile posts to hear some of the roads stories and meet some of its people we may not get to the end of this highway but that's not why we're on it this is a search for lost louisiana along the road less traveled [Music] along the way there are many welcoming signs oil city had the courage to erect something three-dimensional for a city on the ball this is where some of the first oil and gas wells in the nation were drilled in 1870 a shreveport ice company tried to drill for water but kept hitting that infernal gas 30 years later a farmer dug for water and found nasty old oil people around here worked hard and soon found black gold under their feet and real gold in their pockets from an invisible bounty this is the only really hilly part of highway one where the morning sun slices through loblolly pines and the road adheres snugly to the contours of these gentle ridges settled by alabamians and germans and all manner of americans north carolinian timothy mooring ran a ferry at caddo lake in 1837 his stop lent a melodious name to this town along highway 1 tourists might come to mooringsport to see where folk song legend hudi ledbetter was born when the railroad threatened to bypass moorings port bribes and free land enticed the trains over a beautiful landmark bridge in moorings port [Music] in no time headed south you're the outcroppings of big city shreveport if your travels are made in the daunting heat of summer you'll want to stray off the path to dixie yes a town called dixie rising from an ordinary field are the most extraordinary bursts of green and some color much brighter than yellow we've got 20 acres of sunflowers here and they've been blooming for the last three or four weeks probably the middle of june they started they'll be through blooming probably within the week why did you start it not for a crop no no we did it for a wildlife food plot and for just aesthetic reasons i i don't know just a devilish little light went off and thought it might be pretty well it is pretty this is garden bogart's field of dreams he planted it and they came school groups and kids of all ages have been discovering this field of simple joys each summer everything nursing homes to schools just people artists photographers looking well you should come and take a picture of me with this one i've been out here in august and i've seen the birds feeding on it and watched birds of prey in these trees you see swoop down and catch their night's meal but what can you do with sunflowers garden bogart just lets them grow when they dry out and all the human foragers are gone the squirrels and birds will take them down they're no cash crop what good are sunflowers in dixie they adorn the landscape you planted them to attract the wildlife and you got the most curious species of all you got human beings in your garden all sizes and shapes you know life's busy and there's a lot of hustle and bustle about it but sometimes the simple things mean the most a gift from one farmer to all who are still able to find simple beauty just a little off highway one for most of its route south of shreveport this lonely road parallels the railway a traveler gets to race alongside the mighty trains a mile away interstate 49 lets the driver ignore everything unless you hear the powerful rhythm and see the swinging loads of commerce you might think trains are a thing of the past highway one makes you look close enough to re-evaluate the ignored the taken for granted and the still powerful there's not a lot to notice or ponder on this stretch so we took a small detour back in time to the mansfield civil war state park's commemorative area the town is named for the earl of man a scottish hero heroes are remembered in mansfield this ground was hallowed by a pivotal civil war battle here the south foiled a union advance into texas if you'll recall after the fall of vicksburg and port hudson in 1863 the mississippi was dominated by yankees the red river was not the union tried to cut rebel supplies of food and cotton from the west president lincoln's generals set their sights on texas if they could take texas they could sever french and mexican help to the confederacy and bring the state back into the union union loyalists there might be so grateful they would help lincoln be re-elected the blue coats had backup as ironclad gunboats came up the river north through alexandria and nakadish all the while pushing back those defending southern forces their goal was the capture of shreveport in april 1864 the yankees drifted away from the river and the protection of their naval firepower that's when the confederate strategist knew they could stop running historian arthur bergeron the confederate army under major general richard taylor was retreating toward shreveport being pursued by the union army under major general nathaniel banks taylor decided to halt his army here near the town of mansfield and fight the battle that he thought would prevent banks's army from reaching shreveport he essentially aligned his men on both sides of the road that went through this area and waited for the federals to come up the winding narrow road through the pine woods just before the battle a texas soldier wrote to his wife the health of the boys here is tolerably good we have had some pretty heavy marching to do lately we have retreated some 250 miles that isn't what i call giving back considerable it is raining bad now so no more at present but remains ever yours truly until death she never heard from him again taylor aligned his troops along both sides of the route along came the yankees marching nearly single file louisiana's hero general alfred mouton led his now famous 18th regiment and along with a texas brigade waited eventually a union division came up roughly 7 000 men and took its position here near what is now this rail fence the union army had an odd alignment it was a 90 degree angle from about this position the confederates wanted to attack but taylor had to wait word from his superior and shreveport general edmond kirby smith whether or not it was okay to initiate a battle by late afternoon the skirmishing had been going on for a number of hours taylor had not heard anything from kirby smith and rather than have the day end without any fighting at all decided that he would order his troops forward the confederate attack began about four o'clock in the afternoon taylor because moutons men were from louisiana wanted them to attack first so they made the initial assault and hit the federal soldiers who were in position behind israel fence the confederates did not fire their weapons during the initial wave of the assault and literally hundreds of them were mowed down by the union rifle fire and artillery fire the lines it said shook several times from the impact of the enemy bullets they eventually were able to realign themselves despite a heavy loss in officers got to the fence and essentially routed the federal forces who were here forcing them to turn and run in retreat at the battle mutual was killed one story says by captured union troops who suddenly picked up their muskets and shot him french-born general j.c polanyak took over the charge and chased the yankees down south to pleasant hill by five or six o'clock in the afternoon the confederates had defeated the first portion of the federal army here at the rail fence pushed them back into retreat pursuing them they came across a second group of federals which was coming up and was at approximately position of sabine crossroads that was the second phase of the battle the confederates attacked that portion of the federal army and quickly threw it into retreat it was routed about as quickly or more quickly as the first phase of the battle pursued by southern fury the union army ran to the sanctuary of their navy at nakadish but the river it seems was loyal to the south the water had dropped at alexandria and trapped the northern gun boats a yankee engineer named joseph bailey had dams built to raise the water level finally free the union turned tail south [Music] the south held on to much of louisiana and all of texas here at mansfield by securing the whole wedge of land highway one now traverses it's often hot and dry on the road before you get into cane river country dry and flat that doesn't mean you can speed along though especially through powhatan listed in travel guides as a speed trap a spider in the desert i'm the bad man set up there that's right they call it a speed trap town in this sleepy town you can glimpse a fading louisiana tradition we don't have any empirical data but there just don't seem to be as many enclaves of men content to sit in the shade beside the road and talk in powhatan they apparently still do waving at all the few cars all the live long day we'll pass through pretty nakatish without stopping just this once because it's sunday morning in cane river country and that's when the baptizing is done yes i know [Music] shall we gather at the river if you should hear an old spiritual from a crowd of people dressed in white by the side of the road you really should stop you should see it the way they used to do it another baptism in the kane river the way they used to do it is still the way they do it here prepare either way of the lord make it past straight yeah uh you see uh that was a man called by god yeah and his name was john the baptist yeah uh his father name uh was uh zechariah yeah and his mama name was elizabeth oh you see uh john was the first one for jesus yeah they are done with preaching a repentance yes they are in order for you to be saved you got to acknowledge who your savior are yeah uh i'm glad to be in uh of this number this morning yeah this is old-fashioned revival people have gone away from this old time revival and it symbolized how jesus was baptized reading the people like to come to the river where they can get together and sing and praise the lord pastor murphy randolph of saint augustine baptist church in melrose recites the passage again as generations here have jesus came to the river jordan upon your professor's sister in the lord's name of jesus christ i indeed baptize thee in the name of the father another son of a holy ghost [Music] 13 souls for jesus are ready to be washed in the water this morning as if the long traditions of religious renewal and spiritual cleansing aren't enough there is another moving tradition being replayed here can this look and feel much different than a cane river baptism of a hundred two hundred years ago eighty-one-year-old willie mae tenars was baptized near here and in this way in 1928. well the lord you know you know when he went down to the river jeredian he told john to baptize me john said i don't feel worthy to stoop down and unless the shooting but he says suffer to be so and and when he buried him in the water it says spirit descended up on his shoulder in the shape of a door say this is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased so that was the answer to that thirteen souls for jesus have come this morning in my heart being baptized and being born again to be a child of the lord that's making me feel good and to all my relative blood and people they encouraged me let me on and church they stood by me and that would make me feel so good you know to be cared about somebody and by the end of your life and to the hand of the lord that's what i got my thought right today [Music] the name of the father another son another holy ghost yeah it made a difference in my heart it took all the bullying my heart was heavy it lightened my heart it made my heart all the time that i was living i live in with my heart so heavy it will fear in my heart and i had to go to the lord jesus in order to lighten my heart and see the light again [Music] this is a tradition we're told happens less often now that churches have indoor pools so when you see a family of believers gathered by the side of the road gathered at the river you'd best stop to see it and be refreshed yourself i get more out of it on the riverbank than i do at a pool why because it's the old way to do it i refer from jones down there and baptize and jesus went down and i just loved it i love to do the way jesus did [Music] lost louisiana continue down the road less traveled this is a tour of a road that wasn't always this lonely these are the towns bypassed by an interstate they cling to dignity and a certain glow in the summer heat they are pearls along a ribbon of highway still pretty in an honest way there are places across louisiana that are not important centers of commerce they don't have memorable landmarks the smaller corners of our state are important because they used to be these things a trip down a main street that is mostly forgotten is what we are on louisiana's main street is highway one a road less traveled [Music] clutchyville ravaged by the war of northern aggression flooded by the cane and red rivers endure of two yellow fevers waits sleepily along highway one for someone to notice her here we will sidetrack to highway 119 to see more of the cane river country among several splendid plantations here one stands out for its welcome and the rich story of three memorable women todd cooper is one of the caretakers revolves around the three ladies that lived at melrose the first being a black woman born in the slavery her name marie therese or african name was a quan quan she belonged to this frenchman his name was claude thomas pierre and after about 20 years in his household he apparently had fallen in love with her he fathered 10 of her 14 children and he gave her her freedom in the 1770s and over the period of years all the children were given their freedom uh her and her children received some land from the frenchman to help them get their start in life a few slaves given to her also and that's what makes this story so unique is she went on to form a plantation of her own she settled this plantation uh melrose formerly was yucca plantation that's what she named it with her son and they went on to own many slaves and you know hundreds of acres of land that eventually would turn into thousands of acres of land and so on the cane river the matures as we call them the children of mariethres and the frenchman they were known as the slaves who owned slaves on cane river here the very materials of this plantation inspire us to consider how difficult it must have been to clear the land to raise basic shelters to dig wells all by hand and later some of the work done by slaves the original main house at melrose is called yucca from 1796. it is hewn from the forest cypress beams and walls of mud mixed with deer hair and spanish moss this is how our pioneers did it until they could afford to dress it up a bit a tiny chapel is attached to this house no matter how small it seems to us they made room in their home and in their schedule for faith the african house is not an architecture you would ordinarily find on a cane river plantation its purpose becomes apparent the bottom floor features spinning wheels but marks on the brick floor and marks on the painted wood tell us what might happen to slaves who did not toil or spin scratches near the iron bars told the hours or days of confinement that disobedient slaves suffered the architecture and physical remnants here speak clearly of their times well after the mature family lost the plantation which was due to bad debt young grandson named tophill mortgaged everything he had during that severe depression prior to the civil war and so and by 1848 the plantation was seized from the black metwires and sold at a public auction a sheriff's sale and uh bought by a family named herzog frenchman and they lived here for the next 30 plus years and in 1884 the next story begins with the henry family that purchased melrose and in 1898 cammie garrett henry moves here with her husband john hampton henry and this cami was a lover of the arts and crafts and before you knew it melrose was one of the largest writers colonies in the south uh her friends among people like john steinbeck william faulkner arthur macarthur sherwood anderson but just come and live at melrose to work in the privacy and the quiet of the plantation here uh many of your southern writers that were responsible for what they call the southern renaissance lyle saxon the head of the writers project for many years he wrote all but one book here at melrose lived here over 12 years then too this was the home of american folk painter clementine hunter the third strong and talented woman whose story you can retrace at melrose places like this can say a lot if we'll stop on our journey down the highway long enough to listen here stories are told in the seeing as well the bell that called field hands the livery the great house that arose from nothing more than forest and river in melrose [Music] the people of alexandria must forgive us as we forgo the bigger cities on this trip south along highway 1 you can sometimes discern faded signs painted long ago on brick marksville's town square once sported a wholesome bread sign it seems before that and under it a drugstore advertisement the funny thing is the older undercoat is surfacing through the fresher paint whether it's a commentary on the quality of older paint we're not sure we are pretty sure the quaint is wasted on the young on the side of a landmark in mansura there is a jumble of signs painted over the years and over each other now the products they hawked are all vanity fading in the sun but still competing to catch your eye layer after layer this is a favorite old building this mortise dowager of mansura the town was named you know for a city in egypt some of the settlers had fought as soldiers with napoleon there it would be a fanciful stretch to compare this old landmark with the pyramids but it does look as permanent amid all the change we suffer in modern times the date 1904 was painted on it to last and it has double brick construction it must have been a bank banks were built like banks back then you just wonder then someone invariably comes by this day it was john roy he reports it was indeed a bank long ago people's bank was liquidated in 1914 by 1945 it was a saloon then the duran store the duran sign still clings to the brick along the way john roy says it was a laundromat too nothing really historic here nothing to report other than a personal advice that when in mansura stop by to feel its strength in the full summer sun there can be found in the deadest stones in these most ordinary landmarks the most alive colors and feel on the road against south far off highway one near hamburg we found a remarkable bridge remarkable in part because it still spans bayou deglaze around here they just call it the old iron bridge floods from the mississippi at chaffalaya and red rivers used to wash out the ordinary low wooden bridges here blocking evacuation in times of real peril the flood of 27 washed out an old store here the new ponchies store this newer model went up in 28. the iron bridge at sarto lane in big bend opened in 1916. no doubt too many hurrahs this bayou was once navigable to tall boats logging floats and steamers by 1930 it had dried up to this the steamers had dried up long before yet the bridge outlasted its use and its users the state reports there are about 20 of these bridges still standing historic sarto is 275 feet long and 11 feet wide one lane of traffic the span was the first bridge in the state listed on the national register of historic places and what a mechanical site it must have been in its day this whole section of bridge swung out to let the taller ships buy today it stands derelicted in the central louisiana sun more a victim of rain than heat iron always is it's a lovely spidery thing from the industrial age best seen at high noon when the dragonflies buzz around it given time nature will wisely adorn what we foolishly derelict along highway one nature travels with the visitor alongside and up close guiding you and bringing you closer to things you would never see if you took a road more traveled when was the last time you saw a cistern this one is in bartoloville highway one crosses the atchafalaya river at simsport this town too is known for an important battle in the campaign of yankee aggression taken north by union general nathaniel banks commerce is the prize now farming cane or cotton or corn or beans is stable all along the highways route but the patterns of commerce that made all these towns towns and made the road essential the patterns of commerce ebb and slide that's why old stores are so telling of the louisiana we've lost what you got let me see charles levi is cashing in on half a small sack of crawfish this is roland landry's store just one of the ordinary louisiana stores that will pay you for the crawfish you catch it's a common trade city folks don't see at landry's store you can see lots of things you wouldn't normally see like a three foot turtle mounted to a plank deer heads are mounted high throughout the one room store you can see live deer being fed by hand out back and you can usually see joyce landry here behind the counter in this landmark of let's work i have five children four boys and one girl five grandchildren and one great grandchild and uh we've been married 47 years and we've been in the store 57. miss joyce's in-laws started this store somewhere further off the road in letsworth then in 1946 they moved it here to the bigger road highway one you know we stay open seven days a week from six to 10 and that's no life in any old store you'll find older things like the fixtures this cash register is old but they haven't taken it away the floor is old the melons are fresh the wood is old and the smell is cypress and the company is familiar this is the gathering place for lets worthians like danny deshitel with time on their hands oh miss joyce works she she works and plays in this store you know she's been here a long time before i was here and i came here in 74 and she knows all the people around here she uh people who can't read or write she handles their business if they have bills they don't understand she they come here with them she pays them not a stranger walks in here anybody who walks in invited to dinner around dinner time and uh good place to pick up news black and white alike you know who knows who's sick too know you know just about everything about all their families knows all the daddies knows all the mamas and um this is her life when you meet a shopkeeper who's been in business this long there is always the question of how much longer she will be behind the counter miss joyce says she and mr landry will retire next year we are heartened to know they've been saying that for many years now we're just going to close it up i imagine oh rowan was talking about the first of the year so i don't know but he says that all the time every other year yeah he says that all the time so would you mind keeping it open for a while longer no well i'm so used to it it doesn't matter business might be better if more travelers along highway 1 would notice the old store unless you're from letsworth or simsport you might not even notice landry's store what's happened in the past couple of years is a convenience store has come up and they've installed a big metal fence between themselves and the older store that means motorists heading north here on la-1 might not notice the older one at all that doesn't seem fair that store's been there how long five years or longer about eight years and they built a fence but all of my customers know where i am and you'd be surprised that the uh business that the deer bring in everybody knows where the deer are and they always stop in landry's store antlers fill the shopping carts out back you're just behind the times if you've never heard of their deer farm well they know about the deer all over louisiana hello girl you asked anybody uh where that's worth is and uh they'll say no but do you know where the deer is and they'll say yeah so how much longer will the old places like this last well what does it matter asking when the time would be better spent visiting a road goes on this highway is not for stopping it's for moving it can take us to see all the smaller places while we still can and while there is still time in the day that's about as far as the day will take us to new roads appropriate because there are new things to see on the next leg of our journey on the road to the gulf maybe we stop too often to smell the sunflowers and hear the trains rumble and meet the people but isn't that just what they say about getting there it's more than half the fun it's also the best part of our search for a lost louisiana we'll meet again on the road let's travel [Music] um you