welcome to the future pbs digital [Music] hello and welcome to another edition of lost louisiana what's in a name part four i'm your host charlie winham for many years at lpb we have traveled the countryside looking for towns with unusual names and asked that simple question how did that town get their name this time out we set our sights on five louisiana communities towns like plain dealing bogalusa thibodeaux and eunice as well as the town i'm in right now appaloosa louisiana the zydeco music capital of the world and spice capital of louisiana [Music] but we begin with a community that has hosted some of the biggest names in the music industry for over 30 years that town is bogalusa louisiana bogalusa features one of the best music recording studios in the country and entertainers like stevie wonder jimmy buffett and gate mouth brown are just some of the stars to set foot in this paper mill town in washington parish there is a community with a factory in the city and a studio in the country welcome to bogalusa the mill town that understands the importance of paper as well as a little bit of gold and platinum but before we talk about tall pine trees and towering music stars how did bogalusa get its name well the story we hear is that it was an indian name from the area and the first settlers understood it to be boglussa and it was bogue it's two different words bogue lusa l-u-s-a and it would meant uh smoky or dark waters bogue is the creek part of it the water part of it and lusa was either smoky or dark part of it that's how it got its name and it was incorporated it's the only town with that name ever anywhere in the early 1900s the goodyear family of buffalo new york opened the great southern lumber company and built the largest sawmill in the world for that time the name bogalusa was trademarked and printed on every pine board this bogalusa lumber was well known across the country for its exceptional quality it was a tent city when they first started out here and it was a wild west town there's no two ways about it i mean the dogs ran loose the pigs ran loose there were shoot em ups and everything else that tent city would soon grow into a sophisticated jewel of the south the great southern lumber company with all the building supplies you could ever need built up bogalusa complete with a spectacular hotel known as the pine tree inn the company also built a hospital and business district at the highest point of land some of the most regal homes for their time sprouted out of the pine forest the residents were company executives and company doctors and even the mayor of bogalusa they wanted to feel like they were still in new york i guess with the wonderful houses because of the basements and everything highest point in the town they have basements but they wanted it to look beautiful and palatial even though they were out in the middle of the woods they tried to urbanize it i suppose at that time they wouldn't have used that word i don't think but they really did try to make it into something spectacular and it was under the direction of frank goodyear charles goodyear and mayor william sullivan the town of bogalusa grew from sixteen hundred residents in 1907 to over 15 000 by 1930. professional baseball also made its way through town mayor sullivan persuaded the st louis browns now the baltimore orioles to hold spring training in bogalusa back in 1921. this washington parish town also was the home to the bogalusa y tigers and played negro league teams across the south the y stands for ymca which was the first sponsor of the tigers players like babyface green dazzy vance and stumpy horn were recruited from colleges and high schools in neighboring states the general manager for the paper mill would give players a job paper put bogalusa on the map but some bogalusa natives are well known for what they've put down on paper pulitzer prize winning poet yusuf komunyaka was born in bogalusa and currently teaches at princeton university and in the world of music bogalusa is the birthplace of henry bird more commonly known as the legendary new orleans piano player professor longhair and the beat goes up just outside of town is a world-class recording facility called studio in the country built in the 70s studio in the country has recorded some of the biggest names in music the who's who of the recording industry has basically been through the studio from stevie wonder to willa nelson to blues traveler to marilyn manson louisiana larue the neville brothers dr john alan two saint pete fountain clifton chenier and of course gay mouth brown along these walls are gold and platinum albums recorded at studio in the country the biggest seller out of here was for the soundtrack dirty dancing selling at last count 27 million copies worldwide inside these walls jimmy buffett and the neville brothers worked side by side buffett along with blues traveler went multi-platinum here kansas recorded dust in the wind clifton chaneers recorded a grammy winner and so did gate mouth brown [Music] and perhaps this hit recorded here by louisiana larue rings a belt studio in the country has earned its spot as a top recording facility because in part it is one of the few studios built from the ground up visually it's an open room but sound wise you're able to isolate different instruments in an open area because of an acoustic trap system above and there are no right angles or parallel surfaces in the building it's the room itself anyone who has ever worked in here or even performed in here they just talk about it and you can see it come across their face and they get this gleam in their eye about oh yeah studio in the country we've been blessed with some of the best in the world recording in this studio and all have been happy and referred other clients to us and you know that's how the studio got the reputation that it has one hit that studio in the country could have done without is hurricane katrina the storm damaged the roof and part of the studio but repairs are near complete and the studio is scheduled to reopen this spring ready to continue where they left off it makes you feel real good to know that you've somebody in bogalusa louisiana has made an impact on the entire music world actually i mean really think about it if you look at that one award out there on dirty dancing the one that has all the flags on it each one of those flags represents a country that that record wouldn't platinum in now imagine that something coming out of bogalusa louisiana the country is scheduled to reopen soon and you might want to keep an eye out for a louisiana band making a name the group is the benjy davis project and they have recorded three cds so far at studio in the country if you get the chance give them a listen our next town we visit is eunice where music also plays a big role you could say it is the heart and soul of this prairie cajun community but just as important to the cajun culture is preserving that heritage whether that's in the form of creating a music museum to the preservation of a grand old theater or even having a grandfather pass on his skills of making an accordion to his grandson [Music] in the heart of cajun country is the town of eunice the saint landry parish community is also known as louisiana's prairie cajun capital so what's in a name and how did eunice get its name george emanuel of the eunice depot museum has the answer eunice was the name given to the founder of eunice and he named it after his second wife eunice eunice her name was eunice farr she came from a very wealthy family near spanish lake eunice was the second wife of land speculator cc doosan on one autumn day in 1894 sisi brought a train load of people to the site and auctioned off plots of land as the story goes it turned out to be quite a little party i remember hearing stories of oh yeah my grandma said they built a big fire and they started cooking gumbo and they fed the people they got him in a good mood then he got up on the flatbed and auctioned off the lots and of course by this time they're here they were interested enough to come and what they liked what they saw and the town of eunice was born this bronze statue of eunice was unveiled for the town's 100th anniversary and even though eunice only lived in the town bearing her name for less than a year the rest of the town folk began to cultivate the prairie cajun culture that has been passed down from generation to generation [Music] larry miller is a cajun musician and accordion maker he is also a founding member of the cajun french music association in 1997 the cfma opened the cajun music hall of fame dedicated to the men and women that created and preserved the cajun music culture and it's only fitting that a cornerstone to this hall of fame began with an accordion played by legendary musician aldis roger back in the 80s larry noticed an ad in the lafayette classifieds stating that the accordion was for sale i had promised mr roger that uh i was gonna it was gonna end up in the hall of fame it was really a catalyst to this museum huh that's exactly right it was what we call in french nishwar which is uh like the uh like like a dummy egg that you put in in the nest of a chicken nest and that motivates the other chickens to lay well this became our nishwar and it worked it's a very important historical presentation of these musicians who have who have developed and uh and recorded of the music that we now enjoy and if we don't if we don't get pictures and biographies and recordings and uh artifacts how how else would our succeeding generations after i'm dead gone and our my generation how will our future generations know that there was such a thing except for a few recordings passing the torch also includes passing down the skills of making melodian accordions and at larry's accordion workshop he's handing down this passion and knowledge to his grandson jay okay for 28 years i've built accordions and i'm in the process of retiring right now from accordion building uh my grandson was willing to take over the accordion building part so he's been with me for the last seven half eight years and so he knows what he's doing and he's uh and i've wheeled in my accordion label the bond cage and accordion label another cornerstone to the town of eunice is the old liberty theater this vaudeville and silent movie house was built in 1924 the city of eunice purchased and renovated the theater in the 80s did you come to this theater as a child oh absolutely in fact when we came here to start the renovation people were all excited about it and wondering about it so they would wander in and out and so they say oh this is my seat right here and said great listen take the gum out your gum out from under the seat this is the second oldest operating theater in louisiana that is included in the national trust guide on great american movie houses the two surprisingly enough that fall behind it are the sanger in new orleans and the strand in shreveport the orpheum is the oldest in the world you have a player piano in here that you could spend all day just looking at that could you absolutely it is the original uh instrument that was played in the orchestra pit at the time and by the original owners of their white his wife and she accompanied the silent movies um there's an energy here that you really can't reproduce in a new theater it's sort of the spirit lives on of everything that's happened here the liberty center is now the showcase to a weekly cajun music radio and tv show known as rendezvous day cajuns it has been described as part louisiana hayride and part prairie home companion tell me about the saturday night shows here well the saturday night shows are extremely well known we've got folks from all over the united states have come it's been going on since the 80s there are bands uh different music different cajun bands new young and upcoming bands and old traditional bands that are famous that come here and play at very reduced fees because it's a great honor to come here and barry also generally serves dr barry on sale from ull is generally the master of ceremonies and he has all that great knowledge of the cajun culture and he's comical and addresses the crowd and the crowd interacts and there's dancing and all of that it's just a great fun thing the spring of 2007 will mark the 1 000th performance of rendezvous occasions it's a way of life once you play you play and it can be a very happy happy happy medium it can be a very sad medium it's not like beer guzzling honky tonk music that just says my girl stole my truck and left me you know this was this was so i mean this was truly sad some of the some of the songs and all but it was like it was a way of passing history on when they sang the song so they they kept it and now there are thousands of cajun musicians and some of them are so good some of them are 14 years old and they sound like they play music from the 1900s it's unreal but it it's kind of like the glue that holds it all together [Music] when the liberty theater was built in 1924 it was hailed as southwest louisiana's premier temple of amusement now eunice is also the home to the world championship crawfish etouffee cook-off in march and the prairie cajun folklife festival in october for more information on louisiana's prairie cajun capital you can go online at wwe we are at the halfway mark and we have three more towns to go when we come back we will meet up with a group of plain dealing people in northwest louisiana we'll also head down bayou lafourche to the town of thibodeau and of course we'll find out more about this town appaloosa you're watching lost louisiana what's in a name part four on louisiana public broadcasting [Music] welcome back to lost louisiana what's in a name part four i'm your host charlie winham i'm in the town of appaloosa louisiana it was founded in 1720 and is louisiana's third oldest city for nine months during the civil war appaloosas was the capital of louisiana the city is comprised of many cultures each with unique histories some of those stories are preserved in local cemeteries but the spice of life rings throughout appaloosa's today because this town is also home to one of the most popular spice companies created by a man named [Music] is a cultural gumbo that is home to many famous people rich historical treasures and one of the most popular spices ever made during the late 17th century french explorers arrived to this area once occupied by native americans which is how appaloosas got its name probably from the original american native inhabitants the alpalosis indians which means blackfoot black leg and linguistically they were part of the attacker paul's that's how the name has arrived now the name itself apologist probably goes back to i would say 1720 1719 but then when they're talking apalucis it could be the indian tribe and a very nebulous entity we begin our story at the saint landry church cemetery with former president of the louisiana preservation alliance ed dubasson you grew up in appaloosa yeah this was a playground for you well not a playground exactly we went to i went to school over here and we'd walk home after school and always cut through the cemetery i found it fascinating all these old tombs ed and his childhood friends would wander around the tombs some go back over 200 years we tried to find the oldest tomb and we were always fascinated by the line and the lamb over here and i later learned that the lion was my great great great great grandfather he was governor louisiana jacques duprey the former governor is represented by the lion while his wife has the lamb over her grave legend has it the pair did not get along in their later years of marriage and that only in death would the lion and the lamb sleep beside each other in peace another interesting marker looks more like a marble table and it belongs to a former general in napoleon's army he later made louisiana his home it's actually for general godrig deflojak general flozak had served in napoleon's army and gradually made his way down to louisiana he was actually shipwrecked at one time made its way down to louisiana and saw the opportunities in the opposite area james doge also invited us to take a look at one of the first residences in appaloosa's the michelle prudhomme house so this is the oldest house in appaloosa's there's nothing fancy about it in fact uh i like to tell people that times of bad weather when the prudhams were raising longhorn cattle they would actually bring the cattle inside the first floor for protection when i go upstairs and i look at the little sitting still made from the horns of the cattle they were well known for raising longhorn cattle there's lots of memories in this old house and i think there might be more than one product still walking around from yesteryear and bringing yesteryear to life is in the able hands of 84 year old artist j.a allen j a is known for his thousands of sketches of the appaloose landscape and buildings over the centuries many of those st landry parish buildings no longer exist you really enjoyed well really i really i'm that it makes me really happy to sit down and do something that's creative you know it's just in my blood one of his most popular works is a cajun coloring book that teaches children french but thanks to j.a he gave his hometown an identity that is seen everywhere i designed the appaloosa city seal and it it's been printed probably millions of times the police department the sheriff's department the fire department they all use that uh seal on their uniforms so i'm really proud of the appaloosa cedar seal and that's my legacy for the city of appaloosa's appaloosa city seal the city seal is not the only successful branding of appaloosas take this hugely popular spice called tony sachery's original creole seasoning known by many simply as tony's this spice was created in appaloosa's by legendary insurance salesman and recreational chef tony sachery his oldest grandson don now oversees the business he loved to cook that was his passion that hunting and fishing and selling he had a lot of passions a lot of people don't realize if you look at the little caricature on the man it's a caricature of my grandfather and it's a little small caricature but what you don't realize the man behind that caricature is nothing but small he's six foot three 220 pounds he was a big man even at the age of 89. uh he was a very lovable character because you whenever you saw him he always had a great big grin and that made him a master salesman he was uh he's in the equitable hall of fame for being one of the best producers for life insurance he was a great salesman the town of appaloosa's boasts a laundry list of famous people some of the folks that are part of the appaloosa's hall of fame include zydeco musicians clifton chenier and rock and sydney simeon cooking legends enola and paul prudhomme even legendary jim bowie the man who popularized the bowie knife called appaloosa's home he lived in the area for nearly 20 years bowie served as a co-commander of the texan forces at the alamo and died at the battle scene along with davy crockett at age 39. the story of appaloosas cannot be said in just a matter of minutes what makes this area special is not simply the diverse cultures or rich history it is also the scores of residents who strive to discover and preserve these family stories for future generations so as you can see it's still a work in progress as genealogy is you're still digging and working and that's the good part with appaloosis being the third oldest city we have the graveyards here we have the courthouse with all the probates it's one of the early urban nodes where you know this point of european civilization started and again we have to look at the topography the people the very unique culture we have here and it's unlike any other place in the united states [Music] good night good night [Music] the tony sachery product line has grown what once started with containers of tony's creole seasoning has now heated up to feature over a hundred items in their latest catalog you can get everything from turducken to frozen dinners and stuffing you can even order a tony sachery stainless steel smoker our next stop takes us down bayou lafourche and the town of thibodeau now thiboda was a town that was fit for a spanish queen even though she never ended up there now some of the residents of thibodeau consider their town the prettiest neatest and friendliest little city in southern louisiana and they make a strong case if you did not grow up in louisiana or had some background in french the pronunciation of this lafourche parish town would be impossible when i was in the army they would say fibidox they couldn't pronounce the word at all i once heard somebody describe thibodeau as a city of schools and churches and boasts and lounges the origins of the thibodaux way of life begins with bayou lafourche a 100-mile stretch of water that forks off the mississippi river in donelsonville and leads into the gulf of mexico thibodeaux is roughly halfway down the bayou it is known as the queen city of lafourche as well as the town where yesterday welcomes tomorrow we were welcomed by thibodeau native gibbons robo show gibbons what's in a name how did thibodeaux get its name henry scarlett hebrew tifano back in the early 1800's yeah he ended up over here like all spanish and french people he ended up over here and i think you think he the bayou bayou terrebonne and bayou lafourche is what attracted him and a lot of people to this area there wasn't any sugar cane then but they saw that the value of the land where they could plant things you know and the two buyers for trade and that's how homer and thibodeaux came about and you know who henry scott is he's ken yeah i wish i could have met him because he's my great great great grandfather the town of thibodeau also welcomed spanish royalty almost over 200 years ago queen maria luisa of spain built ryanzi legend has it that this home was built as a retreat for the queen during the french revolution the queen did not move in but it would later be the home to founder henry thibodeau and back in those days of the early 1800s bayou lafourche was a much busier and wider waterway this bayou back in the day was really the super highway of its day exactly if you talk about buy a bayou they got plenty of bayous in louisiana but by the fish is probably the longest and was the most popular and when i take you to the cathedral you're going to flip over because you're going to see things that they brought down on barges from europe down the by lafourche for that cathedral i mean the the pillars weighed five thousand pounds a piece and they came down the body [Music] the same year the beatles debuted on ed sullivan gibbons robo show began playing at the saint joseph co-cathedral during those 43 years robus show estimates he's played 1500 funerals and about 500 weddings this ornate sanctuary was considered the most expensive rural church in louisiana costing nearly half a million dollars in 1920. this rose window in the rear of the church is modeled after the cathedral of notre dame in paris [Music] art history and thibodeau come together with the help of painter billy leday his works of the ryanzi as well as cajun still life can be seen at one popular thibodeau eatery the day loves bringing thibodeaux history back to life what's not typical is billy's way of showing off his grandchildren thanks to an idea from his wife his seven grandkids adorned the family dining room i would take pictures of the grandchildren when they were about maybe a year old or something like that and do the chairs bodies and put their faces and if you notice in the paintings they they go by the first one who's standing there with his arm up and he's got one finger the next one has two fingers three fingers all the way down to our seven grandchildren today leday's work is also highly regarded outside of his family when it came time for nicholls state university to commission an artist to paint the first and only portrait of namesake francis t nichols the school hired leday francis t nichols was governor of louisiana twice the left arm missing in the portrait is from the time of the civil war francis t nichols was a confederate general and fought in the civil war and lost his left arm and part of his foot in the battle how many students at 10 nickel state almost 7 thousand we're now a selective admissions institution we were previously an open admissions institution and we draw students from baton rouge lafayette new audience that triangle thibodeaux is home to nicholls state university first opened in 1948 as a two-year institute the school is sometimes referred to as harvard on the bayou nicholls state is the home to the john fuls culinary institute and has many distinguished alumni including julie a bear television producer of such acclaimed shows as er and the west wing barry malonson president and ceo of the 350 000 member american institute of certified public accountants as well as actor and new orleans radio personality john spud mcconnell and of course having nickels just adds to it because we have cultural programs and sports and i think it adds life and spice to the city of thibodeau thibodeau town folk take great pride not just in their university they also take pride in their families they also hold dear to their religious heritage of all faiths and why you came down here you came right here because you were fascinated with the name right that's it with the name now you're finding out why it's such a popular place [Music] thibodeau has one of the largest volunteer fire departments in the country and every spring they hold the firemen's fare and parade that draws roughly 50 000 people every summer hundreds of youngsters rushed to nicholls state university for the manning passing academy led by archie manning and his two nfl quarterback sons eli and payton next we move on to a small unassuming town in the northwest corner of louisiana named plain dealing back in the 1830s a virginia family settled about 30 miles north of shreveport and built a large plantation along the red river and just like the red river the 167 year old story of plain dealing has its fair share of twists and turns in northwest louisiana there is a town full of plain dealing churches and preachers as well as plain dealing police even a plane dealing business district complete with a plane dealing tooth doctor what else would you expect for a town known simply as plain dealing louisiana so what's in a name for some answers step inside for a little food for thought dell kitty and annie lou are more than happy to help kitty from what i'm hearing your partner you're a good local historian to the area how did plain dealing get its name there was a fling dealing plantation that was called that it was after the plantation home of the gilmer's back in virginia and what we were told as children growing up and and this may be myth or legend but the the name plane d-lane we were told referred to the fair treatment of slaves on the plantation george gilmer the man who built the plain dealing plantation in 1839 was also said to run his business in a plain dealing and honest manner the plantation homes of george or that of his son james no longer exists all that is left behind a few black and white pictures of the sun's plantation home known as orchard place what does remain 167 years later is a small town of about eleven hundred people that still hold true to their golden rule name every day of her plain dealing life andy lou giles treats others the way she'd like to be treated from her downtown restaurant the walls of this cafe are decorated with historic pictures and artifacts supplied by thankful customers over the years giles snack shop also known as annie lose by the locals boasts some of the best home cooking in the state featuring plate lunches hamburgers and awesome coconut cream pie this is the place where plain dealing people greet meet and eat it's not that we have that big of a business we just have the traffic everybody comes here they may not eat or drink nothing but they gonna come visit and some of them still have today but that's fine that's what i'm here for i'm not here for just the dollar i'm here for my friends because they mean everything to me this must be a great place to catch up on things yes and the men say the women gossip in the beauty shop but they don't gossip like the man does in the coffee shop can also talk about some of the wilder times right across the street from annie lews is currently an insurance office but back in 1933 gunshots rang out on february 6 at the first state bank gang leader charlie frazier did not capture national attention like babyface nelson but he and his gang did make headlines in plain dealing deputy j.l butler shot in the bank window and killed one of the bank robbers frazier was caught a few days later and uh from my understanding someone happened to look in the bank window through the window and they saw the bank was being robbed so a deputy was in town usually you can look around here now you're going to see a deputy somewhere i understand he was standing on the street there was shots fired and the robbers came out but the story gets better charlie frazier made a getaway and got lost and when they got turned around they didn't know where they were at but they came right back through town with the second shootout that's right charlie frazier with a poor exit strategy got caught up in a second shootout in town before finally being caught a few days later in caddo paris but i remember going there and see one of the bandits was shot and i remember looking through the plate last winter and there was a little hole where the deputy sheriff had shot this bandit 86-year-old clark strahan is a lifelong plane dealer seven handicapped golfer and retired he worked 51 years in sales for a paper manufacturer in shreveport one of his secrets to success he could tell people he was just a plain dealing salesman i would go to conventions all over the united states and i might be up in new york and somebody would say well where are you from clark i'd say well i'm from near shreveport and they said well what's the name of your place i said well this uh you never heard of it before but it's from a little town called plain daily and boy that would immediately get their attention clark had another attention getter back in 1993 the saturn motor company put out a sales brochure and plane dealing was featured along with other unusually named u.s cities the brochure featured chance oklahoma as well as harmony california they evidently were looking for times with odd names and certainly plain dealing qualified because it is odd name it's the only time i ever heard of in the world they're playing daily back at annie lou's my new friends fill me in about another nearby community that could only happen in louisiana it's about another community located close to plain dealing it's a community called swindleville swindleville i've always heard it was actually in believe it or not ripley's believe it or not that there was a town called plain dealing and a few miles south there was another town called swindleville but there was back in the early 1900s clark strahan's father owned a dry goods store just outside of swindleville and clark can vouch for the swindle family and the swindles were good people yes they were they weren't cheaters or swindlers they no that's right swindles were good people they were real high class people plain dealing residents may relish the simple life but there is nothing plain about the town cemetery these headstorms were imported from italy they're marvel these of the gilmer family the gilmore family was the founders of the town of plain dealing and their plantation set right joining the cemetery here so this land was donated from the gilmers as a cemetery i always think this is the founding fathers laying here they they are due all the respect we wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the gilmers you can walk around this cemetery and you're going to see there's people from everywhere lots of texas people buried in here that lived here and then moved off and came back if you ever lived here you're probably going to be buried here you always come back here to be buried it was true for the gilmer family one of the richest families in the country for their time they made the old plantation property their final resting place right across the dirt path is another family plot they just got stuck with that name uh they couldn't help that their last name was swindle it was not swindleville swindleville came from their name and was put on the end and made a settlement or a small town south of plainbilly as far as i know and never heard anything different the swindles were really good people and basically like the gilmores they helped a lot of people playing dealing has some of the nicest people you will ever meet and believe it or not there was even a wynnum family in plain dealing that ran a dry goods store in the mid 1900s but they spelled their name differently from my family so we don't think there's any relation nonetheless people in plain dealing treat you like family i hope you've enjoyed our storytelling with this edition of lost louisiana by the way back here in appaloosa's folks hold wonderful cemetery tours filled with all sorts of voices from the past proceeds from the tours fund the cemetery restoration project i recommend you come on down this way if you have the chance for everyone here at lpb thank you for watching and i hope to see you again for another edition of lost louisiana such a beautiful historic cemetery