Largest
cypress in parish gets recognition
By Wes Helbling
Posted
Mar 06, 2012 @ 11:30 AM
Last
update Mar 13, 2012 @ 01:37 PM
BASTROP —
Harvey Stern came to Morehouse Parish
over the weekend to see a castle that predates the state of Louisiana, possibly
by centuries.
Stern, who is the coordinator of the Louisiana
Purchase Cypress Legacy program, said he became interested in visiting
Chemin-A-Haut Creek after finding a description of its “large, old-growth
cypress” trees in a topographical map of Louisiana. “The Castle” he came to
document is an approximately 20-foot-diameter cypress tree in the middle of the
creek, with a hollow cavern large enough to paddle canoes and kayaks inside.
“It’s such a unique tree,” said Stern.
“It’s exactly the kind we’re looking for – the kind that shows there’s still
some old growth worth preserving in Louisiana.”
On Saturday, Chemin-A-Haut State Park
Manager Russ Brantley and paddler Joe Rolfe of Oak Ridge took Stern to the
Castle to measure its circumference and took core samples. He said it may take
a few days for the samples to dry out so that a “guesstimate” can be made as to
the tree’s age by comparing the number of rings to the Castle’s radius.
A tributary of Bayou Bartholomew,
Chemin-A-Haut Creek was overlooked by the 19th timber industry and today boasts
some of the oldest and largest cypress trees in Louisiana. Some of the most
impressive trees have gained nicknames from local paddlers, such as
twin-trunked “Jester” and the storm-felled “Blowdown.”
Stern said high water in the creek, and
the tree’s hollow buttress, posed special challenges for Saturday’s attempt to
determine the Castle’s age. However, its enormous girth was enough for Stern to
present Brantley with a plaque that will be affixed to the Castle, designating
it as the sixth tree in Louisiana that was “Alive in 1812,” the year of
Louisiana’s statehood.
“Based on other trees I’ve cored, I have
a pretty good idea it’s several centuries old,” he said. “It’s old enough to be
a [Louisiana] Bicentennial tree. The question is, how many centuries do you add
to that?”
Other cypress trees that will be
included in the Bicentennial project are located in Tickfaw State Park, Jean
Lafitte National Park and sites in Plaquemines and Webster parishes.
A number of ancient cypress trees have
already been designated throughout the state by the Legacy program, which marks
trees that were living at the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Recently,
a tree examined in Washington Parish was found to be roughly 800 years old. The
largest bald cypress in the U.S., with a 53-foot circumference, is located in
Louisiana’s Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Harvey Stern came to Morehouse Parish over the weekend to see a
castle that predates the state of Louisiana, possibly by centuries.
Stern, who is the coordinator of the Louisiana Purchase Cypress
Legacy program, said he became interested in visiting Chemin-A-Haut Creek after
finding a description of its “large, old-growth cypress” trees in a
topographical map of Louisiana. “The Castle” he came to document is an
approximately 20-foot-diameter cypress tree in the middle of the creek, with a
hollow cavern large enough to paddle canoes and kayaks inside.
“It’s such a unique tree,” said Stern. “It’s exactly the kind
we’re looking for – the kind that shows there’s still some old growth worth
preserving in Louisiana.”
On Saturday, Chemin-A-Haut State Park Manager Russ Brantley and
paddler Joe Rolfe of Oak Ridge took Stern to the Castle to measure its
circumference and took core samples. He said it may take a few days for the samples
to dry out so that a “guesstimate” can be made as to the tree’s age by
comparing the number of rings to the Castle’s radius.
A tributary of Bayou Bartholomew, Chemin-A-Haut Creek was
overlooked by the 19th timber industry and today boasts some of the oldest and
largest cypress trees in Louisiana. Some of the most impressive trees have
gained nicknames from local paddlers, such as twin-trunked “Jester” and the
storm-felled “Blowdown.”
Stern said high water in the creek, and the tree’s hollow buttress,
posed special challenges for Saturday’s attempt to determine the Castle’s age.
However, its enormous girth was enough for Stern to present Brantley with a
plaque that will be affixed to the Castle, designating it as the sixth tree in
Louisiana that was “Alive in 1812,” the year of Louisiana’s statehood.
“Based on other trees I’ve cored, I have a pretty good idea it’s
several centuries old,” he said. “It’s old enough to be a [Louisiana]
Bicentennial tree. The question is, how many centuries do you add to that?”
Other cypress trees that will be included in the Bicentennial
project are located in Tickfaw State Park, Jean Lafitte National Park and sites
in Plaquemines and Webster parishes.
A number of ancient cypress trees have already been designated throughout
the state by the Legacy program, which marks trees that were living at the time
of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Recently, a tree examined in Washington
Parish was found to be roughly 800 years old. The largest bald cypress in the
U.S., with a 53-foot circumference, is located in Louisiana’s Cat Island
National Wildlife Refuge.
Stern said he has previously designated a cypress tree in
Morehouse Parish, closer to the Arkansas line, that is believed to be “well
over 500 years old.” This tree is located in what “as beautiful a stand of
old-growth cypress as I’ve seen anywhere in the state. You can’t get a bass
boat through that part of the bayou because the trees are so thick.”
Stern said formal recognition of the Castle may also enhance state
and local projects to establish and promote paddle trails in both Bartholomew
and Chemin-A-Haut. Based on a visit to Morehouse Parish last fall, river guide
John Ruskey notes the cypress trees “monolithically reaching to the sky” in his
paddle guide to Chemin-A-Haut Creek.
Ruskey writes, “Trees this big are at least 1,000 years old … They
saw Hernando de Soto, La Salle, the rise of the French Empire and the sale of
the Louisiana Purchase. They lived through the birth of the American West, the
Civil and the Industrial Age. If not logged or submerged they will outlive us
all ...”
When Stern has determined an estimated age for the Castle based on
the core samples, its location and data will be catalogued on the LPCL Web site
(www.lapurchasecypresslegacy.net).
Plans are also in the works for a Web site dedicated to the “Alive
in 1812” Bicentennial trees.
