New Orleans tours

Revisiting the St. John Cathedral Oak – Lafayette

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A Brief Review of The Live Oak Society…
In 1934, Dr. Edwin Lewis Stephens, first president of Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) proposed the creation of an organization made up entirely of the largest and oldest live oak trees in Louisiana. His vision was that the organization’s membership would include trees whose size and age made them significant cultural and natural resources, worth identifying and preserving for future generations to enjoy.

From his orientation as a scholar and writer, Stephens recognized the deeper truth of this Southern icon, the live oak symbolically reflects the most distinctive characteristics of the cultures and people that settled this rich alluvial area: strength of character, forbearance, longevity, and a hearty nature.

Beginning with just 43 inductee oaks in 1934, the Live Oak Society’s roster of member oaks now counts more than 9900 registered trees across 14 southeastern U.S. states. In the Lafayette area, there were 12 oaks among the original 43 charter members. Today, more than a thousand oaks in the Lafayette area are listed on the society’s registry.

The Cathedral Oak – Lafayette  

Cathedral Oak with original fence

Photo of Cathedral Oak by Dr. Stephens, circa the early 1930s

The St. John Cathedral Oak is probably the most well-known live oak in the Lafayette area. It is the second vice president of the Live Oak Society and was one of the society’s 43 original member trees. Some estimates place the tree’s age at more than 450 years old. The distinguished oak is located on the grounds of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on St. John Street in old downtown Lafayette.

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St. John Cathedral Oak and Cathedral, late afternoon

In 1821, Jean Mouton, an Acadian refugee, and owner of a large plantation named Vermilionville, donated the land on which the oak grows to the church parish. According to the cathedral’s website, the first pastor (Michel Bernard Barriere) may have requested this specific site from Mouton because of the towering live oak tree located there.

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Cathedral Oak, Sunday afternoon light

According to Dr. Stephens, the oak was measured in 1929 with a circumference of 19 feet. In May 2008, local arborist Jim Foret measured the oak. The circumference was 28 feet 8 inches, it was 126 feet tall and had a crown spread of 210 feet. In May 2015, Foret measured the circumference again at 29 feet 6 inches. Foret says that old live oaks ordinarily grow much slower than this, but the soil around the Cathedral Oak received significant nurturing in the past two decades and that may have caused the growth surge. In the 1990s, a parking lot was moved away from the tree and in 1995 a protective fence was added to reduce foot traffic and protect the tree’s extensive root system.

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Cathedral Oak, morning light

The Cathedral Oak was well known to Dr. Stephens and he posed for several photographs in front of the oak during his tenure at SLI. He and his wife Beverly made frequent driving trips through the Acadiana back roads in search of notable live oaks. To their visiting guests, he was known for his “Live Oak Trail” tours where he would share some of his favorite old trees and groves across the Acadiana countryside. The Cathedral Oak was always at the top of his oak tour list. Many of his photographs documenting these trips can be found online at the Louisiana Digital Library under Southwestern Louisiana Institute Photographs, 1923-1940.

Next… Revisiting the Two Cleveland Oaks – at Avery Island and Jefferson Island.  

Leighton Plantation Oaks

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(The Leighton Plantation Oaks are located at 1801-1811 LA Hwy. 1 (St. Mary Street) about 2.5 miles north of downtown Thibodaux. The oaks are on the property between Leighton Road and Leighton Quarters Road. Turn onto Leighton Quarters Road to get the best view of the trees. The oaks range in age and size, the oldest and largest dating back to the early 1800s. There is a historic marker to Leonidas Polk at the St. Johns Episcopal Church in Thibodaux, and another (small and on the roadside) about a hundred feet north of the Leighton Quarters Road on the west side of Hwy 1.)

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Oaks in front of current home at Leighton

There is a story that 22 of the oaks at Leighton Plantation belonged to the King of Spain in the late 1700s. As the story goes, the land grant for the property contained a stipulation that the King of Spain (Charles IV) could claim these “Royal Oaks” whenever he needed them for construction and repair of his royal navy. At the time, Spain was at war with England (1796–1808), and the wood from Louisiana’s live oaks was known worldwide to be strong enough to deflect an English cannonball.

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Leighton Oaks and back entry road to home

In the early 1800s, Leighton Plantation was owned by Leonidas Polk (April 10, 1806 – June 14, 1864), an Episcopal Bishop and American Confederate General. Polk was a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (1827). After graduation from West Point, he received special permission to resign his new commission in the U.S. Army and attend the Virginia Theological Seminary where he was ordained as an Episcopal priest. He went on to become Missionary Bishop of the Southwest in 1838 and was elected Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana in 1841.

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Oak grove behind the home, Leighton Plantation

Bishop Polk established Leighton Plantation to be closer to his work as he frequently traveled between Thibodaux and New Orleans where he administered the Louisiana Episcopal Diocese from Christ Cathedral, New Orleans’ first Protestant Episcopalian church. During his tenure as bishop, he personally established St. Johns Episcopal Church in Thibodaux, Christ Church in Napoleonville, the Church of the Ascension in Donaldsonville, the Church of the Holy Communion in Plaquemine, and Trinity Church in Natchitoches. Through his crusading evangelical efforts, the Protestant Episcopal religion made a significant foothold in the predominantly Roman Catholic Louisiana.

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Historic roadside marker for Leonidas Polk

Bishop Polk strongly believed in states’ rights and that the South was a “distinct cultural entity.” So after Louisiana seceded from the Union in January of 1861 and the Civil War began, he resigned as Bishop of Louisiana and took command of Confederate forces in western Tennessee. His most notable contribution to the Army of Tennessee was his calm ability to inspire confidence and religious beliefs, earning him the nickname, the “Fighting Bishop.” Polk was killed in battle in June 1864 at Pine Mountain, Georgia.

This is a mirror post from the Lafourche Live Oak Tour – which was created through the generous support of the Bayou Lafourche Convention & Visitors Bureau. View more of this blog site and share it with friends at www.liveoaktour.com.

The Lafourche Historic Live Oak Tour

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New Hope Plantation Oak, Matthews, LA

Dear readers, I’ve been hard at work on an entirely separate (but equal) blog site that grew out of my work on the 100 Oaks Project. In August, I was awarded a grant through the Bayou Lafourche Convention and Visitors Bureau to create a self-guided driving tour of the historic oaks along Bayou Lafourche.

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General P.G.T Beauregard Oak, 20 ft. 2 in. in girth, located on LA Hwy. 1, at the E.D. White Memorial Home site.

For this grant project, I’m photographing historic live oaks around the parish and writing about the history of the people and events that have occurred around these old oaks for a website and brochure. I’m also creating and posting “waymarker signs” (like the image above) that will be located close to the oaks’ locations, near the two main highways that run on either side of Bayou Lafourche (LA Hwy. 1 and Hwy. 308).

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Boudreaux Oak, 29 ft. 2 in. in girth, located near the community of St. Charles, LA Hwy 1

These way-marker signs will have numbers that a visitor can follow using a brochure, or the Tour website. The brochures and website will contain photographs of the trees (like those above) and provide a brief explanation of the significance of their location to the history of the parish. Visitors can take a self-guided driving tour along Bayou Lafourche and learn about the history of the parish through the location of our historic live oaks.

I will begin mirror-posting the Live Oak Tour site pages here, on the 100 Oaks Project site, since they are all part of the same work.  Enjoy!  And if you’d like to see the other site in its entirety, just go to https://liveoaktour.com.

Jamie Oak, Hwy. 308, near Thibodaux

Revisiting the Lorenzo Dow Oak

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Lorenzo Dow Oak in the rain, Grangeville Masonic Lodge grounds, 35′-8″ girth

Since moving to Bayou Lafourche last December, I regularly consult with the two old oaks in our front yard over photographic work matters. (Cyndi likes to say that I left the corporate world and now I’m employed full-time by the oak trees.) Crazy? Maybe. But the ideas I get when talking to the old oaks are at least as good as those from some of the human supervisors I’ve had over the years.

Last Saturday morning, after checking in with the front-yard oaks and the weather app on my phone, we decided to brave the impending thunderstorms and make a two-hour drive to Grangeville, LA, a postage-stamp-sized town near the Amite River just north and west of Pine Grove. Our objective was to re-photograph the Lorenzo Dow Oak (see my previous blog entry), a 35-foot-plus girth oak located on the grounds of the historic Grangeville Masonic Lodge.

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Lorenzo Dow Oak, panoramic view, study 5

Threatening rain or not, we hit the road and arrived at Grangeville just as the first drops began to fall. I made a flurry of photos, trying to hold my baseball cap over my camera’s wide angle lens to shield it from rain, with a fair amount of success. Since August 2015 when I first photographed the Lorenzo Dow Oak, the Grangeville Masonic Lodge members have cleared away the undergrowth that obscured the trunk and main limbs of the old oak,  revealing the full profile of this huge tree. At 35 ft. 8 in. in girth, this little-known oak is tied with the Randall Oak in New Roads as the second largest and oldest of live oaks in Louisiana.

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Lorenzo Dow Oak, infrared black and white study 1

An interesting side note about this tree that I discovered after my 2015 visit: The Lorenzo Dow Oak was registered tree #261 with the Live Oak Society (LOS). This was probably sometime after 1963, when the LOS became active again after a dormant period of about 16-17 years. Dr. Edwin Lewis Stephens acted as secretary of the Society until his death in November 1938. At that time, his list of member trees included 57 oaks. In 1945, Stanley C. Arthur, executive director of the Louisiana State Museum, assumed responsibility for record keeping, admission of new tree members and continued measurements of tree growth.

In the  Live Oak Society Bulletin, a hand-typed newsletter he produced, Mr. Arthur added another 62 oaks to Dr. Stephens’ registry, including their names, locations, measurements and sponsors. This brought the total of member oaks to 119. In that list, there is an oak named the Dr. E.O. Powers Oak, also located in Grangeville, LA. So, it’s possible the Lorenzo Dow Oak was in the first 119 oaks on the Society registry under a different name and with a different sponsor but was renamed and re-registered 20 years later.

In 1957, the Louisiana Garden Club Federation assumed record keeping responsibility for the Society; and since then the secretary/chairmanship and record keeping responsibilities have passed on continually, slowing adding to the now 8,000-plus roster of senior and junior member live oaks.

Edna Szymoniak Oak (Hammond) and Lorenzo Dow Oak (Grangeville)

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Oaks east of Acadiana
It was while working on the photographs of Trees Acadiana’s top 10 live oaks that I had the inspiration to extend my search from Acadiana to include the largest and oldest live oaks I could locate across Louisiana.

Edna Szymoniak Oak—Number 3 on my 30-something list is the Edna Szymoniak Oak, located at the entrance to the LSU AgCenter Hammond Research Center. Nestled in pine and oak woods about six miles from the city of Hammond, at 21549 Old Covington Highway, the station covers approximately 150 acres of research gardens. It is a beautiful example of a well-cared-for old oak. Its location makes it easy for Research Center visitors to view and it receives the regular protection and care of the AgCenter’s knowledgeable staff.

At 35 ft. 6 inches in circumference, I feel the Edna Szymoniak Oak probably gets far less recognition than it deserves as one of Louisiana’s oldest and largest live oaks. Not much is known about its history prior to the establishment of the Hammond Ag Center, but in this area of the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain, there are numerous ancient live oaks, including the Seven Sisters Oak in Mandeville. In a recent Times Picayune article of historic live oaks within a short distance of New Orleans, the Edna Oak wasn’t even included.

Edna Szymoniak Oak, 35′-6″; Hammond, LA

The Edna Szymoniak oak is named after the wife of Boleslaus “Bill” Szymoniak, the first superintendent of the research center station. (From their website) “Established in 1922 as the Fruit and Truck Experiment Station, the LSU AgCenter Hammond has traditionally served the strawberry and vegetable industries.

Today, the AgCenter’s focus is landscape horticulture, including plant selection, fertility, weed control and plant growth regulators. Scientists evaluate more than 500 ornamental plants per year and each spring and fall release a list of “Super Plants” that grow well in all parts of Louisiana.

Edna Szymoniak Oak, study #2

Lorenzo Dow Oak—The next oak on my list has an interesting story connected to its name—the Lorenzo Dow Oak, located near Grangeville, LA.

Lorenzo Dow Oak study; 36′-8″; Grangeville, LA

The oak is named after Lorenzo Dow, who (according to Wikipedia) was an eccentric itinerant American preacher who lived between 1777 and 1834. He reportedly preached to more people than any other preacher of his time. Dow traveled widely around the U.S. preaching “against atheism, deism, Calvinism and Universalism.” Though he lived like a pauper, traveling mostly on foot with only the clothes on his back and a box of bibles, Dow was also a successful author. His autobiography was at one time the second most-read book, exceeded only by the bible.

Lorenzo Dow Oak, Masonic Lodge Oak 2 and corner of lodge building.

Dow traveled to this part of the South in 1803–1804 and probably preached in or near the Grangeville area. His dramatic fire-and-brimstone evangelical preaching style (he shouted, screamed, begged, flattered, cried and challenged his listeners and their beliefs) drew crowds wherever he spoke. His wide influence and popularity resulted in many children of this period being named after him as well as this ancient oak.

Lorenzo Dow Oak, black-and-white infrared study.

Because he was often unwelcome in churches, Dow would preach wherever he could—in town halls, farmers’ barns, open fields and possibly even under the overhanging branches of these two old oaks.

Lorenzo Dow Oak in rain

The sprawling and partially overgrown Lorenzo Dow Oak is located on the grounds of the Grangeville Masonic Lodge #231, along with a second neighboring oak that is 27 feet 11 inches in girth.

The lodge is one of the oldest Masonic groups in Louisiana, with a membership that dates back to 1889, and a lodge building that was originally constructed in the 1930s (and is currently being restored).

This oak was especially challenging to find since its location on the Live Oak Society registry was simply “East Feliciana.” Grangeville is actually in St. Helena Parish, a few miles west of Pine Grove in a northeastern corner of Louisiana, east of St. Francisville (though in the early part of the 1900s many people referred to this area of Louisiana as the “Florida Parishes and referred to east and west Feliciana as just the “Felicianas.”  I finally found online snapshots of someone who had visited the Grangeville Masonic Lodge and so wrote a letter to the lodge and finally located the old oak.

NOTE: Though, “northeastern” may not seem accurate to those living around Grangeville, since it is due east of St. Francisville which is in the middle of the state. Grangeville is located in the northeastern corner of the “toe” of Louisiana’s boot shape that sticks into Mississippi and is only a few miles directly south of McComb, MS. Grangeville is positioned where the boot laces would be on the toe of the boot shape.