Gone to the Swamp : Raw Materials for the Good Life in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta

by Smith, Robert Leslie

• ISBN13: 9780817354947
• ISBN10: 0817354948
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-21
• Publisher: Fire Ant Books

Summary

In the hinterland behind the port of Mobile lies the vast swampy convergence of the Mobile and Tensaw Rivers, a delta rich in fish, game animals, hard and softwood resources, and the beauty and solitude of the wild but also rich in varmints big and little, including some human ones, and the manifold dangers of a world where land, sky, and water seem to blend together and one can become lost 100 paces in any direction, if not drowned or devoured first. To make a living here, one had to be capable, confident, clever and inventive, know a lot about survival, be able to fashion and repair tools, navigate a boat, fell a tree, treat a snakebite, make a meal from whatever was handy without asking too many questions about it, and get along with folks. This fascinating and instructive book is the careful and unpretentious account of a man who was artful in all the skills needed to survive and raise a family in an area where most people would be lost or helpless. Smithrs"s story is an important record of a way of life beginning to disappear, a loss not fully yet realized. We are lucky to have a work that is both instructive and warm-hearted and that preserves so much hard-won knowledge.

Author Biography

Robert Leslie Smith is descended from loggers, hunters, fishermen, and entrepreneurs.  Now retired, he still lives near the swamp at the head of Mobile Bay, where the Mobile and Tensaw Rivers join.  He served as a Naval Officer in WW-II, and then returned to his teaching profession, nurturing students at Foley High School and finally moving up to Superintendent of Baldwin County, Alabama Schools.  

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Gone to the Swamp	p. 1
The Skin Game	p. 15
The Public Timber Inspector	p. 19
Oxen and the Men Who Drove Them	p. 29
High Water Logging	p. 42
Rafting and Loading Gunboats	p. 48
Work of the Blacksmith	p. 54
A Personal Note	p. 59
Work of the Sawyer	p. 61
Camp Life	p. 66
Night Rafting	p. 74
Kingfisher	p. 77
The Yupon	p. 81
Aunt Violet Boston	p. 86
River Tale	p. 88
Wildcats	p. 92
Lost in the Swamp	p. 94
Fear Strikes the Bend	p. 96
Swamp Tale	p. 98
The Kennedy Mills	p. 102
Sawmill Tales	p. 109
Sawmill Tales Continued	p. 111
Logging in Blakeley Battleground	p. 113
Mechanized Logging	p. 115
Flatboats	p. 131
Stockton Boat Ways	p. 146
Latter Day Watermen	p. 149
Latter Day Pullboating	p. 151
The Last Watermen	p. 154
Other Swamp Stories	p. 159
Recovery of a Union Mortar in the Delta	p. 163
Famous Trees	p. 170
Oil in the Delta	p. 182
Hubbard Landing	p. 185
An Alabama State Treasure	p. 198
The Old Ways	p. 206
County Surveyor	p. 215
Hunting Camp Life	p. 217
The McGowan Compass	p. 219
Dixie Landing	p. 222
The Art and Practice of Hollering	p. 230
United States Reserve Fleet	p. 233
Delta Elementary School	p. 238
How to Build a Double Ender	p. 241
Construction of a Flatboat	p. 248
Glossary	p. 253
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