By Jack M. Willis
Journal Correspondent

For hundreds of years visitors to Indian Bluff on the north shore of Catahoula Lake in LaSalle Parish may or may not have taken notice of a lone sentinel near the edge of the bluff bank. There were other species of flora virtually surrounding it, including another bodock tree or two--but because of its unusual countenance and configuration, this particular tree managed to stand magnificently alone with great dignity.

This guardian of the bluff was a species that went by a variety of names, with the most common being "bodock", which is a colloquialism of the name first given the tree by early French fur traders. The trappers had noted, on their journeys west of the Mississippi from their Far North bases, that the Osage Indians they encountered used the curved limbs of the tree, from which to fashion their bows so they named it "bois d' arc" or "wood of the arrow."

This particular bois d'arc tree had no doubt been buffeted for centuries by prevailing southerly winds and gales from across the lake, causing the tree's lean to give it its own personal identity--setting it apart and drawing instant attention in later years for endless photographs by visitors to the promontory. The tree, no doubt, witnessed many splendiferous dawns and sunsets while guarding this awe-inspiring one-of-a-kind basin, erroneously called a lake, nestled in Central Louisiana. It probably beheld countless spring and fall solstice rituals executed by Native American tribal chiefs and shamans honoring the Great Spirit.

This same tree probably observed the night flight in 1732 of the Natchez Indians presenting a torch-lit procession of rafts across the lake from the area of what is today Stock Landing, as they were escaping a French regiment bent on capturing or killing them. The Natchez Tribe had gotten enough of the cruelty doled out by the French occupiers of Fort Rosalie in Natchez, sacking and burning the fort and killing over a hundred French citizens in 1729, and now three years later the Indians, now finally being pursued by a contingent of French soldiers bent on revenge--were flushed from their refuge in Saline swamp and forced to flee northward across this vast, unpredictable body of water. Traditional tales tell of the Indians burying their loot near Indian Bluff, giving rise to innumerable tales of a fabled Natchez Treasure.

Up until the 1990's Indian Bluff was a sentimentally favorite visitation for Sunday afternoon carloads of people seeking a diversion, whoh would motor out to view one of the great wonders of the State of Louisiana. But that is not the case anymore because the road to the bluff proper is now inaccessible. The owner of the land surrounding the famous headland has fenced the only available access road off from public access. And who can blame him? People from South Louisiana with no regard for the physical appearance of this popular tourist attraction started trashing the site- even after repeated warnings, so he just got tired of it and shut the visitations down. And that's a shame because the moon rising over the east end of the lake is a diorama that should be captured for National Geographic.

The bois d'arc tree is actually a member of the mulberry family and related to a fig--it bears a greenish-yellow fruit, four to six inches in diameter--it's also known as the horse apple or Osage orange. Each fruit ball contains approximately 300 seeds and wholesale harvesting of the oranges was once a very lucrative business in central Texas in the 1870's, where they sold for $25.00 to $50.00 a bushel. The seeds or seedlings, if planted in rows, could be utilized in 8-10 years as a very effective substitute for a fence enclosure for cattle, so a market for the seeds opened up all across the Midwest, because barbed wire hadn't been invented yet. Early settlers were supposed to have referred to a 'bodock' fence as being "horse high, bull strong and pig tight." It was said that the inventor of barbed wire, Joseph F. Gliddens from Illinois, got the idea of fence wire with thorny barbs woven into it from observing the thorny trees on his farm.

The Latin name for the tree, which grows to a height of 50-60 feet with a trunk 1-2 feet in diameter, is Maclura pomifera, and was named for a geologist William McClure, (1763-1840) who once explored the area.

Native Americans used the sap of the outer bark in the tanning of hides and pelts, with the sap from the inner bark furnishing a bright yellow dye for clothing-it was also used to decorate tepees, war horses and war shields The sap of the tree is of a latex consistency, and contains a natural built-in pesticide which the Indians used around the interior of their housing to ward off insects.

It is matter of record that Charley Goodnight, an early Texas cattle baron, invented the first "chuck wagon" with which to haul foodstuffs and cooking utensils for his drovers while on cattle drives. The whole vehicle, from the tarpaulin struts to the wagon hubs, was fashioned from 'bodock' wood because of its durability and resiliency to the inhospitable terrain the cattle drives took the herds over.

Bois d'arc wood is almost totally resistant to moisture, rot, insects or wear and tear. The small saplings, when split into, using wedges and a maul, make excellent fence posts and are there for the duration, often outlasting the steel barbed wire laboriously stapled onto the posts. Because the grain in the wood does not run in a straight line it is almost impossible to drive a staple or nail into it. One old Texas cowboy, who was plumb worn out from stapling a strand of barbed wire onto a line of posts, pretty well summed up his frustrations when he said, "Well, By Gawd, I'll tell you one damn thing! Them dang posts will be here until Jesus comes back!

Even though its counterpart, the Lone Cypress in Mosquito Bend is still standing guard, the old guardian bois d'arc tree is not in residence on Indian Bluff anymore. It met its demise several years through a series of circumstances that would serve no useful purpose to chronicle here.

But according to reliable reports, its skeletal remains are interred in someone's yard in the nearby Nebo community, beside a swimming pool. It is still keeping watch, but over a much smaller body of water.

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