News, Betsy's Bluff, Grass Roots and Cockle Burrs, LaSalle Parish, La. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Copied & Submitted by: Pat Ezell From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Jena, LA Thank You to the Times -Signal for allowing the following to be added to the Archives. Grass Roots and Cockle Burrs "Betsy's Bluff" In a recent article a geographically prominent site in the Catahoula Lake- Little River complex was alluded to and this was a promontory named "Betsy's Bluff"? The account was based on previous historical chronicles and oral testimonies. The truth of the matter was that I didn't even know the exact location of the subject I was so engrossed in chronicling. So, after seeing that there was a road by that name on the new 911-address roster, I sallied forth to find the real Betsy's Bluff. It was really not too hard a chore if you knew where to go. We started out on this State Highway, and then turned at the proper juncture onto a dilapidated farm-to-market road. In a short while we saw the recently installed sign post on the right side of the country road indicating that a narrow, even more dilapidated roadway would lead to Betsy's Bluff. After about a half-mile of inverted potholes and bituminous patches, we came to two houses and an old trailer all clustered together on an apparent bluff. This, I suppose, was some sort of a confirmation that we had at least found a bluff. As we pulled up to the middle residence, I noticed that we could pull to the left, in between the houses to a better vantage point as to what actually lay behind them. What we were looking for was evidence of Little River proper, because according to the description I had, "Betsy's Bluff" was situated on the east bank of said river. Sure enough, there was a large body of water lapping at the base of precipitous bluff. Convinced we had seen all we could see from that location, we backed up and I noticed a dim road of sorts skirting the middle house to the right and apparently proceeding for a ways up a ridge. I followed the dim road for about fifty yards until we came to a turn-a -round and there we halted. There was nowhere else to go. Directly to our right was what could only be described as a small lake. There was an abundance of waterfowl that started beating a hasty retreat at our intrusion. Besides being one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen in my whole life, we had seen all there was to see without boarding a boat of some sort for an excursion. We finished turning around and drove back up to the houses. There was a gentleman standing by the roadway in the company of what I took to be his son and grandson. We started talking about the site and he confirmed that we were indeed on Betsy's Bluff. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Virgie Robertson, occupied the residence to the left. Her husband, Carroll had passed away several years before, and even though she was 81 years of age, she remained there on a place that had been her home since the early forties. I introduced myself and related that I had recently written about some men in the community digging up a casket nearby to where we were. Their thinking was that it might possibly contain buried treasure, or the corpse of Jean Lafitte, the famed pirate. When I said that, the gentleman turned around and pointed in a southerly direction to a ridge about 50 yards away and said, "That took place right over there!" He went on to relate that at one time, there were five other graves in the same area, but through the passage of time, they were now unmarked and the identities of those interred there were now unknown. A few days later I was relating the results of my explorations to a good friend of mine and fellow history buff, Ms. Clarinda Moffett Breland Bradford. She told me that when she and her husband decided to abandon houseboat living, they sold their boat to Woodrow Taylor. He used it for several more years and finally beached the boat on Betsy's Bluff in the spot where Ms. Virgie Robertson's house now sets. In fact, the structure of the house incorporated the remains of the boat into its construction. In 1976, Clarinda's husband John, along with several other men of the community, were working with Hugh Burnham, a Bodcaw Company representative, to draft a suitable plan to damn up Little Lake bayou. This would allow them to create a small lake, and retain water in the dry season, which would make for a suitable habitat for waterfowl during the annual hunting seasons. When Mr. John Breland got home to Moffett Ridge on the banks of Devil's Creek that afternoon, he told his wife that he didn't feel well at all. He went on to say that he felt like maybe he was coming down with the "flu". He ate a small supper and went to bed. The next morning he had a massive heart attack and died. Later, Ms. Moffett would relate to her only remaining daughter, that the last beautiful sight on Little River her husband had been permitted to view, was the scenic grandeur from atop Betsy's Bluff. To this day she maintains… he would have liked that.