Tar Burners, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Jan. 2006
Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives.

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THE TAR BURNERS

BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian


TAR, the black sticky substance that sometimes comes to our attention during road 
construction when it is splattered on our automobiles, has a long historical 
association with this area.  Although tar does occur naturally, the abundant pine 
forests surrounding Ponchatoula provided the same material in commercial 
quantities. 

Tar is one of several forest products from this area called "Naval Stores" which 
indicates their main area of usage.  The technique of carefully burning pine wood 
to produce tar was developed perhaps 2,000 years ago and that skill was brought 
from Europe with some of the first colonists.  The tar obtained from this process 
was used as a caulking material in sailing vessels, coating the lines used aboard 
ships to delay the rotting process, and when distilled for limited medicinal 
proposes.   The American colonies at one time produced about 80% of the tar used 
by the English navy and merchant marine.  By 1850 most of the tar production in 
this country was concentrated in the pine forests of the Carolinas, and in fact 
North Carolina received its nickname "The Tar Heel State," by association with 
this product.

The tar is obtained by first gathering the pine wood to be used in the burning.  
The best pine to use in tar making was "fat pine" or "lightwood."  This wood was 
the heart of the pine tree and was rich in resin which would in the burning process 
produce the tar.  Some of this wood could be found in tree stumps and much was 
found in the woods after logging operation left unusable sections of trees on the 
ground.  The sapwood would rot away leaving the fat wood to be picked up by the tar 
burners or their children.

The tar burners prepared for the burning by digging a shallow saucer shaped hole 
in the ground about twelve to fourteen feet in diameter.  A gutter was cut into 
the pit and led off to a deeper pit where a collection barrel was placed.  The fat 
wood, after being cut into pieces about the size of a man's forearm and about two 
feet long, would be carefully piled in a manner to form a solid wooden cone inside 
the pit.  The wood was packed tightly so that there would be as few air spaces as 
possible.  When completed and done properly the fat wood cone in the pit would be 
about eighteen to twenty feet high.

The cone of pine would then be banked with layers of clay and hammered with mallets 
and stomped with feet until the now larger cone was solid.  A small amount of wood 
was left exposed at the top of the cone and that was where the kiln would be lit.  
The fire in the kiln would be carefully monitored 24 hours a day.  Once well lit 
and burning for a time the fire would be choked to slow the burning process and 
permit the tar to be cooked out of the fat wood.  As the wood charred, tar seeped 
toward the center of pit and collected.  After some time when much of tar was 
believed to have collected in the center of the pit the gutter or "throat" leading 
from the pit to the collection barrel was opened and the tar allowed to flow from 
the pit.

Once the tar was collected and loaded for shipment the cone of smoldering pine 
which had been reduced to much smaller mound, was choked off.  The tar burner 
would come back some days later and dig out as much charcoal as possible from the 
pit for sale to the New Orleans market.

Tar burning was hard and hot work that took considerable knowledge of the proper 
techniques so that the tar profits did not go up in smoke.  When the census was 
conducted in this area in 1850, tar burners included Abraham Gainey. William 
Cunningham, Alexander Kinchen, Mathew Kinchen, and most notably, Peter Hammond, 
the namesake of our neighboring community to the north.  A number of other men were 
probably engaged in this endeavor during the winter months when it was cooler and 
the crops had already been gathered.  In the Eighth Ward in 1900, tar burners 
included James Byers and John Morse.

Tar burning was just another way in which the hard working pioneers of the piney 
woods used nature's resources to earn a living and make a better life for their 
families.


Anyone with comments, questions, or additional information about Ponchatoula's 
rich heritage may call Jim Perrin at 386-4476.