Parish History: Coochie Brake, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by John W. Harris, Brooklyn, NY
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Source:  Town Talk, Alexandria-Pineville, LA, Sunday, August 19, 1979

A Roadside View by Bruce Schultz

Winn's Coochie Brake - A History All Its Own

Winn Parish - Driving through the Kisatchie National Forest in Winn Parish,
the piney woods seldom differ, with hill after rolling hill.
But southwest of Atlanta, the pine forests sink into a huge swamp area, known
as Coochie Brake, which is hidden from view and known mostly by local
inhabitants.
One who knows the area well is J. D. "Dude" Shelton, an Atlanta native.
"I've been knowing about these woods for 50 years," said the 68-year-old
Shelton.
"Turn here," he said, pointing to the old Atlanta post office.
With a fresh wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth, Shelton pointed the way down
an asphalt road which eventually turned to gravel and then dirt.
Even though the road led deeper into the woods, the brake still wasn't in
view.
Shelton saw a familiar rutted logging road.
On foot, Shelton led the way with sure, quick steps.
A quarter of a mile walk on the log road revealed the edge of "the brake."
Upon entering the brake's fringe, shade from the forest canopy suddenly became
darker and the temperature dropped, as though one entered another room.
On the inundated swamp's relatively dry edge is a mycologist's paradise.
Mushrooms, leaf litter and moisture abound.
In the jungle-like atmosphere, Huge dragonfles, horseflies and occasional
mosquitoes add to the jungle-like atmosphere.
"I bet there's water mocassins (sic) in there the size of that tree limb," he
said.
Getting lost in the brake may be a problem for some explorers, but not
Shelton.

'Turned Around, But Never Lost'

"I always look where I'm going in the woods.  I never got lost, he said.
"I've been turned around a time or two, but never got lost."
He recollected that two men once became lost and a group of men on horseback
was needed to find them.
Moonshiners once ran a still in the swampy land, Shelton said, until the FBI
busted up the operation.
Peering into the semi-tropical environment, covered with clear, knee-deep
water, Shelton pointed out large cypress trees.
But the trees growing today are considerably smaller in comparison with the
virgin cypress and tupelo trees that existed before timber barons stripped the
swamp.
Shelton recalled a former owner of the tract, railroad tycoon William
Edenborn, who sold the land to a paper company.  A stipulation of the sale
held that three of the larger trees were to be saved by saws.
But lightning struck one of the giants and one was cut down, despite the
stipulation.  Shelton is not sure what happened to the third tree.
State forestry records speculate one of the giants may have been more than
1,200 years old - the oldest cypress tree known.
Now, 50 years later, the threat of future logging of the swampland has been
halted.
The site is to be preserved from the loggers' saws by the state parks and
recreation department, which recently purchased the 1,619 acres for $335 per
acre from the Georgia-Pacific Paper Co.
The 1979 legislature allocated $2.2 million to establish the brake as a
preservation area, said Wylie Harvey, assistant secretary in the state parks
office.
Plans call for footpaths and walkways in and around the swamp.  In addition, a
center is to be built where visitors can learn of the swamp habitat and its
inhabitants.
Primitive camping will be allowed, but only on the swamp's fringe, said
Harvey.
The work should be finished in mid-1981.
He stressed that caution will be used when considering the extent of
development.  Any development must not have a deleterious impact on the
brake's ecosystem, he said.
Coochie Brake is considered a hardwood bottomland, said John Weist, a state
naturalist who credited Winn Parish historian Eck Bozeman for much of the
information he obtained.

Formed When Fault Line Buckled

It is believed the brake was formed when a fault line, running near the area,
buckled, he said, resulting in a huge depression which resulted in a swamp.
Water is retained in the brake by a beaver dam on the south side.
Weist said the state is negotiating with Olin Mills Paper Co. for the land
where the beaver dam is located.  The dam is crucial to retaining water in the
brake, Weist said.
When the fault line erupted, a large deposit of granite and sandstone was
exposed on the north side.
Weist said local legends hold that the Spanish used the massive stone hill as
a fortification and to cache deposits of gold brought from Texas.
"But I really don't know if there is any factual data for that, but that kind
of information has been handed down," he said.  "That's bordering on myth."
Weist noted there was a Natchitoches lawyer, known as Col. Jack who owned the
property in the late 1800s.
After announcing he had opened a silver mine at the granite outcropping, Jack
soon became wealthy.
"There was some speculation he found bullion or something there," said Weist.
Folklore has also grown out of the West Klan, a notorious outlaw group which
used the brake as a hideaway, said Weist.
According to some folks, the gang's leader, John West, was a sunday school
teacher.
In 1869, the folks in nearby Atlanta became fed up with the thieving gang.  A
people's court was held and the members were found guilty and shot by firing
squad.
Weist said some of the cypress trees in the swamp were the largest and oldest
in the nation.
One of the largest tupelo trees measured 10 feet in diameter and grew 190 feet
high, he said.
Harvey said it is important to preserve the Coochie Brake, because "in 15 to
20 years from (now) all such land will probably be altered to other purposes."

Submitted by:
John W. Harris
Brooklyn, NY
Jwharris60@aol.com