Historical Places: The Cork Tree, 1981, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: September 2, 1981 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Winnfield's Rare Cork Tree Horace F. Hicks and Kimberly Redmon are shown in April 1981 underneath a cork tree on the north side of the building at the site of the former Tremont & Gulf Railway office on Front Street. Mr. Hicks is a retired track maintenance superintendent for the T & G, which railroad line is now owned and operated by the Illinois Central. Kimberly, whose home is in Texas City, Texas, is the granddaughter of Mrs. Hicks and was a visitor in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hicks at the time. "I planted this tree about 40 years ago, sometime in the 1940s, for Ovey Trahan (Vice-President and General Manager) of the T & G Railroad while my crew was planting the pines presently growing there. I have thought for some time this unusual tree would be of interest to the people of this area and should be called to their attention as there is not one like it in Winn Parish and I don't think there is even another in the entire State of Louisiana. Mr. Trahan got the small tree from someone in South Louisiana and I had my crew plant it for him along with the pine trees," states Mr. Hicks. He further says, "Then I watered it and darned if it didn't grow!" The cork tree is a live oak, that is, it is green all year around. It grows abundantly in Spain and Portugal, where most of the cork is produced. Algeria is the world's third largest producer of cork. The cork oak, whose botanical name is "Querus Suber", has been planted in California and in some parts of the southeastern states but the total yield of cork has been small. A cork tree lives from three hundred to four hundred years, but seldom grows any higher than fifty feet, or more than five feet in diameter. "Back when I was younger, I have dug into this tree's bark and never got past the first layer of cork," Mr. Hicks reports. An encyclopedia gives information that cork is gathered by stripping in the months of June, July, and August when accidental injury to the tree is least damaging. Cork will never grow again on a spot where the inner layer of bark has been bruised by a stripper's hatchet. Each tree can be stripped by professional cork strippers about once every ten years with the best bark coming with the third and later cuttings. The lightweight, spongy substance obtained from the bark of the cork oak can be compressed and was used as early as 400 B. C. The Romans wore cork sandals to keep their feet warm and used cork to float anchors and fishing nets. Cork bottle stoppers have been manufactured since the 1600s. Most of the cork now produced is used for insulation, covers walls and freezing pipes in thousands of cold storage plants, and floors are made sound proof with cork. Linoleum is made by mixing cork powder with linseed oil and spreading this paste over canvas or burlap. Cork shavings are burned to make "Spanish black" or "cork black", a paint used by artists.