Historic Places: Legend of Stark's Crossing, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Peggy Chandler Beaubouef, 2656 Hwy 1232, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** SOURCE: "the sassafras", Vol. 3, No. 1, 1984-85, published by the Calvin Folklore Society. (Permission to use granted submitter by Linda Dupree, sponsor.) [NOTE: The Calvin Folklore Society was a student organization of Calvin High School dedicated to the preservation of oral traditions -- the local folklore of the area. Articles in "the sassafras" were written by the students after research and interviews with older citizens of the area. Faculty sponsors were Linda Dupree and Steve Bartlett.] THE LEGEND OF STARK'S CROSSING by Lisa Williams If you were floating downstream from the head of Dugdemona River in Jackson Parish you would no doubt find many curves in the river's path and would pass huge cypress and oak trees as you came south into Winn Parish. No real attention would be paid to the curves and turns except to wonder what was around the next one. At a point in Ward 10, the creek makes a near 90 degree turn. To someone in a boat the bend many not hold much significance, but many years ago, that turn in Dugdemona was very important to people crossing the river. In the late 1800's the Monroe-Natchitoches Trail was of great importance to people traveling. Smaller trails branching from that large one led from one community or another. The old Steel Bridge over the Dugdemona in the Yankee Springs community is one of the oldest crossing of the river in Winn Parish, as well as being part of the Monroe-Natchitoches Trail. But until the coming of the Steel Bridge in 1910, how did folks get from one side of "the Creek" to another? That's why the bend in Dugdemona was so important. In the latter 1800's a man named Starks built and operated a ferry there. No one can seem to recall his first name or even when his ferry business started on Dugdemona. The area which became known as Stark's Landing was on the western bank of the creek. The western bank was shallow and in the elbow of the turn. The ferry was operated "like all these ferry boats was operated. They were operated by hand, ya' know? Paddled," says Mr. Tom Barnes of Calvin. Starks charged a price as he carried people on his ferry across the creek. Stark's Landing was part of the Monroe-Natchitoches Trail in those years before the Steel Bridge's addition. On the eastern bank of the creek not too far from Stark's Landing, the Monroe-Natchitoches Trail later forked with the new trail leading to the Steel Bridge, a more modern form of crossing Dugdemona. The older trail which crossed Cypress Creek and passed through what is known as the "Salt Licks" in Ward 10. The road now runs into La. Highway 501 about three miles north of where the newer part of the Monroe-Natchitoches Trail intersects the highway. The older trail wasn't used as much as before when the Steel Bridge was built. Only travelers who wanted to go to the Ward 10 area would use it. Since Stark's Landing was one of the few crossings in Winn Parish, Starks had plenty of business with people - folks on the right, as well as wrong, side of the law. Mrs. Eva Bagwell tells the story told to her by her father. "A man rode up to his landing and asked him (Starks) to bring him across to this side. (To the western bank.) So he brought him over to this side and he rode on over towards Cypress Creek and the old Salt Licks. He noticed a gold horse sticking out the man's saddle bag as he rode away. Well, he hadn't been gone long before two men on horses came up on the other (eastern) side and they wanted to be put across. They told Mr. Starks that they was after the man, that he had stole some gold and he had it in his saddle pockets. One piece of it was a gold horse and the rest was gold coins. They weren't gone long and they came back and said that they could not find him." Mr. Starks and his wife lived in a log cabin near to the landing. "Bob Gibbs said he was working in the fields one day and they sent him up to his grandmother's house (Mrs. Starks) for something. Mr. Starks had died by then. But anyway, she had money out all over the bed and she gathered it up and it filled a flour sack," says Mrs. Eva. Mr. Starks died sometime in the late 1800's. His age is unknown but he is buried beside his home. According to Mrs. Eva, "Mrs. Starks left there and went to live with her sister, Mrs. Rowe. Well, the Rowes always had money. When everybody else didn't, they always did. Everybody assumed that Mrs. Starks is the one that killed the man that had the gold, by them having all that money. They figured she took it with her when she went to live with her sister." Other stories say that the two men shot the man with the gold but came back to the landing and said he didn't have it with him when they killed him. Evidently he hid the gold just before he was killed. People have dug around in the Salt Licks area looking for treasure but none has been reported found. A story says that Frank Gibbs was plowing in the field in that area, and found a ten-cent snuffbox full of silver dollars. Mrs. Starks might have killed the robber and taken his stolen gold and then again, the gold horse and coins may be at the Salt Licks to this day, buried with the sands of nearly one hundred years. What was a foot hight oak seedling then is a towering giant now. A road no longer traveled has grown up with bushes and trees. The ferry is gone. Now there is a state highway bridge on Dugdemona about a mile upstream from where Stark's Landing was once operated. All That remains is what was there to start with - a shallow bank and a big bend in the creek.