Historic Places: Coochie Brake, 1969, 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: February 27, 1969 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Legend of Coochie Brake-Is it Truth or Myth? By Wanda Cornelius It was once called "no man's land" and still is to a certain extent, yet few uninhabited places of this world can claim the mystery, the legend of Winn Parish's Coochie Brake. Yet most Winn citizens have never seen this marvelous phenomenon of nature, which within its 700 acres offers an ostentatious display of winding creeks, trees, undergrowth, birds and boulders, caves and tunnels. But man has made his impact on Coochie Brake. It is evident today by the tracks made by giant machines which removed once submerged boulders from the soil. Today there is a hole where there was a high place, as legend would have it, the lookout station for those who occupied Spain's "Coochie Fort" (Ft. Coutier) from 1767 until 1803. Years ago the virgin cypress gum, tupelo gum, and long leaf pine were all cut down. It was here the world's largest tupelo gum was discovered and the picture of it taken in 1913, appeared in the Winn Parish Enterprise on December 1, 1966. The tree was at least ten feet in diameter breast high and was approximately 200 feet tall. The tallest tree of this species on record was half that size. This is one of the mysteries of Coochie Brake. The huge cypress trees grew to great heights in the shallow "lake." In a geological survey in Louisiana in 1899, it was estimated that the Brake contained 87,920,000 feet of cypress alone. All in all an 1899 estimate of timber in Coochie Brake totaled 131,000,000 million board feet, averaging more than 180,000 board feet per acre. Winn historian H. B. Bozeman brought out these facts, along with many more concerning the colorful history of Coochie Brake in a series of articles. Much of the information in this story is a revival of his interesting study of Coochie Brake. This writer's contribution to the story already told so well by "Mr. History", is therefore a comparison to the "way it was" and the "way it is" today, by way of modern photography. The camera's eye does reveal how the legend could be a truth in fact. Great quantities of gold and silver bullion from Mexico were stored in the many tunnels that were hewed out from the face of the Coochie Brake rock escarpment for a hundred or more feet back. Bozeman said in a story published October 27, 1966. And then when ocean going sailing ships could come up the Mississippi River, Post deConcordia (Vidalia) by mule pack train, the gold and silver bullion from "Fort Coochie" was taken there and loaded on ships bound for Spain. Suddenly in 1803, Napoleon snatched Louisiana back from Spain and immediately sold it to the United States...and before the Spaniards were able to move out all the gold and silver bouillon from the tunnels of "Fort Coochie" their soldiers were ordered to leave. Legends and stories for several generations, from Louisiana to Mexico, persisted that when the Spanish soldiers left "Fort Coochie" in 1803, they left millions of dollars of silver and gold bullion in the rock tunnels. Those entrances the Spaniards either sealed up, or rolled rock boulders in and around them, until the treasure laden tunnels were hidden. TRUTH OR FICTION Was the legend real or was it just one of the mysteries of Coochie Brake, like what makes the trees grow so fast and so tall? In the early 1880s, Colonel H. Jack, a Natchitoches lawyer, bought in fee, all of the Coochie Brake property from J. M. Ferguson and soon started work on developing a silver mine in the Coochie Brake rock escarpment...after a few months development work of his Coochie Brake Silver Mine, Col Jack ceased operations in 1883, and the country lawyer amassed a fortune. Later Col. Jack's declared assets were around five million dollars, and nine thousand dollars was listed as cash assets. H. B. Bozeman posed the question and possible proof that "Col. Jack did hit the jackpot" at the old abandoned Spanish Fort Coochie, and found a fabulous fortune of old Spanish gold and silver bouillon there." Even if the legend of the bullion is merely a myth, the mystery of this wilderness and nature's scenic treasure, makes it a phenomenon. Once tropical birds nested in the dense forest and alligators and giant turtles perpetuated in the shallow water. Hunters, after valuable hides, nearly made the alligator extinct, but it wouldn't be a bit surprising to see one poke his head out of a water hole. Deep into the brake the only evidence of human occupation is an empty cartridge from a hunter's gun, or a bright yellow stripe made to mark a tree. Some of the giant boulders protrude from the grassy brush today. Could some of these have been moved to hide the Spanish treasure? It would be a perfect hiding place as one can see by looking at the pictures. Tons of rock were recently taken from the place where old Fort Coochie stood. But even the giant machinery could not destroy the spectacle which has enclosed the ages. Some of the giant boulders still stand, towering above the excavations and they make strange sculptures, illuminated by the shafts of sunlight through the trees. Coochie Brake is no longer "no man's land" but no man has uncovered the mystery of it either.