Dry Creek’s finest and biggest pine knot pile in the yard of my friends, Mark and Kari Miller. The following is a short sad story on how I lost my own pile. Earthly treasures, pine knot piles, and 401 (K) accounts All of a sudden, the February wind picked up and turned out of the south. Instantly what had been a small controlled fire in my back field became a raging monster. The flames...

Another Iles comes home to Sugartown My Iles ancestors came to what is now Beauregard Parish in about 1819. Before you begin to think I’m puffed up about that, remember this: Most early settlers of this part of Louisiana called “The Outlaw Strip” were running from the law. William Iles and his family found a home among the pine forests and creeks of this land that is still our home. Many...

“A Hand up… not a Handout“ From the book, Hearts Across The Water by Curt Iles Background: After the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, I traveled there with a medical group. In a small village called Garut, I listened in on the conversation told in this story. One of the Displaced Person’s Centers along Sumatra’s (Indonesian) Northern Coast is named...