Ten Mile Fire

Perkins Road Ten Mile, Louisiana

The Wayfaring Stranger

Excerpts from Chapter 42:  The Ten Mile Fire

Aunt Mollie and the Big Fire

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Yesterday, I drove through the devastation of the Ten Mile Fire, which burned 8,000 acres along the Rapides/Vernon Parish lines.  

Ten Mile refers to the creek that winds its way across our section of the Piney Woods.  Ten Mile Creek received its name because it is ten miles from Sugartown, the earliest settlement in Louisiana’s Neutral Strip.  

The Ten Mile Fire burned for nearly a week among the vast acreages of pine plantations. It was a fire previously unseen in Louisiana as it raced through the crowns of large pines.  It showed no respect for roads, dozer lanes, and even backfiring. It took on a life of its own before finally being contained. 

 I saw an equally amazing sight as I drove was how many homes were spared.  This was partly due to surrounding pastures, but much of the credit goes to local fire departments who worked day and night keeping water on roofs and siding as the flying embers spread the fires.

As surveyed the destruction, I thought about Aunt Mollie, a fictional character in my first novel, The Wayfaring Stranger (2007).

In Chapter 42, the hero of the book, Joe Moore, rescues the widow Aunt Mollie Weeks from a raging fire in Ten Mile.

This account, from my imagination, takes place in 1849 in the same region where last week’s fire burned. Continue reading “Aunt Mollie and The Big Fire. Excerpts from “The Wayfaring Stranger.””

The Wayfaring Stranger 

by Curt Iles

It’s our first novel and still a reader favorite.

You can download a PDF of the entire novel here.

The Wayfaring Stranger    The Big Fire

Full. Chapter 42

Joe Moore was making what he called his “firewood rounds”: he would go by Aunt Mollie’s, then the Sweats, and finally Miz Girlie’s. By the end of the day, he would have supplied every family with plenty of smaller sticks for the wood stove, as well as larger ones for the fireplace. In return, he would have a bag full of canned vegetables, meat, and supplies on his return home.

He was at Girlie’s house. A big red oak had blown down during the ice storm and it would supply enough wood for the remainder of the winter. Catching his breath, he stopped, leaning on his ax. It was a cold, windy day, perfect for chopping wood.

He watched Miz Girlie scampering about the yard and could easily tell she was troubled about something. A dead giveaway was when she puffed rapidly on her pipe. Watching her now, Joe thought she looked like one of those steamboats he’d seen on the river.

He dropped his ax and walked to the house. ”Miz Girlie, something’s bothering you. What is it?”

She refused to look at him but spoke, “I’m just troubled in my heart, Joe. I had a bad dream last night when the weather changed. This north wind has an evil feel to it that I can’t put my hand on. I’d swear I smell smoke in it.”

The cold front had moved through during the night. It didn’t have a great deal of rain in it, but the subsequent cold wind that it brought was unusually strong. By noon that day, the wind had only intensified and was blowing down pine straw and small limbs.

As Girlie stood staring off, Joe commented, “This is the strongest wind I’ve seen since arriving in America. It does remind me of how the wind often blew near the sea back home.”

Girlie continued, “This is an evil wind. If fire breaks out anywhere, with all of the limbs and trees down from that ice storm back in December and the grass being killed by those heavy frosts, it could mean trouble for everyone.”

Continue reading “Full Chapter 42 of ‘The Wayfaring Stranger: The Big Fire”

Somewhere in China.      October 2003

I’ll always remember her dark unforgettable eyes.

We only met once in a bustling train station, and I never got her name. I don’t recall her speaking since we had a language barrier and a brief visit.

This young Chinese woman was in danger, meeting four Americans.

Our contact told us she would meet us at the local train station. A young woman approached, followed by two porters shouldering a bamboo pole with four heavy bags. 

Her eyes darted back and forth nervously as several policemen stood nearby. She handed our leader a cell phone and four train tickets.  Then she looked into our eyes as if to say, “Now, I’ve done my part.  It’s time for you to do yours.”  

Without a word, she waved us toward the crowded train platform.  

Then she turned and walked away, never glancing back.

The four bags contained hundreds of ziploc bags containing DVDs of The Jesus Film* in the heart language of her people.  For the first time, they would see and hear the story of Jesus in their native tongue.

Continue reading “Suzie Q”

Where We All Belong is the first book in a three-book series, A LOUISIANA JOURNEY.

A LOUISIANA JOURNEY  will consist of three books:

Where We All Belong   A German POW, Noah Becker, comes to Louisiana during War World II and finds a new life and new love.

The American Woman  Louisiana girl Maggie Loewer travels to war-torn Germany to find and marry her true love, Noah Becker.

A Promise Kept     Noah Becker and Maggie Loewer build a life together in the rubble of a new Germany.

You can learn how you can be an early reader and be involved in Where We All Belong at www.creekbank.net

Where We All Belong

A Novel by Curt Iles

BACK COVER COPY

Visit www.creekbank.net to read “Early Reader” Chapters

____________________________

Back Cover 

“Hitler said we’d march across America. He just forgot to tell us we’d be carrying shovels instead of rifles.”

During  World War Ⅱ, over 200,000 German prisoners of war, primarily members of Rommel’s famed Afrika Korps, were shipped to America.

Where We All Belong begins with the long journey across the LONG VOYAGE   SEA  of German POW Noah Becker. After a host of difficulties,  Becker lands in a Louisiana POW camp.

Where We All Belong is the story of two young people caught up in the life-changing years of World War II.

It was a remarkable time with remarkable people.

Maggie Loewer is fighting her own war on the home front.  Her family are German-American rice farmers in South Louisiana struggling to keep their farm going during the manpower shortages and difficulties.

It was a time when enemies became friends.

During the 1944 rice harvest, POWs are sent to work on local farms where there is a wartime shortage of manpower.  They work alongside the Americans to help bring in the rice crop.  In spite of the war, friendships are built and relationships bloom.

The sparks fly when Noah Becker and his friends are sent to the German-American hamlet of Mowata, Louisiana 

Everyone needs a place to belong.

That’s when Noah meets Maggie Loewer, and they begin a forbidden romance opposed by everyone except each other.

Sometimes the greatest battles take place far from the front.

As in his first thirteen books, Curt Iles’ warm and poignant storytelling style brings two different cultures together on the homefront during America’s greatest war.

Where We All Belong

by Curt Iles

Introduction

You cannot make up a story better than the truth. 

Mowata rice farmer Jimmy Loewer shared the following story:

In the 1960’s a car drove up to his family farm and a well-dressed middle-aged couple stepped out. The man pointed at the farm’s windmill.  Jimmy’s visitors were a German couple visiting America. The man had returned to this spot to show his wife where he worked as a POW during the War.

He turned to Jimmy and in passable English said, “I remember the windmill and this house. We worked during the rice harvest that year, and the American couple at this house treated us well.

The German rubbed his head. “It was in 1944 and the wife of the house was pregnant.”

Jimmy Loewer smiled. “That woman was my mother and she was pregnant with me.”

As I said, you cannot make up a story better than the truth.

As you read Where We All Belong, you’ll find a woven tapestry of stories like Jimmy’s woven into this historical novel.  It’s set against a remarkable time in Louisiana.

As the reader, you are welcome to separate the facts from fiction.  

As for me, I choose to believe it all happened.

Curt Iles

Fall 2023

Dry Creek, Louisiana

Alexandria, Louisiana

Visit www.creekbank.net to read chapters, back cover copy, and series ideas.

NEWS from Rice University.  Used by permission.

12/4/1997 12:06:00 AM

Updated: 31 August 2023

To our knowledge, the entire Rice Land pine timber farm was lost to the Tiger Island fire.

A Growing Tradition: Rice University in Beauregard Parish

The Rice Land Lumber Co. is more than a tree farm: its crop rotation provides a renewable resource and sustained income for the university.

By Christopher Dow
Special to Rice News
December 4, 1997

Let’s take a drive. We’re on the country highway between Merryville and Singer, two small towns in southwestern Louisiana. On either side of the road stand tall pine forests. We stop the car, get out, and breathe deeply of the scented air. To the casual observer, the woods on either side of the two-lane country highway are simply a forest; however, the ordered neatness finally reveals the truth. This is not a forest–it is a farm where trees are cultivated instead of corn wheat or rice. But this farm, known as the Rice Land Lumber Co., is more than a farm, so let’s explore. Let’s take a walk beneath the pines.

When the Civil War ended, this part of the country was completely undeveloped. A few settlers dotted the vast forest of native longleaf pine that stretched across Louisiana and into East Texas, but there were no towns here, no roads or railroads. The federal government owned most of the land and sold it at bargain prices to speculators who promised to develop it. William Marsh Rice joined in the speculation and purchased three tracts in Beauregard Parish totaling 50,000 acres. When Rice died in 1900, the Beauregard Parish property formed a significant portion of his bequest for the establishment of the Rice Institute. The institute’s first board of governors organized the Rice Land Lumber Co. to handle management of the property, and Benjamin Botts Rice, W.M. Rice’s nephew, served as president.

At the time, the land’s main value was in its trees, and during the first decade of the century, timber operations were in full swing throughout the area.

Continue reading “Rice University’s Connection to Beauregard Parish, La.”

The Friendship Lane 

                   The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway.

                                                             –Henry Boye

This story is about two men who refused to lose their friendship over a difference of opinion.  It is a story worth telling and one worth remembering.

It’s the story of The Friendship Lane in Dry Creek.

It’s now an overgrown narrow path.  There’s little sign that it was once a narrow country road. It is located just east of Dry Creek Camp’s property line.

This path separates the land between the pioneer homesteads of Sereno Hanchey and Lionel Green. These two men, now dead for many years, were descendants of some of the earliest settlers of Dry Creek.

Mr. Rufus Hanchey, Sereno Hanchey’s son, took me to “The Friendship Lane” just before he died.

As we stood there, he related the following story: “Curt, at some point many years ago, there was a difference of opinion between the Hanchey and Green families over where the property line, running east and west, was between our properties. Each family claimed ownership of land that reached over into the other’s present field. Because there was no fence stood as the dividing line, the actual land line was open to dispute.”         

Mr. Rufus continued, “My Dad and Lionel Green had always been good friends, and they valued their friendship more than any piece of land—and showed it by their subsequent actions. They met at the very spot we are now standing and came up with a solution for this problem. They declared the disputed ten-foot-wide strip a “neutral zone.” Each man would build a fence on his respective side of the strip. Together, they agreed on using the strip as a pathway with neither claiming ownership. Due to this arrangement,  both families were satisfied and no further problem ever occurred.”         

 As the son of a land surveyor, I’ve seen some nasty fights between landowners over the difference of a two-foot strip along a fence. Some of the saddest things I’ve ever seen have been the sight of brothers and sisters falling out with each other over inherited land, going to their graves still holding a grudge against a family member. How sad it is when we will let anything, material or temporary, break a priceless relationship with our families or neighbors.

Continue reading “The Friendship Land 2023”

The Most Famous Man in Alexandria.

It was late on a Tuesday night when there was a knock at our door.

I opened the door to see a man about my age, dressed in a loosely-fitting jogging suit and wearing blink on every visible spot of his body.  He had slicked-back hair with a coy smile. I immediately thought he was an insurance salesman or a Baptist evangelist.

He put his hand out. “I’m Jimmie DeRamus, and I used to own this house.”

I hesitantly invited him in, and he plopped on my couch and never stopped talking for the next two hours.  

He talked about the many twists and turns and careers of his life, family, and business ventures.  My favorite was his ownership of a donkey basketball team.

Jimmie DeRamus shared emotionally about the plane accident that killed his son Chad and injured other members of his family.  It was clearly evident this was still a deep source of grief in his life.    Suddenly I felt a surge of empathy. Like all of us, I’ve had grief in my life.

Jimmie said that his son Chad lived on our street before the plane crash.  Jimmie inferred that he’d never driven past the house until tonight.

Continue reading “The Most Famous Man in Alexandria”