All Things Dry Creek!

Dry Creek Baptist Camp Website

Curt Iles Creekbank Stories Website

Curt Iles Amazon Page

There’s no place quite like Dry Creek, Louisiana.

It’s where my roots are, the place where I grew up and where we raised our three boys.

It’s the place I return to regain my balance and reset my inner compass.

Dry Creek is where I come from.

And the center of my Dry Creek solar system is the Old House at the end of Clayton Iles Road.

The Old House at the End of the Road

If it’s possible to love a house like a person,
Then the Lord knows I love this old house.
It’s a place that reminds me of family,
And the things in life that really mean the most.
It’s a place I return to when I’m lonely. . .
. . . Or it seems I’ve lost my way.
A place where I always feel welcome,
As I sit down and think for a while.
This old house is more than boards and nails
Because it tells me of our past . . .
As I walk through it, I’m reminded that
The special people in our lives never last.
Although they’re gone, I will remember
How they still live on inside of me.
Because this old house reminds me of who I am,
And everything I ever want to be . . .

No tears in the writer, No tears in the reader.

I believe they’ll move you, too.

Chapter “Why I Love Louisiana” from Where I Come From

“Tell me who you are, and I’ll tell you where you’re from.”

—Wallace Stegner

I was born in Louisiana when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.

Yes, I’m a Louisiana writer, and I’ve been around.

The experts say, “Write about what you know.” So that’s what I do.

I know Louisiana, and more importantly, I love Louisiana.

I write about Louisiana because I know it. I’ve lived here all my life, and my roots go deep. My people began arriving here in the early nineteenth century, and we’ve been here ever since.

In spite of my state’s many quirks and flaws, I write from the heart of a deep love of its people and their fascinating stories. Everyone’s got one if we take the time to stop and listen.

My love of Louisiana overflows in my writing as I choose to share stories about our good, caring people, unique culture, and outdoor beauty. Someone else can write about our shortcomings.

I’m often asked, “What is it you like best about Louisiana?”

That’s easy: “How our people are big-hearted.”

Big-hearted.

We’re a state of big-hearted people. In Where I Come From, you’ll meet many of them.

I believe you’ll fall in love with them just as I have.

We also have vast expanses of big-hearted places as we make some memorable field trips.

We Louisianians can also poke fun at ourselves and others. A few years ago, LSU played Ohio State for the national championship. A Tiger fan held up a sign: Faster players, better food, prettier women.

Let me clarify this. I don’t write about the part of Louisiana most readers and tourists know.

I write about the Pineywoods.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the diversity of our state, with its rice paddies, canefields, New Orleans, Cajun culture, and expansive swamps; what other state could hold Mamou, Flatwoods, Tickfaw, and New Orleans in the same bowl of gumbo?

We’re the only state “The Father of Waters” chooses to pass through on its way to the Gulf. I’ll put our river, the Mississippi, against any of the great rivers of the world.

However, my calling isn’t to write about the well-known parts of our state. I write about the overlooked and still undiscovered western spine of Louisiana, known as No Man’s Land. My people come from this isolated forested area adjacent to the Texas border.

In earlier history, No Man’s Land was known as the Neutral Territory, Neutral Strip, and my personal favorite, the Outlaw Strip.

The strip got its name from the fact that anyone running from the law in Spanish Texas or French Louisiana could find a safe haven in the Outlaw Strip. This reputation continued even after the United States took ownership.

So, remember when I brag about my ancestors arriving early in the Neutral Territory, you can surmise that some of them were running from something or someone back East.

My ancestors chose to settle in this specific area of No Man’s Land, known as the Pineywoods. It’s a band of pines stretching across the belt line of Louisana. My hometown of Dry Creek sits dead center in those pines.

As I said, it’s where my people come from.

Let’s see if I can untangle this. I’m a Southern writer who lives in Louisiana’s Pineywoods and No Man’s Land.

I’m in a good season of life to write this book and share its stories. They match up with my life philosophy:

Stay curious.

Be amazed.

Share moving stories.

These sixty-six chapters moved me deeply as I wrote them, sometimes to laughter, often to tears.

No tears in the writer, No tears in the reader.

I believe they’ll move you, too.