Catahoula Lake Chronicles
The View From Indian Bluff
by
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Nestled twenty miles south of Jena in LaSalle Parish and about fifteen miles northeast of Alexandria in Rapides Parish, Central Louisiana boasts one of Mother Nature’s truly great phenomenons, Catahoula Lake. The term “lake” is actually a misnomer since this natural wonder is actually a gigantic basin, an open sump area, roughly sixteen to eighteen miles long and six to eight miles wide. Nature lovers enjoyed one of the areas most renowned guilty pleasures by driving right up on Indian Bluff with its unmatched scenic vista before private interests put a barrier fence across the access road because loiterers and wastrels polluted the pristine view. Once, a visit to Indian Bluff afforded one an unfettered six to eight miles view across to the tree line on the southern edge of this magnificent, periodic body of water. Several years ago, one visitor, upon viewing the vast expanse of this wondrous creation from the well-known headland, was heard to remark, “I’ve seen the Grand Canyon and now I’ve seen Catahoula Lake, but I’m more impressed with this Louisiana attraction than that big ditch in Colorado and Arizona.” This miniature inland sea, located in our backyard, almost defies definition and explanation; it offers its guests a more diverse and more complex act of creation than most people around the nation are privy to in a lifetime.
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About the Book
“CATAHOULA LAKE CHRONICLES: The View From Indian Bluff” is the first book of its kind that describes in detail the history of Catahoula Lake along with some of its colorful legends and folklore. Catahoula Lake spans some 30,000 acres in the Louisiana parishes of LaSalle and Rapides, and is actually a gigantic basin, an open sump area, roughly sixteen to eighteen miles long and six to eight miles wide. The lake is the most important inland wetland for waterfowl and shorebirds in Louisiana, providing habitat for as many as 500,000 waterfowl and 20 species of shorebirds. Hunters and fishers come from all over the world to experience the wonders of Catahoula Lake. Jack Willis, a longtime storyteller from Jena, Louisiana, spins his yarns, weaving historical fact with legendary tales from the people who have lived off the lake and the land for hundreds of years.
About the Author
Jack Willis was born in Good Pine, Louisiana, in a sawmill town near Jena, Louisiana, in 1936. Jena, roughly 20 miles from Catahoula Lake, was the home of one grandfather who had been a ‘market hunter’ earlier in life, killing waterfowl, packing them in brine, and shipping them to fancy restaurants in Baton Rouge. Later in life he was a stock tenderer for Good Pine Lumber Company. His other grandfather was a railroad track contractor who built one line to within a mile of Catahoula Lake. Mr. Willis attended Southwestern Louisiana University (currently called University of Louisiana, Lafayette) in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the early 1950s. He dropped out of college to work pipeline engineering crews, spending over twenty years as an Inspector/Surveyor for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Mr. Willis went back to college at the age of 53 and acquired a B.S. Degree in Addictive Disease Counseling. After 15 years as a counselor, he was granted a judicious disability, retired, and began to compile stories, tales, yarns and true facts relating to that Grand Lady known as Catahoula Lake. Mr. Willis continues a weekly column in the Jena Times, a local newspaper, named Grass Roots and Cockleburs. He has plans for a sequel to Catahoula Lake Chronicles: A View From Indian Bluff.