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| Again, while I was in the neighborhood, I decided to attempt to find my great grandfather's home, or one of them, the community of Zimmerman. I remember going through Zimmerman and my parents bringing that fact forward each time we drove from New Orleans to Shreveport, 325 hot miles. I was always awakened from comatose heat exhaustion to hear that fact. Up until now, I have not had the urge to find Zimmerman. My cousin suggested that since I was on a sawmill kick, I should try to find our grandfather's old mill. He was a surveyor for the Bentley Lumber Company. Bentley, the one that built the Bentley Hotel in Alexandria and for whom the town of Bentley is named, located north on Alexandria on La.167. |
| The old highway, where Zimmerman resided, was no longer in use. It is now being called Old Louisiana 1. I found it with the use of the GPS. The road was a green tunnel paralleling a railroad. You can see the trestle at right. The concrete slabs which are in perfect condition are being undermined by the swamp and are bowing. The road does not not have that long before it is condemned. See it soon. Take La. 8 off of I-49, go east and it runs into Old One. Take a right and go into the swamp for a treat. |
| "Two shots of the same old swamp which looks like every other swamp you've ever showed us!" Sir, I challenge you to a duel. If you are so calloused as to not appreciate fine wine served but from a different goblet, then I must strike you down. |
| There are a few motorcyclist that read this rag and for them I must include a picture of what got me here. "Here" being here, this location, and "here", actually writing these things, I sure wouldn't do this by car. You have to find, yuck, parking places and be able to park in them. Too many problems. For me. For you, cars could be fine. So, no predjudices, no excuses. Do it. |
| Making several hours of trip condense into a couple of sentences I will do just that. After going up and down Old One looking into the swamp again, I went into Boyce and no one I asked knew of Zimmerman. Heck, it was right next to your community, how could you not know of Zimmerman? Was it a coverup, had Zimmerman been abducted. Was the government in on this? I finally saw an older man mowing and asked him. He was vague also, saying he'd only been there for a while but the road had been deserted thirty years ago. He directed me to the Texaco (spelling correction, thanks to Rapides Sheriff Dept) gas station up on La. 8, near Old One. On the way out I thought I'd look around Boyce a little. I found a road that led out to this park on the Red River. It was very nice and had a great boat launch. I approached some fisherman who did all but ignore me when asked about Zimmerman. . I went out to the gas station. By the way there are no signs on the road to the park that I saw. It is a federal park, part of the Red River Project (the dam system on the river). Had the sign been taken down so as not to "over crowd" the park? I was getting suspicious as is my way. Back to the Zimmerman case. The owner of the gas station told me that I could get back there but was vague also. He did say if any of his relatives looked cross-eyed at me for me to just wave. That would diffuse them. I tried again, waving, and gave up. I was going to go back to the station but it was 5:00 and very busy and I didn't want to alienate the one guy that could have helped me since he lives back there and hunts the area. I was tired of hunting the area and decided to leave. On the way out I saw Red Bayou Road. It sounded like something I wanted to ride down and surely it was. It promised to take me to Red Bayou. It didn't quite make it there. I was stopped by a fence. "Not getting quite there" seemed to be haunting me. I headed out turning onto Newer One, I saw the sign at right. I thought it funny because of the pastor's name, Lillie Thompson. I thought of the old comedian and her telephone operator skit. No, that was Lillie Tomlin. Close, but not quite. See, Now was this area called "Pleasant" or just the church? Fodder for another article? |
| I was above Alexandria and had "a ways" to go to get to supper. At this point, again, I was glad to have the interstate there. I tucked in and was soon just above Opelousas where the traffic to Lafayette starts to get heavy. I opted to slow it down and hit a cool bayou road that is a short cut plus a thing of beauty. I stopped and played with the camera for 30 minutes experimenting with different setting to try to get the color of the dirt right. It was war between man and machine, but finally that's the color it was. While battling the machine, Nature had her eyes on me. I didn't realize it but I was mosquito bait. My unreachable back itched so badly I thought I was going to wreck. I will annouce this if you didn't know. There are mosquitoes in Louisiana. They stay in the shade during the day. They would love to have you join them. The pictures and the place were worth the welts. Going down a country road. I could hear James Taylors's sinus clogged crooning. He must be from over here? Look, before I get a bunch of letters, I was just kidding about the Boyce park and "no signs" and any implications of conspiracy. Half this stuff is fictionalized for your enjoyment, not your ire, so back off Wartly. Fred, I'm talking to you, too. Now, for more good natured riding around, choose a link below. |
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| Old La.Highway 1 |
| Zimmerman Creek |
| The "swamp" was Zimmerman Creek |
| Following the Zimmerman Trail. The Return and more questions. |
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| What's with this Zimmerman stuff? Take me Home. |
| Visits to just this page. |
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by The JavaScript Source
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