The lightered, cat-faced remains of an old pine tree hints at a distant past along Cowpen Creek.
Around one hundred years ago the landscape of Escambia County and the surrounding area was vastly different than it appears today. It was the dawning of the automobile age yet the roads were still pig trails and better adapted to horse and buggy than gasoline engine. Highways such as 31 and 21 weren't even on the drawing boards in those days and airplanes were still in their infancy.
A good example of how things were different in that era was the pine forests of the time. In the late 1890s the "Big Cut" began. The Big Cut was a term used for the massive timber cutting operations that swept the region and made millionaires out of common men and put meat on the table for countless workers.
Prior to the Big Cut the pine forests of the area boasted a tree top canopy of 70 feet and millions of pines shaded out the weeds and undergrowth below to create a shaded, somewhat cool ground floor in the forests. The pines had their own ecosystem. An example of which was a certain woodpecker who would only make his nest in a 70 foot or taller pine.
Logs that were cut in this era were floated down area waterways to the rivers and on to sawmills along the river banks. It's hard to imagine but Canoe Creek, Seizmore and Little Escambia all had saw logs floating down their channels less than 100 years ago. The creeks were far deeper and wider during this era than today. Silt from agricultural and road work and the gradual lowering of the water table over the years have led to the demise of the deep water creeks that once filled the area. River waterways have not been exempt from change as well.
Experts on the history of the Alabama River in our area say flooding along the river was never a problem in the old days. The high bluffs characteristic of the river in those days provided a natural barrier to flooding while the "New River" as it is called today, with its cut channels and jetties provide opportunities for the river to rebel against its would be human masters.
The New River is a reference to the Alabama Tombigbee Waterway and the work done by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1970s to provide a channel for barges to traverse the river with ore and industrial material. Some believe this work has caused the mouths of many creeks such as Majors Creek near Tensaw to fill with sand and become impassable by boaters.
Today much of the pine forests in our area are planted in neat rows that are thinned at regular intervals by huge machines. Only a few creeks remain which are deep enough for swimming or taking canoe rides and even fewer exist that are free to the public. A lot has changed in 100 years but when out in the woods on a hot summer's day it only takes a little imagination to see the world the way it was in that bygone era.
The William Carney Camp's next monthly meeting with be June 3, 2013 at 7pm at the Canoe Civic Center.
