23/10/2023
Super fascinting what Charles Alexander has been up to over the past 25 years - capturing the oral histories of the early naturalists and bird nerds of the war generations in America's deep South.
Im super intruiged as to what he will do with the thousands of hours of recordings.
"Listening to the oral histories I recorded, I'm twenty-five years younger, deep in the woods of Louisiana, surrounded by elders who have long since passed away. In that world, it's not too late to ask questions about black wolves, ivory-billed woodpeckers, or the days of the virgin timber. Today, all these years later, I'm still transcribing oral histories. 381 interviews with close to 100 different people, recorded on 250 tapes, from 1986 to 2022. When I'm done (if I'm ever done!) I'll have 12,500 pages of memories and stories on my hands, averaging roughly 50 pages per tape. Four years ago, I transferred the entire archive to digital. Day by day, reaching deep into the past, my conversations with old friends continue. You might say that I started out with the bird--the ivory-bill-- but ended up with the people.
Photos, clockwise from top:
1. A 1938 photo of J.J. Kuhn, state game warden of the 81,000 acre Singer Preserve in northeast Louisiana, with Sonny Boy, the only ivory-billed woodpecker ever banded. Starting in 1998 and ending in 2018, I interviewed Mr. Kuhn's daughter, grandson, and granddaughter many times, learning everything I could about their fascinating patriarch. Self-educated, Mr. Kuhn became a mentor and guide to Cornell ornithologist James Tanner during his three-year study of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Madison Parish. Kuhn knew more about the Singer and its wildlife than any man alive. He passed away in 1959.
2. D.D. Arnold, born in 1922, grew up in the deep woods of Madison Parish, rarely ever coming to town. His first real experience with the outside world came when he was shipped off to fight in the South Pacific during World War II. Mr. D.D.'s accounts of his growing up years, a time that coincided with the destruction of the big timber and the disappearance of the only known ivory-bills in existence, are among the most compelling stories that I recorded during my years in northeast Louisiana.
3. Nancy Tanner, born 1917, wife of Cornell ornithologist James T. Tanner. Nancy's beloved Jim (1914-1991) was the only man ever to conduct a study of ivory-billed woodpeckers from life. Beginning in 1997, Nancy-- herself one of the last-living ivory-bill eyewitnesses-welcomed me into the Tanner home in Knoxville, sharing her archives, her friendship, and her memories of Jim.
4. Sonny Boy, the huge ivory-bill nestling banded March 6, 1938, calling for his parents on J.J.Kuhn's back, moments before being returned to his nest cavity sixty feet above the forest floor. One of a series of iconic photos (perhaps the most iconic in the history of ornithology) taken that day by Jim Tanner (his 24th birthday.)
5. Jimmy Willhite, one of thirteen surviving children who grew up on the edge of the Tensas big woods. Hunting, fishing, trapping, fighting off wolves while skinning gators, standing in awe of the forest giants of the Singer Tract: Jimmy Willhite lived it all.
6. Yours truly interviewing my Louisiana mentor and guide Talbert Williams, a legendary figure in Madison Parish. Born in a cabin on the banks of the winding Tensas (Tin-saw) River in the early 1930s, Talbert spent many years patiently helping me to understand what life was like back in the days of the now-vanished ivory-bills, from Great Depression times to the dark days of World War II and beyond.
7. A young James Tanner, photographed in 1937, the first year of his three year study of the ivory-billed woodpecker. He searched thousands of miles across the Deep South and Florida, finding living ivory-bills only in Madison Parish, Louisiana."
