Searching for the Commander

WHERE ARE WE? Saint Francisville, Louisiana

Our parking spot was super quiet last night.  Every once in a while we could hear the dull roar of a tug boat going by, chugging its way up the river.  It is the sort of sound that you get used to real quickly and ear plugs help as well.  I'm not sure what they haul up the river but there is sure a lot of it.  Tug after tug pushing up to 45 barges each.  

Most of my blog readers are prairie people so you have no idea how these barges work.  I found out a bit about them and will share.   

A "tow" is made up of a number of barges lashed together.  The barges are between 35 and 50 feet wide and 100 to 200 feet long.  Most of the ones I have seen are 5 barges wide by 7 barges long.  So that would be about 1000 feet long by 150 feet wide.  There are larger barges around New Orleans apparently.  Each barge is capable of hauling 3 million pounds, so the average tow is transporting 21 million pounds or a little over 1000 tons.  For reference, a 100 car train hauls about 20 million pounds.  The bigger boats or tug as I call it, are about 200 feet long and up to 50 feet wide.  They run up to 6500 horse power.  These boats, although they push the barges, are called "tow boats".  They usually are hauling grain, coal or aggregate.  They sometimes have tankers hauling petro-chemicals or corn fructose.  Lots of corn and sugar cane along the southern Mississippi.  This method of transportation seems to be a very economical way of moving products.

Enough of the boring facts.  This afternoon I went in to town to stop by the Welcome Center/Museum.  

I met a lovely lady at the front desk who was very smiley and a bit over zealous at her job.  To top it off, she was probably 85 years old and had hearing aids in both ears.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking her age, just the fact that the hearing was not quite up to speed.  I asked her if there was anything interesting going on around town and she said that the museum had lots of interesting things.  Yup I bet it does, but nothing about today I bet.  Oh well, lets do the museum talk.  I asked about the Captain of the ship that died and the Union and Confederate armies stopped fighting for a day to give him a proper Free Mason burial here in Saint Francisville.  Yup she says and answers the phone!!  So I went on a self guided tour of the Museum and yes the information on that incident was right there. Very interesting event.  You will notice that a W.W. Leake took on the job of making all this happen.  I wonder if he is related to the Boobee Leake that is running for mayor in town right now. lol

On the way out I asked her where I might find the grave of Commander John E Hart and she said at the Episcopal Church and went about her business.  Ok I guess I will just find that on my own.  LOL  Before I left, I signed the guest book and made mention to her, the fact that we have been following the Mississippi on the Great River Road all the way from the head waters.  She smiled and said, we are about a mile from the Mississippi here!!!  That's nice I guess.  So off I went to find the Grace Episcopal Church and Mr. Hart.  Thank God for GPS.  It was just down the road. 

I had a little peek inside and it was beautiful.  There is something about a church that is very moving and demands a lot of respect.  I saw a sign back at the Basilica in Natchez that kinda explained it.  

the pipes of the organ

a beautiful stained glass thingy

The church was nice, but I was here to see where Commander John Hart was buried.  So out in the cemetery I went.  Nope, not a chance of stumbling across that marker.  I bet there are 1000 graves here.  I did however find some really old graves.  

The Free Mason meeting place was across the street from the cemetery and they did have a little plaque commemorating the day they buried Commander John Hart.  Apparently the Masons do a mock up of the burial every June and it is quite an event.  RIP Commander Hart!  Anyway, a quick look at the courthouse which was right there as well and I headed home.  Some supper, TV and off to bed.  Good Nite!