A centuries-old live oak that is the inspiration for one of Louisiana’s greatest novelists is slated to be cut down this week. Known as “Miss Jane’s Tree,” the Pointe Coupee parish oak offers spiritual covering and sanctuary to the heroine in Ernest Gaines’Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Gaines grew up in the area and has known the ancient oak since he was a small boy.
Earlier this week, Gaines was contacted by an employee of Pointe Coupee parish government who called to inform him of the imminent removal because she knew how much the tree meant to the award- winning writer. The tree overhangs La. 416, near False River. The state Department of Transportation and Development determined that the tree, which dropped a large limb on July 4 into the road, is a hazard to the public. However, Pointe Coupee County Agent Miles Braisher has asked for a reprieve while he calls in a tree expert to examine the condition of the oak. “It’s a great old tree,” says DOTD Pointe Coupee area engineer Chad Vosburg. “We don’t want to cut it for sure, but we have our obligations to look out for the safety of the public.”
Gaines informed his colleagues in Lafayette about the demise of the landmark oak, and there is an effort underway to petition the state to spare the historic tree. Gaines wrote this passage about the oak in his 1971 novel, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman:
There’s an old oak tree up the quarters, where Aunt Lou Bolin and them used to stay. That tree has been here, I’m sure, since this place been here, and it has seen much, and it knows much much. And I’m not ashamed to say I have talked to it, and I’m not crazy either. It’s not necessary craziness when you talk to trees and rivers...But when you talk to an oak tree that’s been here all these years, and knows more than you’ll ever know, it’s not craziness; it’s just the nobility you respect.
... written by Ruth Laney , July 10, 2008 - 08:29 pm
Ernest Gaines has written another eloquent passage about trees in his short story collection Bloodline.
Here it is:
Aunt Clo
Be just like wrapping a chain round a tree and jecking and jecking, and then shifting the chain little bit and jecking and jecking some in that direction, and then shifting it some mo' and jecking and jecking in that direction. Jecking and jecking till you get it loose, and then pulling with all your might. Still it might not be loose enough and you have to back the tractor up some and fix the chain round the tree again and start jecking all over. Jeck, jeck, jeck. Then you hear the roots crying and then you keep on jecking, and then it give, and you jeck some mo, and then it falls. And not till then that you see what you done done. Not till then you see the big hole in the ground and piece of the taproot still way down in it--a piece you won't never get out no matter if you dig till doomsday. Yes, you got the tree--least got it down on the ground, but did you get the taproot? No. No, sir, you didn't get the taproot. You stand there and look down in this hole at it and you grab yo' axe and jump down in it, and start chopping at the taproot, but do you get the taproot? No. You don't get the taproot, sir. You never get the taproot. But, sir, I tell you what you do get. You get a big hole in the ground, sir; and you get another big hole in the air where the lovely branches been all these years. Yes, sir, that's what you get. The holes sir, the holes. Two holes, sir, you can't never fill no matter how hard you try.
--Ernest J. Gaines "Just Like a Tree"
... written by Bradford Jackson , July 14, 2008 - 10:32 pm
Don't raise the bridge (or move the road), lower the river (and chop down the trees). DOT stands for Death on Trees.
... written by Jason Faulk , July 16, 2008 - 04:25 am
That tree is lucky it didn't have a powerline going through it. Seriously, this is now a matter of federal policy, causing a mass loss of urban arborial cover. Since the 2005 blackouts, this has been pushed up. Any look around Lafayette will tell you that we have a problem with aesthetic economics.
You must be logged in to post a comment. Log in using your Facebook account or register if you do not have an account yet.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
A centuries-old live oak that is the inspiration for one of Louisiana’s greatest novelists is slated to be cut down this week. Known as “Miss Jane’s Tree,” the Pointe Coupee parish oak offers spiritual covering and sanctuary to the heroine in Ernest Gaines’ Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Gaines grew up in the area and has known the ancient oak since he was a small boy. 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Here it is:
Aunt Clo
Be just like wrapping a chain round a tree and jecking and jecking, and then shifting the chain little bit and jecking and jecking some in that direction, and then shifting it some mo' and jecking and jecking in that direction. Jecking and jecking till you get it loose, and then pulling with all your might. Still it might not be loose enough and you have to back the tractor up some and fix the chain round the tree again and start jecking all over. Jeck, jeck, jeck. Then you hear the roots crying and then you keep on jecking, and then it give, and you jeck some mo, and then it falls. And not till then that you see what you done done. Not till then you see the big hole in the ground and piece of the taproot still way down in it--a piece you won't never get out no matter if you dig till doomsday. Yes, you got the tree--least got it down on the ground, but did you get the taproot? No. No, sir, you didn't get the taproot. You stand there and look down in this hole at it and you grab yo' axe and jump down in it, and start chopping at the taproot, but do you get the taproot? No. You don't get the taproot, sir. You never get the taproot. But, sir, I tell you what you do get. You get a big hole in the ground, sir; and you get another big hole in the air where the lovely branches been all these years. Yes, sir, that's what you get. The holes sir, the holes. Two holes, sir, you can't never fill no matter how hard you try.
--Ernest J. Gaines
"Just Like a Tree"