John A. Speyrer's Swamp Adventures

Below is an excerpt from John A. Speyrer's web page on the Speyrer Family. "My pirogue was much smaller than the one shown on the left. It was more narrow and shorter. The one-seater pirogue had a tendency to capsize, but I soon learned how to balance the boat. Harnett T. Kane, author of The Bayous of Louisiana mentioned that sometimes only a wink of the eye was all that was needed to disturb the delicate balance of the pirogue! He also mentioned that a heavy dew was sufficient to float the boat! Since I could not bring it to my favorite swamp because it might be stolen, I used it mostly for jaunts down Coulée des Marks in the Prairie des Femmes settlement, transporting it in the trunk of the 1952 Chevrolet my father owned. I'd paddle upstream, lie down in the pirogue and float dreamily down the coulée.

The pirogue was named "L'aigrette" - or in English, The Egret. I even used a stencil to paint a picture on its bow of an egret in flight. The boat was light blue with the word L'aigrette prominently displayed. All of the swamp pictures below are of the shallon boat which was very wide and light. My favorite swamp was where the shallon was kept. It was never stolen, although, no doubt, at times, it was borrowed!. It finally rotted away."