Caroline Dormon

Caroline Coroneos Dormon, also known as Carrie Dormon (July 19, 1888 – November 21, 1971), was an American botanist, horticulturist, ornithologist, historian, archeologist, preservationist, naturalist, conservationist, and author from Louisiana.

Carrie Dormon
Born
Caroline Coroneos Dormon

(1888-07-19)July 19, 1888
Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
DiedNovember 21, 1971(1971-11-21) (aged 83)
Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.
Resting placeBriarwood Baptist Church Cemetery near Saline, Louisiana, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materJudson College, Marion, Alabama
OccupationBotanist, artist, author, conservationist

She was the first female employee of the United States Forestry Service and is considered by some as Louisiana's first conservationist.[1]

Dormon was born on July 19,1888[2] in modest circumstances at Briarwood,[3] the family home in northern Natchitoches Parish, to James L. Dormon and the former Caroline Trotti. She was reared a Southern Baptist in Arcadia, the parish seat of government of Bienville Parish, in northern Louisiana. She never married.

Background

As a child, Dormon developed a great interest in plants and wildlife. She was educated at the Baptist-affiliated Judson College, Marion, Alabama, from which she received a bachelor's degree in literature and art in 1907.[2] She taught for several years in Louisiana schools, and then re-established her home at Briarwood in 1918. She began to collect and preserve native trees and shrubs.[4]

Diversified career

In 1921, she became a public relations representative for the Louisiana Forestry Department.[2] She attended a Southern Forestry Congress in 1922 and persuaded the United States Forest Service to establish a national forest in Louisiana. U.S. Representative James B. Aswell of Natchitoches worked with Dormon to bring to fruition the Kisatchie National Forest, which was designated in 1930 during President Herbert Hoover's administration.[4] During that project, W.W. Ashe named a variety of hawthorn tree that she discovered, the Craetaegus aestivales dormonae in the Kisatchie after her.[2]

In 1941, during the administration of Governor Sam Houston Jones, Dormon joined the Louisiana Highway Department (later the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development) as beautification consultant. She was later a landscape consultant for the Huey P. Long Charity Hospital in Pineville, Louisiana east of the Red River. She also served as consultant for Hodges Gardens.[5]

Dormon also proposed what became the Louisiana State Arboretum, located some eight miles (13 km) north of Ville Platte, the seat of Evangeline Parish, as part of nearby Chicot State Park.[6] The 301-acre (1.22 km2) site was dedicated in 1964. The Caroline Dormon Lodge opened in 1965, serving as a visitor center, library, and herbarium of native plants which grow within the boundaries of the arboretum.[7]

Dormon was the only woman member of the De Soto Commission established by Congress in 1935 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Hernando de Soto's expedition across the American Southeast, which crossed northern Louisiana.[1]

In 1965, she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Science award from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.[8] The Dormon Collection is located at the Eugene P. Watson Memorial Library of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.[9]

Apart from studying plants, Dormon also researched the ethnology of five tribes of Native Americans in Louisiana, from which she published her book Southern Indian Boy in 1967.[2] During the Great Depression, Dormon had helped obtain government loans and assistance from the Red Cross for the Tunica Indians, who later assisted her in various excavations.[2]

In August 2012, the Rapides Parish School Board opened Caroline Dormon Junior High School Woodworth. The school is located on a 33-acre (130,000 m2) site, off U.S. Highway 165. Land for the school was donated by the United States Forest Service from the Kisatchie National Forest.[10]

Death and legacy

Dormon died in Shreveport on November 21, 1971.[2] She is interred at the Briarwood Baptist Church Cemetery near her home. Dormon willed her home, Briarwood, to the public. Located near Saline in southern Bienville Parish, it is the headquarters of the Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve.[11]

Natchitoches attorney and philanthropist Arthur C. Watson organized the Foundation for the Preservation of the Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve and served as its treasurer until his death in 1984. The Caroline Dormon Trail extending 10.5 miles (16.9 km) in the Kisatchie Bayou Recreation Complex within the national forest. The trail starts at the Longleaf Scenic Byway.[12]

Publications

Her published works include:[13]

  • Wild Flowers of Louisiana (1934)
  • Forest Trees of Louisiana (1941)
  • Flowers Native to the Deep South (1958)
  • Natives Preferred (1965)
  • Southern Indian Boy (1967)
  • Bird Talk (1969).

References
  1. Journal, Daily. "EARTH LADY: Caroline Dormon considered Louisiana's first true conservationist". Daily Journal. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  2. Bonta, Marcia, 1940- (1991). Women in the field : America's pioneering women naturalists (1st ed.). College Station: Texas A & M University Press. pp. 250–261. ISBN 0-89096-467-X. OCLC 22623848.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. "Home". Briarwood Nature Preserve. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  4. "Dictionary of Louisiana Biography - C - Louisiana Historical Association". Lahistory.org. Archived from the original on 2016-09-25. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2006-12-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "About The Louisiana State Arboretum". 20 February 2007. Archived from the original on 20 February 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  7. Peak, Myra F. (ed.). Louisiana Arboretum. Governor's Office of Federal Affairs and Special Projects.
  8. Claassen, Cheryl (June 1994). "Caroline Coroneos Dorman". Women in Archaeology. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-0-8122-1509-0.
  9. Allured, Janet; Gentry, Judith F.; Farmer-Kaiser, Mary; Frystak, Shannon (2009). Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times. University of Georgia Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-8203-4269-6.
  10. "Kisatchie National Forest - Home". Fs.fed.us. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  11. Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) No. LA-1, "Briarwood: The Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve, 216 Caroline Dormon Road, Saline, Bienville Parish, Louisiana", 56 photos, 10 color transparencies, 85 data pages, 6 photo caption pages
  12. "Natchitoches.net : Outdoor Recreation". 3 April 2007. Archived from the original on 3 April 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  13. "Dormon, Caroline 1888-1971". WorldCat Identities.

Further reading
  • Holman, Fran (ed.). The Gift of the Wild Things.
  • Holman, Fran (ed.). Adventures in Wild Flowers.
  • "Caroline C. Dormon". The Dictionary of Louisiana Biography. 1. 1988. p. 251.
  • Rawson, Donald (1983). "Caroline Dormon: A Renaissance Spirit of Twentieth Century Louisiana". Louisiana History. XXIV.
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