This book is composed of interviews with residents from the famous Big Thicket region of southeast Texas. In this vast forested area have come recent reports of Ivory Billed Woodpeckers and other seldom seen creatures. Below is a passage from the book which recounts a story of Passenger Pigeons.
"It was Alvin Jones who told us about the Pigeon Roost Prairie which was near the Jones homestead. He said so many pigeons stopped to roost in the pines in this are that they broke the limbs off the trees and the trees died, so there was a prairie there. There wasn't a living tree for 150 acres, and it was called Pigeon Roost Prairie. That was virgin pine timber they killed. The pigeons were almost as big as a chicken, not the homing pigeon; they were two or three times larger, about the size of a pheasant. Not thousands of pigeons but millions of pigeons! I tried to learn all I could about this pigeon migration. I was interested in it. It was something to think about. There would be so, many they would darken the sun for three days, all going north."
Interview with Mrs. Mary Ellen Walker I was born at Honey Island, Octover 10, 1874, but when I was ten years old we moved from Honey Island down there, five miles from Saratogie and six miles from Honey Island, right in the middle of the Big Thicket. I've seen pigeons in here by the thousands, I know it to be the truth that there would be so many pigeons the'd break the limbs off the trees. That was over here at Honey Island on Cypress Creek. My two brothers would go over there and bring pigeons by the sackful. Just knock'em out of the trees and bushes.
Interview with Pearl Wiggins Hunting was good. We used to have so many blackbirds coming over, they'd just cover the sky, and so did the pigeons, and so did the ducks. Mama said so many pigeons use to come they'd break the branches off the trees, there'd be so many of them.
Map showing location of Big Thicket in southeast Texas Detailed Location of Pigeon Roost Prairie and Honey Island notice it's proximity to Beaumont, TX. This page has been visited times