The “Jim Bowie” Festival

A recent book signing and display at the “Jim Bowie Festival” in Vidalia, Louisiana, located on the West bank of the magnificent old Mississippi River just across from historic Natchez, was a big success for writer/photographer Reggie Anne Walker-Wyatt.

Rare Jesse James book from 1880

A front page newspaper story about the artist coming to the festival brought an area citizen forward with a very old book, written in 1880, two years before the reported “death” of Jesse James in 1882, about the famous James boys.  The rare book shows a sketch of Jesse James that bears a striking resemblance to J. Frank Dalton, not the sandy-haired Jesse featured on the history channel.  A Cole Younger relative also came by the booth to offer a bit of information.  A number of Civil War historians offered information about the Missouri troops in the area during the civil War and Reconstruction.

"Jim Bowie" Reinactment

Aside from the old book, the most interesting story was an old legend about a gold carriage that was owned by a wealthy planter in Natchez.  According to the legend, the gold came from the church wealth of Mexico and was stolen, found, then hidden in the glittery overlay of a fancy carriage and then, sunk in a bog between Jonesville and Jena Louisiana at the onset of the Civil War.

The two-day festival set up under the limbs of beautiful old Oak trees just within a stone’s throw of the Mississippi is a real trip back into another time.  The featured event is a mock duel fought by the famous Jim Bowie.  The actual duel was fought on a sand bar in the middle of the Mississippi because dueling was illegal in Louisiana and Mississippi at that time.  Actors in appropriate costumes gave colorful reality to the event and came from as far as New Orleans to participate.

Members of the Major General William T. Martin Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans, were offering attractive small crafts and gift baskets to the festival public with proceeds going to the restoration of Beauvoir, the home of Jefferson Davis and his Presidential Library, a Mississippi Landmark, and a National Historic Landmark damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
“Jim Bowie” is rated as one of the best festivals attended by Walker-Wyatt.

Sons of Confederate Veterans

Copyright 2007, Reggie Anne Walker-Wyatt