FDR hunted more than ducks on visit to south Louisiana

By Jim Bradshaw
jhbradshaw@bellsouth.net

hen Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to south Louisiana for a hunting trip in the winter of 1920, little did he know that he would be hunting for bigger game than ducks and geese.

In those days before he was stricken with polio, Roosevelt was an active outdoorsman.

The future president, then 37 years old, spent the fall of 1920 in an unsuccessful campaign as the Democratic nominee for the vice presidency, making some 400 speeches across the nation on behalf of Ohio Gov. James M. Cox, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Roosevelt was a weary man after the campaign, which saw the election of Republican Warren G. Harding, so he jumped at the opportunity to travel to south Louisiana to rest and hunt at Lowry Plantation near Lake Arthur.

The invitation came from Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Conover of Lake Charles, who did not know FDR but who had met his brother-in-law, G. Hall Roosevelt, Eleanor’s only brother . The Conovers met him when he was stationed at Gertsner Field, a World War I training base at Holmwood, about 15 miles from Lake Charles.

They wrote to Hall, who relayed the invitation to FDR, describing Lowry as “a typical rice plantation in unapproachable country … right on the Gulf in the section populated by ’Cadians” that was “far enough from the railroad to get the best hunting.”

FDR was packed and ready in no time.

The two Roosevelts boarded the train in Washington on November 26 for the trip south. They reached New Orleans on November 28, spent a day there, then hit the rails again for the trip west to Lake Charles.

After an overnight stay in the port city, the Conovers drove the hunting party to Illinois Plantation, southwest of Lake Arthur. They went from there by boat to Lowry for five days of rest, relaxation, and duck and goose hunting.

The Roosevelts had planned a big goose hunt for the morning of December 5; but plans changed abruptly. On the night of December 4 a young boy from Grand Chenier got lost in the marsh.

According to a contemporary newspaper account, “When they arose at three o’clock in the morning they were advised by the guides that the boy had been lost and that the hunt would have to be abandoned until the child had been found.

“An all-night search failed to find the boy, and both Franklin Roosevelt and G. H. Roosevelt joined the searching party.

“The crowd was organized … and the two Roosevelts started out with Franklin in the lead and the honor fell to him of finding the lost boy about 11 o’clock [in the morning]. The signal of six shots was given that the lost boy had been found and all of the searching party returned to the camp and continued the … hunt.”

It was only half a year later, in the summer of 1921, that FDR was struck by polio, ending his days of traipsing through the marshes in search of ducks, geese, or lost boys.