An alligator's teeth aren't that sharp, really.
They don't need to be.
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Scott Brunner/News-Journal Photo | Alligators fight for food during a feeding at Gators and Friends in Greenwood, La.
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When a gator clamps its powerful jaws onto its prey — and if the meat and bone are too bulky to swallow — it grips tight and spins onto its back, tearing the flesh into manageable, bloody chunks. The average adult male measures 11\u20091/2 feet long and weighs half a ton. It can make a quick snack of young livestock, dogs, cats and, if you're not careful, small children.
"You can hear their bones breaking when they're eating," said James Willett, a Shreveport man who raises gators. "A big one, he could bite your arm, and it would just break the bones. ... If they grab your arm and start flipping, it's to rip it off."
American alligators lurk in slow-moving waters from North Carolina to the Rio Grande, and East Texas is no exception.
For the third installment of the News-Journal's summer day trip series, we steeled our nerves for a close encounter with the prehistoric reptiles — as well as a few of their friends.
A quirky tradition
Mid-morning sun pierced the splatters of bugs on the windshield as we set off from Longview, heading east toward the Louisiana border. A little early for lunch, maybe, but we were hungry, and an unusual little sandwich beckoned only 20 miles outside of town.
Texas is cattle country, by God, but a tiny diner in Marshall has bucked the beef tradition for more than 80 years. Neely's has become a local tradition in its own right, famous for its Brown Pig sandwich of pulled pork with tangy barbecue sauce, lettuce and a dab of mayonnaise, all served on a toasted bun.
"It's just a little different," said Sally Cobb, who with her sister, Sue Lazaro, are the third owners of the old-timey diner.
"The older people say it's exactly the same as it used to be," she said, but "it might be more meat."
I devoured my Brown Pig in a few bites, wiped the barbecue sauce from my chin and studied the diner's walls, a repository of Marshall history. Framed photos of famous natives Y.A. Tittle and Bill Moyers and other locals hang above the booths, and customers can still order from the walk-up window if they're too busy to step inside.
"It's been here forever," Cobb said. "It's just a hometown-environment restaurant."
Lost in yesteryear
The alligators were waiting, but from Neely's, we took a quick detour down the old Stagecoach Road.
The red Jeep kicked up dust on the ancient dirt trail that, 150 years ago, transported cotton and other freight between Marshall and Shreveport. So many coaches traveled the dirt road from 1850 through the Civil War that the iron-rimmed wheels and horses' hooves trampled the narrow roadbed, carving it as deep as 12 feet into the hillside.
Today, the steep dirt walls still rise high above the stretch of Stagecoach Road near Marshall.
We drove from there to Scottsville Cemetery, a quiet and secluded place that many people consider the most beautiful burial ground in Texas. The namesake Scott clan moved to Texas in 1840 and built elaborate memorials to their deceased loved ones, including a famous statue of a weeping angel and a Gothic Revival chapel of native stone, dedicated in 1904.
Scottsville isn't far from our next stop, Jonesville, a bend in the road that time seems to have forgotten. On one side of the byway is an old metal cotton gin, and on the other is the T.C. Lindsey & Co. Store, a white wooden building known in these parts, simply, as the Jonesville store.
Inside, we found jam-packed rows of old farming equipment and other reminders of bygone eras on the walls, on the shelves and on the floor of rough wooden planks. We helped ourselves to dripping-cold bottles of birch beer and met a kindly octogenarian who said she knew a thing or two about the store's long history.
The Jonesville store supplied cotton farmers of eastern Harrison County after it was built in 1921, said Syble Elliott, who has been a store clerk since the early 1950s and still greets customers from behind the counter.
"They furnished all the people the food and dry goods and stuff like that," she said. "Then when (the farmers) would have their cotton, they would pay up."
Over time, however, the cotton gave way to a bigger money maker — oil. T.C. Lindsey owner Sam Vaughan ginned his last bale of cotton in the early 1970s.
"People ask, 'Where were all the cotton fields?' " Elliott said. "I tell them, 'They're where all the oil wells and woods are now.' "
As cotton declined, Vaughan set out to preserve and document the old way of life before it slipped away. The memorabilia he gathered is not for sale, Elliott must frequently explain to inquiring customers.
Instead, people buy a range of knickknacks, post cards, art, books, and blocks of Wisconsin cheese, sliced on a century-old cutting block.
"They usually come for our cheese," Elliott said. "That's our big seller now."
We skipped the cheese. It was time to confront some gators.
Into the wild
We drove through Waskom on U.S. 80 and crossed the state line into Louisiana.
Almost immediately on the right, a sign announced the entrance to Gators and Friends, an alligator park and petting zoo. There, around 200 alligators lurk in murky water, wrestling and snapping at each other.
Past the gator ponds, a long footpath leads visitors to the petting zoo, where a zebra will slurp from your palm if there's even a hint of feed in it. Other animals ready to be petted and fed include ostriches, reindeer, alpacas, wallabies and a host of miniature horses, goats, cattle and other "semi-exotic" creatures.
I was foolhardy enough to ask Willett for a wrestling match with one of his smaller gators. He consented, but when the time came the baby's jaws had been secured shut.
"We tape its mouth so it's safe," Willett said. "The most they can do is just wiggle a bit. That's the extent of it."
I cupped one hand under its neck and another under the tail. Its skin was cool and smooth, and surprisingly soft — not leathery at all. I raised him above my head in a signal of great victory.
Cooling off
Already in Louisiana, we drove the remaining 15 miles into downtown Shreveport and cooled off at the Blind Tiger, a Cajun restaurant dressed up as an old English pub.
"Blind Tiger" was a name for illegal speakeasies during Prohibition, according to the restaurant, where we feasted on shrimp and crawfish, cups of gumbo and blackened catfish. After the meal, fellow traveler and Web Editor Scott Brunner met up with a friend and left for a shindig on the rooftop of Harrah's Casino.
With an evening to burn, I thought about losing a little money at one of the other gambling halls, but ultimately decided against it. It was time to high-tail it home to East Texas.
*****
On the trip
Neely's
Munch a famous Brown Pig barbecue sandwich or sample the casual diner fare at this Marshall tradition since 1927.
Where: 1404 E. Grand Ave. in Marshall
Phone: (903) 935-9040
Stagecoach Road
Drive along the same dirt path that pre-Civil War horse-drawn coaches once followed when traveling between Shreveport and Marshall.
Where: On East Loop 390 North in Marshall, turn north onto Harris Lake Road. When the blacktop ends, you're on Stagecoach Road.
Scottsville Cemetery
Stroll through a turn-of-the-century cemetery widely considered to be among the prettiest in Texas.
Where: On FM 1998 in Scottsville, east of Marshall.
T.C. Lindsey & Co. Store
Return to a simpler time at this out-of-the-way general store that doubles as an informal museum of bygone rural life.
Where: On FM 134 in Jonesville, northwest of Waskom.
Phone: (903) 687-3382
Gators and Friends
Watch alligators feeding ferociously or hand-feed the tamer critters yourself at this gator park and semi-exotic animal petting zoo.
Where: On U.S. 80 in Greenwood, La., just across the border from Waskom.
Phone: (318) 938-1199
Web site: www.gatorsandfriends.com
Blind Tiger Restaurant and Bar
A Cajun restaurant/English pub a short walk from the Sam?s Town and Eldorado casinos.
Where: 120 Texas St. in downtown Shreveport
Phone: (318) 226-8747
Web site: www.blindtigerrestaurant.com
About the series
News-Journal reporter Wes Ferguson and Web site Content Editor Scott Brunner are spending part of the summer traveling around East Texas, giving readers ideas for day trips. See past stories and videos online at news-journal.com/daytrips.
June 22: On and around Caddo Lake
June 29: From Gilmer to Lone Star
Today: Crossing the border
July 6: A maze of kitsch
