Caroline Dormon
Encyclopedia
Caroline Coroneos Dormon (July 19, 1888 - November 21, 1971) was a botanist, horticulturist, ornithologist, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, archeologist, preservationist
Preservationist
Preservationist is generally understood to mean historic preservationist: one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects or sites from demolition or degradation...

, naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

, conservationist
Conservationist
Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...

, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 from Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

. She was born in modest circumstances at Briarwood, the family home in northern Natchitoches Parish, to James L. Dormon and the former Caroline Trotti. She was reared in Arcadia
Arcadia, Louisiana
Arcadia is a town in and the parish seat of Bienville Parish in north Louisiana, United States. The population was 3,041 at the 2000 census....

, the seat of Bienville Parish, in northern Louisiana. She never married.

As a child, she developed a great interest in plants and wildlife. She was educated at the Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

-affiliated Judson College
Judson College (Alabama)
Judson College, originally named Judson Female Institute, was founded by members of the Siloam Baptist Church in 1838 in Marion, Alabama. It is the fifth oldest women's college in the United States. It was named after Ann Hasseltine Judson, the first female foreign missionary from the United States...

 in Marion
Marion, Alabama
Marion is the county seat of Perry County, Alabama. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 3,511. First called Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed after a hero of the American Revolution, Francis Marion.-Geography:...

 (Perry County
Perry County, Alabama
Perry County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It was established in 1819, and is named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry of Rhode Island and the United States Navy. As of 2010 the population was 10,591...

), Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, from which she received a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 in literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 and art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

. 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. In 1921, she became a public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 representative for the Louisiana Forestry Department. She attended a Southern Forestry Congress in 1922 and persuaded the United States Forest Service
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...

 to establish a national forest in Louisiana. U.S. Representative James B. Aswell of Natchitoches
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...

 worked with Dormon to bring to fruition the Kisatchie National Forest
Kisatchie National Forest
Kisatchie National Forest, the only National forest in Louisiana, USA, is located in the state's old growth piney hills and hardwood bottoms of seven central and northern parishes. It totals more than of public lands....

, which was designated in 1930 during the administration of President Herbert C. Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

.

In 1941 during the administration of Governor Sam Houston Jones, Caroline Dormon joined the Louisiana Highway Department (Department of Transportation and Development) as beautification consultant. She was later a landscape consultant for the Huey P. Long Charity Hospital
Charity Hospital
Charity Hospital was one of two teaching hospitals which were part of the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans . Three weeks after the events of Hurricane Katrina, then Governor Kathleen Blanco said that Charity Hospital would not reopen, even though the military had scrubbed the building to...

 in Pineville
Pineville, Louisiana
Pineville is a city in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is adjacent to the city of Alexandria, and is part of that city's Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,829 at the 2000 census....

 in Rapides Parish east of the Red River from Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....

.

She was also a consultant for the popular Hodges Gardens State Park
Hodges Gardens State Park
Hodges Gardens State Park, previously known as Hodges Gardens, Park and Wilderness Area, is located on between Florien and Hornbeck, near the Toledo Bend Reservoir of the Sabine River in Sabine Parish, in west central Louisiana. The park is located on U.S. Highway 171 some fifteen miles south of...

 near Many
Many, Louisiana
Many is a town in and the parish seat of Sabine Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,889 at the 2000 census. The town was named for John B. Many, the commander of nearby Fort Jesup.-History:...

, the seat of Sabine Parish. The park opened as a private development in the 1950s, but came under the operation of the State of Louisiana in April 2007.

Dormon also proposed what became the Louisiana State Arboretum
Louisiana State Arboretum
The Louisiana State Arboretum , is an arboretum located on Louisiana Highway 3042, approximately 13 km north of Ville Platte, Louisiana inside of Chicot State Park, USA, and bordering a branch of Lake Chicot...

, located some eight miles (13 km) north of Ville Platte
Ville Platte, Louisiana
Ville Platte is a city in and the parish seat of Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 8,145 at the 2000 census. Its name is derived from the French ville plate, or "flat town."-History:...

, the seat of Evangeline Parish, as part of nearby Chicot State Park. The 301 acres (1.2 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.

Her published works include: Wild Flowers of Louisiana (1934), Forest Trees of Louisiana (1941), Flowers Native to the Deep South (1958), Natives Preferred (1965), Southern Indian Boy (1967), and Bird Talk (1969).

Caroline 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
Hernando de Soto (explorer)
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who, while leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, was the first European documented to have crossed the Mississippi River....

's expedition across the American Southeast, which crossed northern Louisiana.

In 1965, Dormon was presented with an honorary Doctor of Science award from Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...

 in Baton Rouge. The Dormon Collection is located at the Eugene P. Watson
Eugene P. Watson
Eugene Payne Watson was the head librarian and professor of library science at Northwestern State University in his native Natchitoches, Louisiana, from 1940 until his death. He fought to gain greater academic recognition of librarians...

 Memorial Library of Northwestern State University
Northwestern State University
Northwestern State University, known as NSU, is a four-year public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.NSU was founded in 1884 as...

 in Natchitoches.

Briarwood, located near Saline
Saline, Louisiana
Saline is a village in southeastern Bienville Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 296 at the 2000 census. Saline is pronounced: ....

 (Bienville Parish), is now the headquarters of the Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve. Natchitoches attorney and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

 Arthur C. Watson
Arthur C. Watson
Arthur Chopin Watson was an attorney, state legislator, civic leader, philanthropist, and chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party from 1968–1976. He was afflicted with polio in infancy and lost the use of both legs, and his mother died when he was only seven...

 organized the Foundation for the Preservation of the Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve and served as its treasurer until his death in 1984. There is also a Caroline Dormon Trail extending 10.5 miles (16.9 km) in the Kisatchie Bayou Recreation Complex within the national forest. It is popular for horseback riding, hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...

, and bicycling. The trail starts at the Longleaf Scenic Byway.

In August 2012, the Rapides Parish School Board will open Caroline Dormon Junior High School in Woodworth. The school will be built on a 33 acres (133,546.4 m²) site, off of US Hwy. 165. Land for the project was donated by the US Forest Service from the Kisatchie National Forest which is the reason for the junior high's namesake. The K-8th grade school carries a price tag of $6.5 million and will be a “green” school with energy saving tweaks such as solar panels, building and roofing colors, and efficiency of the mechanical and electrical systems. The 50000 square feet (4,645.2 m²) school is expected to open with approximately 300 students.

Dormon is interred in the Briarwood Baptist Church Cemetery near her home.

Dormon willed her home, Briarwood to the public. It is open for tours and other events.

Dormon's published books include Wild Flowers of Louisiana, Flowers Native to the Deep South, Native Preferred, Bird Talk, and Southern Indian Boy. More information is available on Dormon in "The Gift of the Wild Things:" The Life of Caroline Dormon written by Dr. Fran Holman. Also available is Adventures in Wild Flowers: The Timeless Writings of Caroline Dormon, a compilation of fifty articles edited by Dr. Holman.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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