Caroline Dormon


Caroline Coroneos Dormon, also known as Carrie Dormon, was an American botanist, horticulturist, ornithologist, historian, archeologist, preservationist, naturalist, conservationist, and author from Louisiana.
She was the first female employee of the United States Forestry Service and is considered by some as Louisiana's first conservationist.
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 a Southern Baptist in Arcadia, the parish seat of government of Bienville Parish, in northern Louisiana. She never married.

Background

As a child, Dormon developed a great interest in plants and wildlife. She was educated at the Baptist-affiliated Judson College, Marion, Alabama, from which she received a bachelor's degree in literature and art. 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.

Diversified career

In 1921, she became a public relations representative for the Louisiana Forestry Department. She attended a Southern Forestry Congress in 1922 and persuaded the United States Forest Service to establish a national forest in Louisiana. U.S. Representative James B. Aswell of Natchitoches worked with Dormon to bring to fruition the Kisatchie National Forest, which was designated in 1930 during President Herbert Hoover's administration.
In 1941, during the administration of Governor Sam Houston Jones, Dormon joined the Louisiana Highway Department as beautification consultant. She was later a landscape consultant for the Huey P. Long Charity Hospital in Pineville, Louisiana east of the Red River. She also served as consultant for Hodges Gardens.
Dormon also proposed what became the Louisiana State Arboretum, located some eight miles north of Ville Platte, the seat of Evangeline Parish, as part of nearby Chicot State Park. The 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.
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's expedition across the American Southeast, which crossed northern Louisiana.
In 1965, she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Science award from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The Dormon Collection is located at the Eugene P. Watson Memorial Library of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.
In August 2012, the Rapides Parish School Board opened Caroline Dormon Junior High School Woodworth. The school is located on a site, off U.S. Highway 165. Land for the school was donated by the United States Forest Service from the Kisatchie National Forest.

Death and legacy

Dormon died in Shreveport. She is interred at the Briarwood Baptist Church Cemetery near her home. Dormon willed her home, Briarwood, to the public. Located near Saline in southern Bienville Parish, it is the headquarters of the Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve.
Natchitoches attorney and philanthropist Arthur C. Watson organized the Foundation for the Preservation of the Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve and served as its treasurer until his death in 1984. The Caroline Dormon Trail extending in the Kisatchie Bayou Recreation Complex within the national forest. The trail starts at the Longleaf Scenic Byway.

Publications

Her published works include: