As they heal, it’s harder to see the emblematic “whiskers” that led to them being called catfaces, but these scarred pines gave life to a labor-intensive industry that was integral to American shipping and employed thousands in Southern Georgia until the early 1960s.
“Catface” describes the scars on the trees that remained after they were notched for the collection of resin, aka sap. The main reason for the demand for resin was its use for waterproofing ships, hence the term “naval stores”. Turpentine had myriad uses beyond the naval stores industry.
In the 1800s, trees were “boxed”, a process in which the collection receptacle was cut into the tree itself, and eventually killed it after all the resin was extracted.
UGA professor Charles Herty developed the “Herty Method” in 1901, which produced a better product and allowed the trees to live after they were sapped out.
In this process, a section of bark was removed and an angled notch, or streak, was cut into the wood. Below the notch, metal strips were placed to direct the resin into a collection vessel, sometimes a terra cotta “Herty cup” or a tin cup.
When the first notch stopped producing, a new one would be cut directly above it. This process could be repeated several times, and since the streaks, looked like cat whiskers, the remnant scars were known as catfaces.
Trees involved in the naval stores industry can still be found, if you know where to look.
Most of the characteristic scars have “healed” over time, a testament to the ability of the pines to survive, and have left behind interesting variations. As these trees age and die, there won’t be any new catfaces, so if you see one, you’re seeing something special.
Since most turpentine stands are on private property, the red-blazed trail at Laura S. Walker State Park near Waycross, where I photographed these examples, is one of the best places to see these fascinating landmarks.
Fascinating!
Brian, I enjoyed your photos of the Catfaces. Growing up in the 40’s and 50’s in South Georgia, I witnessed many forests that were covered with trees that had been chipped for turpentine. Once the Pine trees had been chipped (scared) with the hack, they were often sprayed with a bottle of acid. The acid was H2so4 or Hcl. I can’t remember which now. That made the flow of the tar more fluid and increased the yield. The sap was collected in a rectangular tin cup held in place by a nail. When full the sap was dipped from the cup with a special paddle that fit the cup. It was dipped into a tar bucket that was semicircular on one side and the other side next to the laborer was flat. From there these tar buckets were emptied into large wooden stave barrels or metal ones. They were then transported by mule and sled to a gathering point called a barrel head. From there they were shipped to a still like Paceville, Denton, or Hazlehurst, Georgia where the sap was rendered by a still to become a rather clear liquid. The product was used in explosives, medicines, paints, and a host of other products. In early American colonial and Antebellum days, the tar was used to water tighten wooden ships. After the summer season was mostly over, the trees were scraped with a special tool called a scraper to recover the rosin that was left on the tree as a residue of the liquid sap. It was sold too. Reading the census reports of the early to mid-twentieth century, one can check the occupation sections and get a good perspective of how important to employment the Naval Store business was.
There used to be a naval store in Soperton (Treutlen County). My dad worked the pines on our farm when I was very young. I still remember the smell of the tar barrels. Cutting the notches in the trees wasn’t easy, even with a sharp blade (Dad let me try it a time or two). We still have a few of the old tar cups.
Would like for you to post pictures of the tar cups.
6 miles north of Fitzgerald, Georgia a community call Queensland was built mainly to support that industry. It was worked mainly by African-Americans. It was indeed a very hard way to make a living. During the late 40s there was a mill of some type that did some type refining of that tar. I was born in 1945 but as I grew up I remember there was a pond that we used to fish in we called it the mill pond. I have one brother that still live at Queensland I going to ask him about that work. He is older than I am. We called the work “dipping tar”. I do remember it paid really well for that time period.
There was a naval stores facility in Fitzgerald GA when I lived there in the 1950’s and it was managed by my classmate’s father whose last name was Mitchell. We moved away in 1959 and I feel sure this refinery/store is long gone.
The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart is a novel about this way of life. It was depicted as a harsh way to live.
You can see some at Gen Coffee State Park.