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Charlie Wyant

Charlie Wyant was a cowboy, a rough-hand laborer, a farmer, a fisherman, a hunter, a trapper, and so much more. He was a handsome man, known for his lean, chiseled features and his infectious grin.

Four years before his death in 2019, Charlie got down from his saddle just long enough, at age 87, to write down the memories of his life spent on the banks of the Ouachita River, in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana. His was a life of both triumph and tragedy, love and loss.

Charlie had a deep, abiding place in his heart for Caldwell Parish, the river, the trees and, as he remarked in his memoirs, he "fell in love with that Castor Creek". Charlie continued saddling up his horse and riding through the woods, and along the banks of the Ouachita River, even as he entered his 90s.

In 1985, on December 27, his beloved Cora Lee was killed in a tragic car wreck and exactly 34 years later, to the very day, on December 27, Charlie let go of his grip on life and went to join her. He was laid to rest in the wooden, pine coffin that he built for himself and seared with his own registered cattle brand, with his head resting on his saddle; still handsome, ever the cowboy.