Bodock Understood ~ Why The Bodock Post
The tree represents many of what are thought to be desirable traits in humans including stress-tolerance, and decay-resistance. It has wood capable of being formed into useful tools and/or objects of enduring beauty. Byproducts of the bodock tree include pesticides, and antibiotics. The bodock tree is known in many parts of the country as an Osage orange (Maclura pomifera), a name supplied by European settlers, who found the tree thriving in parts of Arkansas, Oklohoma, and Texas and was greatly prized by the Osage Indians for making bows, hatchet handles, and war clubs. Its fruit is more grapefruit-sized than orange-sized, though the bodock is actually a mulberry. French explorers named the bodock tree bois d’arc, meaning “wood of the bow,” a name that has been passed down to us in anglicized form as both bodark, and bodock. According to The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the bodock tree is known by a number of common names with many representing specific usage: bowwood, fence shrub, hedge, hedge apple, hedge orange, horse-apple, mock orange, naranjo chino and postwood. Though the bodock’s density made it hard to cut and work, settlers found its heartwood useful for wheel hubs and railroad ties. Before the invention of barbed wire, bodock trees were planted to create hedge rows or fences. Afterwards, the durable wood was used for fence posts. Its bark was used in tanning leather, and an extract from root bark was used to dye clothes and baskets. Persons traveling through Northeast Mississippi often express an ignorance of our bodock trees, but most are familiar with its common name in their respective area, usually as hedge apple and Osage orange. Festival organizers in Pontotoc, Mississippi chose to name Pontotoc’s annual arts and crafts extravaganza The Bodock Festival, partly because of the abundance of bodock trees throughout Pontotoc and Pontotoc County and partly because the largest bodock tree in the state stood on the grounds of Lochinvar, an antebellum home near Pontotoc. The tree was destroyed by the 2001 tornado that almost obliterated historic Lochinvar. Perhaps the tree bore just enough of the destructive tornado, effectively sparing a sufficient portion of Lochinvar, thus enabling its owners to later restore the house to its former glory. Here, at The Bodock Post, we proudly include bodock in the title of our publication. We asked potential subscribers to help us choose a name. The voting was close, and in the political world a runoff would be necessary, as none of the four “candidates” received more than fifty-percent of the vote. We thank all who participated in the name selection process and have been encouraged by the number of alternate suggestions for our title. While we liked the word play of bodock post as it relates to posts made from bodock, The Saturday Evening Post provided the initial inspiration for our thought behind our new name. We may never match the longevity of the Saturday Evening Post, but we pledge to bring articles of interest to those with roots in rural America. Addendum 10/29/2008: Recently, I've encountered a number of people, in my travels out of state, who couldn't pronounce bodock. It's pronounced bo-dock, with both syllables stressed equally. Bo is pronounced bow, as in bow and arrow. ~ By Wayne Carter/ Associate Editor
Copyright © 2008 The Bodock Post.
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Why
we chose a word that’s foreign to many people and made it a foundational
part of the title of this publication is not hard to understand, if you’re
from Northeast Mississippi. Bodock is a fruit bearing tree that is not limited
to north Mississippi, and can be found in most states east of the Mississippi
River and from the Great Plains almost to the Rocky Mountains, as well as
parts of the Pacific Northwest.