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Historic cypress plank displayed at Capitol goes missing Whereabouts of the 1,200-year-old artifact is unknown
BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Tigers safety A.J. Haulcy races upfield after the second interception against the Florida Gators in the second quarter of Saturday’s game at Tiger Stadium. No. 3 LSU struggled offensively against Florida, but for another week, that did not hurt the Tigers. The LSU defense was able to intercept Florida quarterback DJ Lagway five times, including a pick-six by sophomore safety Dashawn Spears in the third quarter. It is the first time that LSU recorded five interceptions in one game since playing Ole Miss in 2020. The 3-0 Tigers play Southeastern Louisiana next before hitting the rest of their SEC schedule, so the offense will need to step it up soon.
ä SEE
COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE LSU GAME. PAGE 1C
An ancient, 20-foot cypress wood board that held a prominent place at the State Capitol for decades has gone missing, and no one seems to know where it is. Or at least no one is admitting it. The board was cut from a tree in Livingston Parish near Lake Maurepas that was estimated to be 1,284 years old, according to words etched into the flat plank. Former House Speaker Clay Schexnayder said that, for 10 years, the board was on the wall of his district office in Gonzales. But he said he left it there when his legislative career ended in January 2024. The manager of St. John Properties, which handles the Schexnayder building where Schexnayder’s office was located, won’t discuss the matter. All of this has deeply frustrated the family of Walter Stebbins, who donated the red cypress board to the Capitol in the 1950s and died in 1961. “It’s a piece of history,” said Julius Mullins, a retired doctor in Baton Rouge who is one of Stebbins’ grandchildren. “It was a museum piece on display for the people of Louisiana.” It was a point of pride for Mullins and other family members every time they visited the Capitol to admire their grandfather’s handiwork on a wall in the ground-floor breezeway underneath the building’s steps. They noted that words etched in the board said it was cut from a cypress tree that was
ä See PLANK, page 6A
LETHAL HEAT LOUISIANA’S QUIET DISASTER
Heat deaths rise as region warms Humidity makes it harder for people to cool themselves, making La. especially vulnerable
became unbearable. He mowed his lawn, facing the neighborhood where he had spent BY SAM KARLIN | Staff writer his whole life, from playing football The heat set in before sunrise in in the street to building a family with his wife. Algiers. Then a neighbor saw him collapse. Outside his yellow brick home, His wife, Sheila Borskey, felt Dornell Anderson ventured into the stagnant August air, trying to finish her stomach drop when she got yard work before the temperature the phone call from the West Bank First in a series
WEATHER HIGH 93 LOW 70 PAGE 8B
hospital where her husband had gone from working as a cook to being treated as a patient. She rushed to see him. Anderson, just 60 years old, had died of a heart attack. The Orleans Parish coroner said his death was the result of heart complications exacerbated by the extreme heat. It was the 25th death in New Orleans that summer to be classified as heat-related. Anderson was active and in good health, making his death surprising
ä See HEAT, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Heat haze distorts Canal Street and streetcars during a heat advisory in New Orleans in July.
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Classified ..................... 2F Living............................1D Nation-World................2A Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 76
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