Interviewer(s): Rylan Higgins; A. Gardner. Morgan City, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

We were referred to Butch Felterman by Jackie Paice. In the first interview, which was conducted as a pilot for the study, he talked about boats and his company. Andrew decided it would be a good idea to revisit him and talk a little bit more about his personal history, his company's history, and the history of the community of Patterson. Butch is pretty quiet, and the interview didn't go very long, but there are interesting things in here nonetheless. Interesting points of the interview include his descriptions of historical Patterson. Also, it is of note that he didn't become involved in the oil industry until well into the 1960s - later than Conrad Industries and some of the other boat companies in the region.

Butch was born in a logging camp on the shores of West Lake Verret. His family moved back to Patterson shortly after his birth, and he eventually graduated from high school there. During the summers of high school, he spent a fair bit of time working on the shrimpboats, and boats became the love of his life. He went to LSU for two years, but he eventually returned to Patterson, bought a shrimpboat, and became one of the youngest captains in the region. He slowly began to accumulate more boats. In the mid-1960s, he had a boat built specifically for service in the oil industry, and from that point forward, his business really took off. He had a variety of boats built and under lease to a wide variety of companies over the years. He sold his company in 1997, and at the time of sale, he had 26 boats in service.