Hardtner had opposed the administration of Governor Huey Long. In August 1935, Hardtner was killed in a train-car crash while headed from La Salle Parish to Baton Rouge to defend his company in a tax dispute with the state government. The tragedy of the fatal accident is ironic in that Hardtner was president of his own railroad freight line in La Salle Parish."Henry E. Hardtner Killed," American Forests 41 (September 1935), p. 559 Hardtner's legacy centers on the management of forests on a sustained-yield basis to create a marketable timber crop in perpetuity. His example was eventually followed thereafter in setting timber management policies throughout the state, region, and nation. Oddly, a month after Hardtner's death, Huey Long died of wounds sustained from his assassination at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge.
