Plantations Along the Great River Road

Sugar cane was a massive and lucrative agricultural industry, along the southern Mississippi River. It was called "white gold", because of the large profits on the backs of slave labor. Plantation country, as it is known, is mainly along the west side of the Mississippi River running between New Orleans and Natchez, Mississippi. Many of these homes were destroyed during the Civil War, which ended that era. Some remain, restored to their former glory. About forty plantations are now open for public tours. We stopped at five of these plantations along LA18, River Road and toured two of them.

 

OAK ALLEY PLANTATION

Oak Alley is known for its distinguishing feature of 28 southern live oaks trees planted 800 feet apart. The trees are estimated to be between 220-250 years old.

The "Big House" was completed in 1839 by the first owner, Jacques Roman, in Greek Revival architecture.

The 1920's formal garden, referred to as the East Garden.

The second-floor balcony/porch presents a view of the vast sugar cane fields and encircles the entire house.

Pictures were prohibited inside the home.

The back side of the home is almost as beautiful as the front.

On the back side of the home an oak lined path led to the slave quarters and blacksmith shop.

Old kettles used for boiling sugar cane now provide ornamental landscaping features.

This plantation once housed over 200 slaves. Some of the slave quarters have been restored and contain artifacts detailing the lives of sugar plantation slaves. House, field, and craftsmen slaves resided in separate cabins. One of Oak Alley's slaves actually developed the technique of grafting pecan trees that resulted in today's paper shell pecans.

ST. JOSEPH PLANTATION

We passed by the St. Joseph Plantation along the River Road. Took a picture, but not a tour.

This is a Creole Plantation, meaning household speaks French, of Catholic religion, and are native born Louisianans.

LAURA PLANTATION

This raised brick basement Creole plantation house was built in 1805. Originally named the Duparc Sugar Plantation, the name of the first residents.

The Parlor

An electrical fire in 2004 singed much of the back of the house as well as destroying the entire kitchen wing. Much work went into restoring this beautiful home.

Here is what remains of the kitchen wing burned in 2004.

Formal Gardens

Restored Slave Quarters

EVERGREEN PLANTATION

This plantation tour is temporarily closed. 

Evergreen Plantation is the most complete plantation complex in the south. Twenty-two slave cabins, gardens, and many outbuildings remain on the property. 

Morgan City, Louisiana

We left the Rio Grande Valley on April 21st, with a quick stop in Victoria, Texas, before heading toward Louisiana.

LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA

We made a two night stop just east of Lake Charles at the Blue Heron RV Park in Iowa, LA. 

Since we were in Lake Charles for two nights, we had time for the 129-mile Creole Nature Trail Circle Tour. The scenic byway passes through four national wildlife refuges and includes a ferry crossing at the Calcasieu Ship Channel. Along the way we passed many towns that had been wiped off the map by hurricanes, leaving only cement foundations. On many of the foundations, we saw RVs apparently parked by the owners to replace their homes.

We took the loop in the clockwise direction and ended up in Lake Charles for dinner.

The two-mile Pintail Wildlife Drive was very interesting. We saw many birds along the way, including glossy and white-faced ibis, teals, stilts, purple gallinules, herons, egrets, coots, grebes, phoebes, warblers, red winged blackbirds, and a number of alligators.

The Ferry across the shipping channel took just minutes.

MORGAN CITY

On Monday we traveled 133 miles to our next stop in Morgan City. We stayed at the Lake End County Park and Marina on Lake Palourde. 

We had a quiet back-in spot just over the berm from the lake and marina.

International Petroleum Museum and Exposition

Morgan City is well known for its petroleum and shrimp industries. We found the Petroleum Museum very interesting. Our tour guide, Virgil, gave us a private tour of "Mr. Charlie", an authentic offshore oil drilling Rig. This drilling rig is retired and sits on the shore of the Lower Atchafalaya River. It is now used for education and training. Mr. Charlie was the first offshore drilling rig for depths up to 40 feet of water. From 1954 to 1986 Mr. Charlie drilled hundreds of offshore wells off the gulf coast.

The drilling rig had accommodations for a crew of 58 men.

This is a retired unmanned production platform, used to pump oil from well heads after the drilling rig had finished its work.

This basket is lifted by a crane down to the deck of a ship to load or offload workers.

View of the over 100-foot-tall oil drilling derrick. 

Southwest Reef Lighthouse

For over 70 years, since 1859, this lighthouse stood at the passage into the Atchafalaya Bay. It was retired in 1916 and now sits at this site on the Lower Atchafalaya River across from Morgan City.

The "Great Wall" runs for miles to protect the river communities from flooding. Floodgates can be closed as needed.

Nottoway Plantation

Prior to the civil war, more than half of America's millionaires lived between New Orleans and Natchez. Nottoway Plantation is the south's largest antebellum mansion. It was closed on the day we were in that area, but we did stop for pictures.

Completed in 1859, the 53,000 square foot mansion has 15-foot-tall ceilings.

View of the formal gardens in the rear of the mansion.

BATON ROUGE

Louisiana's Old State Capitol

This Gothic architectural building served as the state capitol for over 160 years until 1932.

The grand staircase provides great views of the beautiful stain glass dome.

The House of Representatives Chamber is now used for presentations. The building also contains an exhibit documenting Louisiana's political history.

Louisiana State Capitol

In 1932 the new State Capitol opened about ten blocks from the old state capitol.

On the front lawn of the capitol this statue marks the gravesite of the controversial governor, Huey Long, who was assassinated while in office in 1935. 

We took two elevators to the 27th floor observation deck. From there we could see all of Baton Rouge along the Mississippi River. Just as we were about to board the elevator to return to the main floor, a waterpipe burst and the observation deck was closed for the rest of the day. Glad that was our first stop. Timing is everything.

House Chamber

Senate Chamber

 

Winter 2022-2023

We arrived in the Lower Rio Grande Valley on October 26. This is our 14th winter to volunteer for LRGV NWR as Refuge Operation Specialists. Fancy title, which means we visit the properties and repair, replace, clean-up, and anything else that needs doing. There are approximately 130 refuge tracts, totaling nearly 150,000 acres. This season we were able to visit all of them.

BEYOND VAN GOGH; The Immersive Experience

On Thanksgiving Day we purchased tickets for the Beyond Van Gogh traveling exhibit on display at the McAllen Convention Center. The exhibit shows over 300 of the artist's works, including music, quotes, letters and sketches in a multimedia presentation utilizing over 100 projectors.

We sometimes sat and watched as the projected images changed with the music.

WORKING AROUND THE VALLEY (LRGV)

 Some cows got lost and strayed onto the Teniente Tract. 

Every year we encounter stray cows on at least one of the Refuge properties. This usually involves fence repairs. Refuge Law Enforcement notifies the rancher to round them up or forfeit them. 

One of our favorite lunch spots, Boca Chica Beach.

Adjacent to Boca Chica Beach is Stargate, the build and launch site for SpaceX.

Four rockets in various stages of completion.

We always enjoy seeing this antique Texaco Gas Station at the side of the road near the Chapeno tract, west of the city of Roma.

As the weather warms, we often see turtles, rattlesnakes and blue indigo snakes crossing the road. We do stop and help the turtles cross but avoid handling the snakes. 

Spring is a wonderful time to witness desert flowers in bloom.

Within the Garzos Cavazos tract is an old cemetery that is still very occasionally visited. On our last day of volunteering for the season we were instructed to find and clear the path to the cemetery. 

We found 40-50 gravesites. Some even dated back to the 1800's.

We used loppers, weed eater and pole saw to clear the area around the graves.