Lively Louisiana: cooking, carnival, and crawfish keep things spicy in the Bayou State

Travel America, May-June, 2004 by Darlene P. Copp

Just as its customs and traditions make Louisiana stand out among the states, its waters--powerful rivers, lazy bayous, murky swamps, coastal marshes--define its history and ways of life. Its 6.5 million acres of wetlands exceed that of any other state. The Mississippi River enters the Gull of Mexico through the vast Louisiana delta after traveling more than 2,300 miles and draining 41 percent of the United States.

To see how the mighty Mississippi affected the state's fortunes, follow U.S. 65 in the northern region, where you will often drive alongside the river's levees. The Louisiana State Cotton Museum at Lake Providence portrays production of the crop, past and present. Besides an exhibits building, the complex includes a 1920s gin, sharecropper's cabin, and plantation church--typical of the many you will see dotting the countryside.

If ancient mysteries intrigue you, detour to Poverty Point State Historic Site. As one of several prehistoric mound sites in the state, this blufftop grouping of earthworks dates to 1500 B.C. and, because of its size and complexity, is one of the most significant archaeological sites in North America. A similar site at Marksville also protects and interprets archaic mounds.

Near Newellton, Winter Quarters State Historic Site preserves the only survivor of 15 antebellum plantation houses that faced an oxbow lake before being destroyed by Union troops. Moving into the state's central region, you can explore the cotton economy at Frogmore, where the operations of a modern plantation are contrasted with antebellum times as represented by 18 historic buildings, including slave dwellings from 1810.

In Alexandria, Kent Plantation House started as a cotton plantation in 1795 and remained one until 1911. The marvelously intact, superbly furnished structure--a classic example of French Colonial construction, using bousillage (a mixture of mud, moss, and animal hair) between cypress posts--sheds real light on life 200 years ago. While in Alexandria, you learn about the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1940, a massing of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to participate in a "dress rehearsal" for World War II. Now-famous generals formed strategy at the 1908 Hotel Bentley, crowned by a domed, stained-glass ceiling. Restored, it is still open for business.

Ferrying the Mississippi at New Roads, you reach the eight parishes (counties) that were part of West Florida until 1810. Distinctly English, St. Francis-ville maintains fragments of a mid-1800s cotton society in large estates lavish with gardens. Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site preserves an 1834 mansion, many original furnishings, and historic gardens. The 1795 Butler Greenwood Plantation, now a bed and breakfast, remains in the family that built it. An unusual opportunity here is a free pass into the Louisiana State Penitentiary Museum at Angola.

Overlooking the Mississippi, the Art Deco State Capitol in Baton Rouge is the tallest in the nation, rising 34 stories. Bordering Cajun Country, the capital city exudes an energetic blend of Cajun, Creole, and Louisiana's other ethnic influences, including German, Italian, and Greek. Near the Louisiana State University campus, 20 buildings depict plantation and folk architecture at the Rural Life Museum.

Grand houses created by sugar cane wealth sit along both banks of the Mississippi as it snakes between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Nottoway, the South's largest remaining plantation house, shares its surroundings with jarring reminders of the modern-day oil industry. Colorful San Francisco Plantation, built in the flamboyant Steamboat Gothic style, displays elements of its builder's Bavarian heritage. Tours at both Laura, a Creole Plantation, and Evergreen, the most intact Southern plantation complex, emphasize their reliance on slavery. At the River Road African American Museum in Donaldsonville, the lives of both enslaved and free blacks are documented.

Living near the mouth of the Mississippi, New Orleanians live up to their reputation as "The City that Care Forgot." After all, it was built on a swamp! Culturally eclectic and often eccentric, New Orleans society grew from Franco-Spanish roots, whence came the Creole nomenclature. (Originally, the term applied to children of French and Spanish settlers in the early 1700s.) Feel the beat of the Crescent City by walking through the French Quarter or Garden District, cruising the Mississippi--perhaps on the riverboat shuttle between the Aquarium of the Americas and the Audubon Zoo, airboating through a nearby swamp, and then crowding into Preservation Hall at night for traditional jazz.

Then there's Mardi Gras, which can be sampled year round at Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World, where all the floats and costumes are produced. During Mardi Gras season, commencing January 6, a carnival atmosphere spreads across Louisiana. Lafayette, French-speaking capital of Louisiana, hosts the most elaborate parades outside New Orleans. It is also a prone place to learn about Cajuns. Why they migrated here and how they live unfolds at the National Park Service's Acadian Cultural Center; Acadian Village, a restored bayou town of the early 19th century; and Vermilionville, a folklife park. St. Martinville echoes their story at the Acadian Memorial and Evangeline Monument.