22 Natchitoches

Dec 20th    The picture is two-fold it provides pronunciation and proves to the folks on the other ( Texas) side of the river that it exists.  Every time we start to say this Nacka they correct us with  "Nacogdoches?".  Texans don't seem to know about Louisiana's side of the legend.

Some of the tree's are 500 years old

     We arrived at the information center downtown Natchitoches  around 12:30 PM and the first thing we found out was they believe the legend, the receptionist told us about the two braves that were sent out by the chief and established the two tribes.  She also told us of some of the things we should put on our travel list to see while in the city.   We had came for the river Christmas lights, but were open to suggestions.  One of the items I thought Ruthie might be interested in was a plantation tour and she had mentioned it started at one o'clock.  However Ruthie was visiting, ( I know hard to believe.)  Interrupting,  I mentioned the tour and the time crunch.  Ruthie agreed it sounded like a good idea.  We found out the plantation was 12 miles from the information center.  The first couple of miles were within the city limits so we couldn't do much to hurry but soon we cleared city traffic and kicked it up a notch.  We crossed the Cane river and headed out into the country.  We were running late when we started so we couldn't afford any mistakes in our travel plans.  Ruthie was watching for signs and following the pamphlet from the rear seat and I was pushing the speed as much as I could crossing bridges on at least two occasions, avoiding country traffic and trying to listen to instructions.  The instructions were probably adequate but our late start and lack of road side markers made us skeptical.  When we arrived at what we thought was the parking lot their was only one other vehicle.  There wasn't any signs directing us toward the tour.  It was then that we met one of the two people that would stand out today.  Her name was Nancy, she was helping at the plantation.  She was very helpful and told us she had sent one couple over to the plantation store for the tour and she didn't think the ranger had joined them yet. 

plantation store

It was quite a walk from the parking lot to the store and with Ruthie's recent knee surgery we couldn't hurry very well.  There was no one was at the store when we arrived.  Nancy joined us to see if we had made the tour OK.  She seen the ranger coming over from one of the out buildings and told him she had sent another couple over.  The other couple had been going around the porch of the Home and soon joined us.  It was then that we were introduced to Mrs National Park Stamp Collector.  (didn't know there was such an animal)  Evidently there is a passport book you can buy and then start getting it stamped as you visit the parks.  I found out later that some times they offer incentives like a National park Christmas ornament if you achieve some stamp goal.  It seems that collecting stamps in her book had turned Mrs NPSC into a tyrant and her husband seemed not to want to get in her way.  She joined us and inquired about the stamp.  The ranger told her that we were about to start the tour.  Evidently she had other stamps waiting for her and didn't have time for the tour.  The ranger started to say something and Mrs NPSC said "all I want is my stamp and then I'm leaving."  He said she could get it in the store.  Yup, we meet some interesting people along the way. 

Mule Stables

We were happy that Mr and Mrs NPSC had left as we were given a personal tour of the plantation. The Oakland plantation was now part of the Cane River Creole National Park.  It gave us a chance to learn about life on a plantation and the lives of  the owners, free workers and slaves. Quite an eye opener for a Minnesota farm lad.
 Oaklawn was built in 1821 by the French Pru-done family.  The plantation itself was a small community with its own store for supplies.  It claims to be one of the first producers of cotton on a large scale and had over 100 slaves.  They can trace their family history back to the 1700's seems unfair that I'm not sure where my mother was born.

    Too wordy Vern!  For some reason this tour was very interesting to me.  I will try and finish this section.  .  The owners came from France, with their Code Noir ( the Black code) that king Louie had established in 1789 regarding slaves, removing a slaves ears, hamstringing and death were part of the punishments.  It also decreed that they must be baptized Roman Catholic.  One of the African families worked on the plantation thru six generations.  I have to stop somewhere, however if this interests you, I would suggest you look up "Lousiana's Creoles and Creoles of color" .

     The person in between the Master and the slaves was the overseer.  Responsible for the management of the plantations daily events and slave management he lived with his family in a home closer to the slaves quarters.   

     As we were ready to leave we had a surprise from Nancy, she had picked up a bag of pecans from the yard for us.  She had Family in Minnesota and we had a nice visit with her.   On the way back to town we stopped at the St Augustine Catholic Church that was used in the movie Steel Magnolia's ( In the movie it was Baptist, how things change.) .

     We returned to town, and found a place to spend the evening.  Then as dusk fell we returned to the river bank to view the lights.  The vendors lined the river bank and we purchased a meat pie from one of them, Ruthie decided it was too spicy so I ate this one,  a few feet further a vendor tried to sell her another, she said they were to spicy.  The vendor told her that his were not spicy (we are in Louisiana, ) and that if we purchased his we would like it so well we would throw his neighbors meat pie in the river.  I ended up eating two meat pies that evening.  

     Besides the display on the opposite river bank they had a bridge where the lights danced to the music.  We took a carriage ride around the downtown area, the main theme seemed to be the settings of the movie Steel Magnolia's.  This was a great side trip, I'm glad we took the detour, or maybe it isn't a detour when you are wandering.