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| Louisiana’s antebellum past survives in 200-year-old hunting lodge What was once a winter hunting lodge two centuries ago in eastern Louisiana now welcomes visitors who are hunting for antebellum history and architecture. The Winter Quarters State Historic Site, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, stands as a rare survivor of the ravages of the Civil War. The large, airy structure is the only one of its kind along the banks of scenic Lake St. Joseph in eastern Louisiana. It remains a reflection of the state’s rich past as a center for cotton production. In 1805, Job Routh built a three-room winter hunting lodge on a Spanish land grant not far from Newellton near the Mississippi River. Later, Routh’s heirs added several more rooms and a gallery, and then Dr. Haller Nutt and his wife Julia purchased the home in 1850. Wealthy planters with holdings in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Nutts not only added to the home but they used new methods of growing cotton to make the plantation thrive. Surviving documents show that the plantation grew to more than 2,000 acres, housed more than 300 slaves and included an extraordinary scope of operations, including several cotton gins, a sawmill, barns, a hospital, a smokehouse, boat docks, milk house and more. During the Vicksburg Campaign of the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s powerful army marched through the region. The Union soldiers carried out Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s orders to destroy everything not needed by the Union troops. However, the Nutts were Union sympathizers and Julia reportedly implored Gen. Grant to spare her house in exchange for which she would feed and quarter troops. Visitors today can experience an era long since vanished by exploring the home. Tours highlight the history of the plantation and the Nutt family, and many period pieces of furniture are on display, including a perfectly preserved billiard table dating to 1845. The site is located in eastern Louisiana along the Mississippi border about eight miles southeast of Newellton on Louisiana Highway 608. For more details, call (318) 467-9750, 1-888-677-9468 or visit the Web site www.lastateparks.com. |
Published Nov/Dec 2005 A re-enactor putting on a cooking demonstration at Winter Quarters State Historic Site. Alex Demyan image, courtesy of Louisiana State Parks |
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| Arkansas parks offer high-tech treasure hunting One of the latest trends in outdoor adventures is geocaching, in which participants use a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) device to hide and find hidden treasures, and Arkansas has embraced the fledgling sport by opening up its parks to these high-tech treasure hunters. Forty of Arkansas’s 51 state parks now offer GPS users the opportunity to test their geocaching skills. The state has gone so far as to develop a permit system and procedures for participants to follow, which can be found online at www.arkansasstateparks.com in the “Things To Do” section. The sport was developed several years ago, and geocaching clubs have been sprouting up across the country. Also known as a GPS Stash Hunt or GeoStash, the game involves hiding items, usually containers holding various “treasures,” and then providing specific GPS coordinates for each cache on a Web site for others to find. As treasures go, most of the items hidden aren’t really valuable, such as small trinkets, toys, books, maps and anything that can fit in a waterproof bucket or small box. The person who finds the cache is encouraged to take something from the box, leave something and write a note in a logbook in the cache. Caches can be hidden in cities or neighborhoods, but many find their way into parks because participants can hike through scenic terrain to find them. The 40 state parks in Arkansas that offer geocaching access are diverse, scenic and spread throughout the state. Visitors simply need online access and a GPS unit, which is an electronic device that can determine your approximate location on the planet, usually within 20 feet. GPS units can range from $100 to $1,000. To get started geocaching in Arkansas, visit the Web site www.arkansasstateparks.com. Also, you can search the Web to find geocaching associations in nearly every state; the site www.geocaching.com is a good place to begin. |
 A group of teens discovering a cache in Lake Ouachita State Park. Arkansas Depart-ment of Parks and Tourism photo |
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| Romance joins history in new visitors center at Louisiana park Visitors have been drawn to the area that is now the Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site for generations because of a blend of history, legend and incredible natural beauty, and now the site is even more compelling with a new visitors center. The site, located along the Bayou Teche in south-central Louisiana, was a meeting place for Acadians of Nova Scotia seeking refuge after the British expulsion in 1755. The area was made famous in legend by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem “Evangeline” as the meeting place of ill-fated lovers Evangeline and Gabriel. The new visitors center, which opened this fall in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the expulsion of the Acadians, features a 12-minute video and exhibits about the site’s rich history. Artifacts not only examine the culture of the Acadians, but they also focus on the Creoles, French settlers who were descendants of the first wave of French immigrants in Louisiana. To reflect the site’s history, the visitors center was built in the same French Colonial/ Creole style as the centerpiece of the site, the Maison Olivier. This plantation house was built around 1815, and today it is furnished with pieces dating to the mid-19th century. Also on the site is a rustic Acadian cabin and farmstead, including a family home with an outdoor kitchen, barn and slave quarters. Visitors also can see a new blacksmith shop and petite house, or overseer’s house, which has exhibits on the French-speaking people of the Bayou Teche. The park is located at 1200 N. Main St. in St. Martinville. For details, call (337) 394-3754 or 1-888-677-2900, or visit www.lastateparks.com. |
 The Maison Olivier plantation house in the park. Louisiana Office of Tourism photo |
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| Harvest history at Jackson’s Ag Museum TThe annual Harvest Festival is getting ready to crop up in Jackson at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum. Held in the museum’s Small Town, Mississippi section, the festival will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 9–12. There will be cotton gin and gristmill demonstrations, as well as blacksmithing. Youngsters will enjoy the train and carousel rides. The Agriculture Museum, part of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, reveals how agriculture and forestry helped to shape the state’s history. In addition to the Small Town section, other areas include the Heritage Exhibit Center, the National Agricultural Aviation Museum, the Ethnic Heritage Center and the Forestry Auditorium. While at the festival, stop by Small Town’s 1930s-era general store and buy a cold Coke®, Moon Pie, old-fashioned candy, toys and souvenirs. The museum is at 1150 Lakeland Drive. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for senior citizens, $2 for children 6–18 years and 50 cents for youngsters 3–5 years. Rides are an additional $1 each. For more information, call (601) 713-3365 or visit online at www.mdac.state.ms.us. |
 The general store at the museum has old-fashioned souvenirs. Mississippi Tourism photo |
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| New discovery center shines at diamond mine When prospectors trudged into the western wilderness looking for gems, they endured harsh conditions, survived on little food and didn’t have much fun. Those miners would be jealous of today’s prospectors at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in southwest Arkansas near Murfreesboro. The park recently opened its Diamond Discovery Center, a $1 million structure that serves as the gateway to the park’s 37-acre diamond search area. With an architectural design reminiscent of old mining buildings, the center features exhibits about diamonds and how to search for them at the site. There’s also a diamond hunters’ hall of fame with details about notable gems unearthed there, including a 40-carat diamond. Visitors search over a field for diamonds and other semi-precious gems, including garnet and quartz. Tools are not necessary; visitors can simply walk around the site, which is periodically plowed, and look for diamonds lying on the ground. However, most visitors do like to dig, and they can rent or bring their own tools. No equipment with a motor, battery or wheels are allowed. This past summer, a man from Fayetteville, Ark., discovered the 25,000th diamond found by a visitor since the site became a state park in 1972. It was a white diamond less than one-fourth of a carat. The park is located just southeast of Murfreesboro on Arkansas Highway 301. The fee to search is $6 for adults and $3 for children 6–12 per day. Call (870) 285-3113 for details, or visit www.craterof diamondsstatepark.com. |
 Young visitors searching for diamonds. Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism photo |
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