I have made it a “quest” of mine to visit a National Park Service property in each state. I add days on to work trips, take quick weekend road trips, and do whatever I can to visit a new place, and a new state.

In Louisiana, there are a few different places to choose from, but for this trip, it worked out for me to head to the Cane River Creole National Historic Park. I had never been to this part of the country before, and I knew virtually nothing about the history of the area. I simply picked the site due to its proximity to my route.

This was the third day of a three-day road trip to see several National Park Service properties. I woke up in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and was headed towards Austin Texas for a conference for work. Travelling this way is fun and it feels like an adventure with each new day. I know generally where I am headed, but I detour to get to NPS sites, and I am always learning new things. Things I didn’t necessarily know that I wanted to know. This site was one of those.

The Cane River Creole National Park is located at a Plantation that was in operation from 1789 to 1960. It was obviously highly successful, for being able to last that long. At one time, over 150 people worked at the plantation - most of them being slaves. Being from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my knowledge of the slaves in the south, and how they worked on plantations was pretty much nil before coming here. I didn’t know anything about sharecroppers, how it worked (for the owner that is), or the way the slaves lived their day to day lives.

The plantation included a grouping of several buildings: the main house, slaves’ homes, the caretaker’s home, various barns, sheds and pigeon houses, a plantation store and much more. It must have been a job to maintain all of this. The plantation store was also the post office for the town - which was mostly the plantation, but a few other nearby properties. They raised their crops, had a rail spur nearby to get the crops to the city, and had everything a small town could need.

During the Civil War, the Union Army came through to liberate the slaves. When they arrived, only 30 of the slaves that worked there left with the army. The rest stayed on to work this land as free people - working for their room and board, and a little money (which was spent at the company store). It seemed to me that there was really no way out for the slaves that stayed, and no real opportunity for the slaves that left. It was an eye-opening visit!

More information on the Cane River Creole National Historic Park can be found at the NPS site at: https://www.nps.gov/cari/index.htm