Louisiana

FONTAINEBLUE STATE PARK

Mandeville, New Orleans

October 27, 2019

This signage photo was taken at the visitor's centre in New Orleans.   We arrive in the deep south, just missing a hurricane by a week and feeling fortunate to be able to see New Orleans and area.

We arrive at Fontaineblue State Park, Mandeville, Louisiana, situated on the North shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

First impressions are - wow!

Just 4 miles east of Mandeville is this gorgeous State Park with RV sites and rental cabins. This is the road into the park and around the corner is our RV site - a gorgeous drive for the next few weeks.

A rental cabin

We are arriving and have to wait for the weekend warriors to dump as we come in.   One of the dump stations was closed so there was a line up.

2,800 acres  with nature trails, sandy beach and an old railroad track that runs through the park has been converted into the Tammany Trace as a part of the Rails to Trails program.   Bike path.

 Remnants of the last storm that passed through.

We are now in the territory of critters.   As Marc is setting up the RV (he deals with the outside hookups and satellite and I do the inside, pulling things back onto the counter, turning the fridge and hot water on, sweeping - setting up the computer, putting things back in place in the bedroom and bathroom).   I have a tough job, I know!

But, I notice a bird that I have to chase, with the camera, just in behind our RV.  Saw it flying around and landing behind us ... off I go.  Yes, I know, most of you could care less.  


But, I caught a photo of

A Cooper's Hawk on the prowl.

We settle in for three weeks and I take Tazz for a walk, going down to the lakeshore.   Just prior to the lake is this pond (formed from water that overflowed from previous  storms).

From a distance, these lumps on the top of the water look like clumps of weeds or grass.  I look closer.

The alligator is approximately 4 feet long, very stealthily floating along the surface and watching everything, including Tazz.

A female ring-necked kingfisher appeared.

Our first night has been rewarding.

A fabulous sunset along the beach overlooking the Pontchartrain Causeway which makes the crossing 23.83 miles or 38.35 km long to New Orleans.

Oct 28

Take a walk along the nature trail in the park -  leary of alligators along the way and out along a long boardwalk that takes you across the marsh at ground level and out to a viewpoint.

Wise choice to not bring Tazz

this alligator is about four feet long and just under the boardwalk. This part of the boardwalk rises up and has a screen along both sides - the best spot to view one.   First day of arrival, in the office while Marc was signing us in, someone had called the ranger and said they couldn't walk back on the boardwalk - an alligator lying on top of the boardwalk.

Marc checking out the trails with the bike among gorgeous ancient oaks with spanish moss.

At the viewing point I spot this paper wasp.   Not unlike most wasps, it will not bother you unless you disturb it or get near its nest.

A small tree frog

HONEY ISLAND SWAMP TOURS

One of the first little excursions is a New Orleans Swamp Boat Tour, which lasts about two hours.    A half hour drive,  to Slidell, I board the 22 passenger river boat and we head up the Pearl River.


Honey Island is one of the least-altered river swamps in the country.   It is a 250 square mile swamp with nearly 70,000 acres of permanently-protected wildlife area - the Nature Conservancy's First Louisiana Nature Preserve.

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the area.   Many of the swamp houses and cabins, accessible only by river boat,  were demolished during Katrina and are slowly, piece by piece, being rebuilt.   Locals come out here to get away from it all to hunt and fish and catfish (there is a separate name for catching catfish).

We start off with a flying boat tour up the river a few miles, then the tour begins.

Every now and then you will see a pole sticking out of the bank of the river.   That would be a catfish fishing pole and better not attempt to steal anything from it.   The guide tells us there will be consequences, usually in the form of lead.

"Yum Yum Tourists Taste Great (with the alligator sign)"

A quick stop to check out the Black Bellied Whistling Ducks or Tree Ducks.  Normally spend most of their time in Florida but this flock is hanging out late October in New Orleans, so we were lucky to see them.  They are one of only two whistling duck species native to North America.

We now head into the swamp, a finger off the Pearl River, into tight quarters.

Lush and beautiful.   Almost looks like a place you would see playful monkeys swinging through the trees.

This small alligator (about four feet) is accustomed to the boat and comes straight towards us.   It will get a treat!

Thank you!

At the end of the swamp, we see this dark figure.

Wild pigs live in the swamp and this one apparently has three little ones (we did not see).

As much as us tourists love to see these animals, they are very unwelcome in alot of States, including Louisiana.

Wild pigs are not native - they were introduced to the U.S. mainland by Spanish explore Hernando DeSoto in the 1500s as domestic stock.  Later, the Eurasian board was introduced into the states for hunting purposes.

Feral hogs are present in all 64 parishes in Louisiana.    There is an ongoing fight against feral hogs.  In Louisiana alone, there are an estimated 700,000 and about 6 million spread across 35 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Agricultural crops are a direct target and the hardest-hit crop was soybeans, with about $18 million in losses in 2016.  They consume acorns to deer fawns and dig two or three feet down to digs the roots of young plants and planted seeds, preventing hay crops from maturing.

Gestation is 114 days and sows can have 2 litters per year, averaging 6 piglets per litter.

Having said that, I find it difficult to see these hooved animals living in swamps to stay safe and exist.   

I totally understand and get the issues, but this is not a natural habitat for any furred, hooved animal and it, to me, is sad that it has come to this.    I have heard that red wolves, deer and other animals have taken to the swamp lands to survive.

New Orleans now has a wild pig slaughterhouse and chefs are starting to come on board with a new palate.

Texas has a no ban hunting law in place for feral hogs.

Another animal that lives in the swamps - the raccoon.

End of the bayou boat trip!

While we stayed in Natchez, Mississippi we view a couple of plantations.   Plantations that romanticize the lives of the white owners and the lavish lifestyle they live in.

Since the 1990s, John Cummings bought the former Whitney Plantation in Louisiana (1,700 acre property) and created America's first slavery museum on the grounds.

WHITNEY PLANTATION

Wallace, Louisiana

December 2014, the doors were opened to the public for this First Slavery Museum built in America.

The museum is situated on a section of Louisiana's serpentine river road, known as "Plantation Alley."   There are many restored antebellum mansions (existing before the Civil War) along this route and thousands of visitors a year visit them.

This museum is operated with several guides; you must go with a guide and after the tour, you can walk the grounds after the tour at your own will.

The Antioch Baptist Church.   (The name originally was 'Anti-Yoke'; the name speaks freedom - not tied or bound to anyone). 

The church was renamed Antioch Baptist Church in 1890 and was the only Black church for miles along the east bank of the Mississippi.  The original church was founded as a mural society after emancipation and recently relocated to the grounds.

Without 'proper' Christina burials, enslaved people were buried far in the woods, slipped into the swamps, or burned in piles.   So far, the curators of the museum state that no burial site was been recovered on the property.

Terra Cotta statues by artist Woodrow Nash.

WALL OF HONOR

Our second stop, with our tour guide;
The wall recognizes 354 enslaved people at the Whitney with stories of their time on the plantation.    One side recognizes those that worked when indigo plants (blue dye was rare at the time) were grown on the plantation.   The other side, recognizes those from the sugar plantation.

Many people were given only a single name with a year of birth.    Little is known about these people.

Pauline has fifteen children.   One thing that occurred, in order to keep the strong and good genes going, was black women were often raped, either by their owners or by way of a black "buck."   A "buck," bred to have certain characteristics was 'used as a stud' as a bull would be with cows.   He may be forced to impregnate women on the plantation or sent to another plantation.   The owner would be paid handsomely by other plantation owners who did not own as desirable or potent a stud.

A stop at another memorial garden with 107,000 names and many stories of people held in bondage from 1719-1820.

SLAVE QUARTERS 

on the sugar plantation

A slave cabin with sugar kettles lined up out front

Sugar Cane

Sugar production was a dangerous process.  The crop demanded constant attention, weeding and irrigation of hundreds of acres of stalks.   

Sugar planting was back-breaking work.  Lines of slaves, men, women and children, moved across the fields, row by row, hand-planting thousands of seed-cane stems.  Between 5,000 and 8,000 pieces had to be planted to produce one acre of sugar cane.   A healthy, adult slave was expected to be able to plow, plant, and harvest five acres of sugar.

photo courtesy of Atlanta Black Star

Sugar is made in the leaves of the sugar cane plant.    The bundles of cane were taken to the mill where large rollers crushed the cane to get the juice.   The juice was collected and taken to the boiling house.  Large kettles were heated to boil the sugar juice until it crystallized.

Many accidents occurred during the process - from machete cuts to crushed arms in the rollers to burns from the hot, boiling liquid.

At its peak, Whitney Plantation produced up to 407,000 pounds of sugar during a single grinding season.

SLAVE QUARTERS

Prior to the Civil War, the Whitney Plantation had approximately 350 slaves.  The cabins housed two families, side by side.

Approximately ten family members (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the 'master') would live in one side of the cabin.   Often four of five children would sleep on the bed, sometimes with cotton padding or straw, and adults would sleep on the floor.   There would be an adjacent room where there would be a table and a bench.  

This particular plantation (it varied, depending on the owner) fed the slaves the unwanted pig parts, turkey necks and cornmeal.

On the way to the "Big House" (owner's mansion) is this cast iron jail.   This was used to house prisoners, enslaved people, to be kept the night before an auction in New Orleans.   They would be fed, fattened up, and slathered with butter to look more appealing and they hoped to not be separated from their family.

The outside kitchen where slave women work to prepare meals daily for the white owners and family and workers.   

There is a fireplace behind me where they would do the main cooking.

Now we head to the owner's quarters.   

Dining area with a pantry and an area where slaves could bring the food in.

We were not allowed into alot of the house and no entry upstairs.

One last exhibit that the guide does not take you through and you are invited to go on your own, if you wish.

"GERMAN UPRISING."

I, along with alot of people, have questioned WHY so many enslaved people would not ban together and cause a revolt to overtake these plantation owners.

January 8, 1811 there was one such event.

More than 500 slaves carried cane knives, hoes, clubs and some guns as they marched toward New Orleans chanting "Freedom or Death."

The uprising began on the grounds of a plantation on the east side of the Mississippi, in a region called the German Coast of Louisiana.  On the attack, along the way, they burned other plantation than this one they started the revolt on.  January 19th, federal troops forced the revolt to turn back and the end of the revolt occurred.   Between U.S. federal troops and the slave owner's militia, they were defeated.

The brief battle killed dozens and many were killed and cut into pieces.   Surviving leaders were rounded up to face a tribunal and sentenced to death by firing squad.

Today, what happened is memorialized in this museum and people are sometimes offended by the cruelty and how can you, but it was a reality, just as Auschwitz occurred.

"Their heads were cut off and placed on poles along the river in order to frighten and intimidate the other slaves," writes Waters (Leon A. Waters, a writer for the Zinn Education Project).

The display of heads on spikes stretched over 60 miles!  Obviously, the slaves that were caught were beheaded.   The leaders were executed.

I see a beautiful Monarch butterfly on the outside of the plantation - maybe a signal to 'freedom.'   

I leave the blog at this point.   Apologies it is under such a depressing note.   Next post will be more of Louisiana but we go to a vibrant and crazy city - New Orleans.