08/03/2024
It’s Footprints Friday!
Today, I’d like to share a day trip my family did in-state to Natchitoches!
My daughters had a school research project on Louis Juchereau de St. Denis. After a little light research, we discovered that he basically founded the town of Natchitoches, Louisiana. That sounds like the perfect excuse for a road trip to me!
We set out with basic snacks, waters, and some core activities and headed over to Natchitoches. On the way there I was able to point out some important, cultural and economic aspects of Louisiana, such as rice fields, crawfish ponds, oil rigs, and we explain to them how before the interstate was put in the way people used to get to Opelousas and Natchitoches was basically Airline Hwy.
Our main stuff was to the Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Park. This park has a Main guest area with multiple exhibits and employees dressed in traditional garb that would’ve been worn at the time. The fort was an operation. They are also all working on craft projects and performing skills in the welcome building that demonstrate how necessities to basic life were made in that time. one gentleman was working on some beating. Another was fashioning something out of wood.
 Since we arrived later than we had wanted, and it was already starting to get dark we went straight to the fort itself, which is a replica built on the site of the original fort. My girls ran around with my phone, taking pictures for their projects and exploring the fort. My husband and I took our own time going from building to building, noting intricate details, such as clay, mud insulation between the boards of the buildings, the way the fireplace hearths were made, and pointing out such things to our daughters, including how the bed was strong with rope, and explaining how twisting a stick on the rope tightened it, which was needed to be done over the years as the ropes would begin to sag through use.
It was evident that certain buildings within the fort are put to actual use for events that happened at the fort, such as demonstrating traditional forging of tools, baking of bread in the oven’s, and a host of other special events that take place at the fort throughout the year.
This property is a Louisiana state park and the grounds are absolutely beautiful.  I think my favorite part was just being able to hold my husbands, hand and walk and enjoy one another while we admired and speculated about the history and atmosphere around us. 
On returning to the main building, I made my kids, do the less interesting part for them going around and looking at the exhibits. They have pieces of native American tools as native Americans worked with the French settlers in the area at the time of the fort. there are multiple other models representations, and even a movie, though I could not convince my kids to sit through the movie as they were getting hangry.
Meanwhile, my husband and I enjoyed chatting with the employees at the state park. As my husband enjoys weaponry and survivalism, he and the two gentlemen hit it off, immediately talking about flints, muskets, and bayonets. Before we left, since we were the only people there, one of the employees retrieved a flintlock musket and allowed all of us to take turns holding it. 
My husband keeps talking about going back and bringing one of the guys some blue Flint that he obtained from a friend in Wales. That is apparently really huge amongst survivalists. It must be a guy thing.
After that, we left and drove down one of the main streets through the historic district, where we pointed out some places to the girls, as we tried to decide what to eat.
We stopped at a local restaurant, waited until they opened and enjoyed an excellent dinner. I’ll flip back through my records to find the name if anybody is interested.
On the drive home my husband decided, even though it was dark to take highway 190 back home. It was a little disappointing that it was dark but an interesting experience for me and the girls passing through all the little towns that are off the main interstate system.
I’ll add a few more pictures after I get them from my husband but I wanted to at least share some foot prints we made in the gravel up in Natchitoches.
