Discover Burden Museum & Gardens

The following unpleasantry flew out of the mouth of my four-year-old recently while our family was past the point of no return on a wooded hike.

“But Mama, I haaaaaate walking.” 

My pre-schooler had only the day before requested a hike for her Spring Break adventure, causing me and my husband to breathe a sigh of relief. Her usual demands range from “Take me to Madagascar” to “Let’s dig a pool in the backyard” and most recently, “Mama, teach me how to dig in the dirt with my face like a puffin.” 

A springtime hike in Baton Rouge? That’s easy. 

Thanks to Burden Museum & Gardens, a 440-acre property which includes the celebrated LSU Rural Life Museum, my family and all others in search of a slowed pace and a convenient connection to nature need only travel to the heart of Baton Rouge for an expansive park-like experience that includes gardens, walking trails, and a Louisiana way of life from days past.

Drawing visitors from around the world, the Burden property, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year, is a proven asset to Louisiana’s tourism industry and hosts events of all kinds—from outdoor symphony concerts to gourmet meals on the grounds—but Baton Rougeans and nearby neighbors can show support for Burden on a regular basis, too. Herein, a few ideas to get you started. Keep in mind that it would be easy to spend an entire day on the property, though even a thirty-minute break to wait for Baton Rouge traffic to pass would be brilliant and beneficial.  

Encounter an Urban Oasis

More face time with Mother Nature—it’s a prescription for all ages and stages of life, and Burden, in close partnership with Louisiana State University, presents plenty of landscapes for respite from an increasingly urban, plugged-in world.  

 The LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens encompasses a Children’s Garden; an arboretum; a swamp and urban forest with well-marked trails; rose, camellia, and herb gardens; and more. Educational possibilities are endless and can be as formal or unstructured as the visitor wishes.

Dr. Jeff Kuehny, director of the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens, noted, “A lot of different horticultural organizations, like the East Baton Rouge Master Gardeners or Native Plant Society, call Burden home and come out to educate the public on their special interests.” 

Folks can dig in with those experts; but there is nothing wrong with stopping by the gardens to smell the roses or bringing your binoculars and a leashed dog for a walk in the woods.

Amy Spencer, a Baton Rouge mom who homeschools her children, discovered the Children’s Garden this spring and declared, “It’s definitely one of Baton Rouge’s best kept secrets… We plan on going a couple times a month or more to do school or just to play, explore, and enjoy the beautiful environment.”

Her children, ages two to nine, enjoy seeing how food is grown. “They didn’t know that you had to dig out potatoes, and they were amazed by the Brussels sprouts and artichokes. For me, there’s just something really beautiful about seeing your kids connect with nature.” 

As for my own four-year-old, who melted down on the forest trail, it is worth noting that she finished the hike with a smile and asked to go back the next day. And the next. And the day after that. She has fallen under nature’s spell, so we are thankful for a place like Burden that is vast, close to home, and open seven days a week. 

Photo: The botanic gardens have an extensive trail system. Photo by Lucie M. Carter.

Consider the Rural Life

Past the botanic gardens, a short country drive under oak trees and through agricultural research fields brings visitors to the LSU Rural Life Museum. According to long-time museum director David Floyd, Rural Life opened in 1970 to show visitors “life behind the big house.” It represents the historical working class in Louisiana, both free and enslaved, through an extensive and authentic collection of their buildings and artifacts. Floyd is sure to point out that, “all of our items have a clear provenance to Louisiana families, and that makes a difference.” 

 A rural church, inside and out, now housed on the ground of the LSU Rural Life Musuem. Photo by Kim Ashford.

Upon entry, visitors will discover a new permanent exhibit that provides historical background and context for the museum’s collection. The exhibit covers the basics, starting with “What is a Plantation?,” then delves deeper into topics such as the difference between upland and Gulf Coast plantations, women and Creole planters, and plantation hierarchy, for example. Visitors can step inside an intact slave pen and shudder at the sight of a collar made especially for runaway slaves. The effects of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Industrial Revolution on Louisiana’s working class are examined, too. 

Just steps beyond the introductory exhibit, visitors enter a barn full of devices, paraphernalia, and equipment. On display are all of the accoutrements of daily life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from large carriages and wagons to small inkwells, and all of the augers, bits, and implements in between. Antique accordions? Check. Impossibly ornate baby carriages? Check. Medical forceps? Check. Something for everyone. 

Adjacent to the barn, Louisiana’s largest collection of vernacular architecture awaits. The outdoor exhibit is divided into three areas and brings to life everything the visitor has learned so far in the museum visit. There’s a working plantation area that includes an overseer’s house, kitchen, slave cabins, sugar house school, and blacksmith shop. The folk architecture and Gulf Coast areas round out the collection of over thirty buildings with a country church, log house, jail, and many more.  

“[The Rural Life Museum] is a place to wander, sit on porches, and contemplate your past and how Louisiana’s past relates to it,” said Floyd. “This is who we are and where we came from.” 

Find Inspiration with Windrush

Last but certainly not least, Windrush Gardens beckons from an oft-overlooked corner of the Burden property. Windrush includes the modest yet beautiful ancestral home of the Burden family, who donated their acreage to LSU in the 1970s. The gardens surrounding the home are semi-formal in nature, designed by Steele Burden, who had studied the grand gardens of Louisiana plantations and European estates. 

  A pond feature at Windrush Gardens. Photo by Kim Ashford.

Kuehny described these twenty-five green acres as “enchanted,” adding, “Windrush is a semi-formal, Old World garden. To me, it’s a little mystical back there depending on what time of day you go. It’s a wonderful, peaceful setting that takes you back in time.” 

The Burden family’s passion for this particular place endures in an entirely inviting and intimate atmosphere. Windrush is not a flashy or flowery garden. Rather, the textured foliage, moss-draped oaks, garden rooms, antique statuary, water features, and meandering paths create visual interest and a sense of Southern sophistication. 

Windrush inspires gardeners and artists equally. When he wasn’t designing green spaces for LSU and Baton Rougeans, Steele Burden created art from the Garden Studio at Windrush. Many artists follow his lead to this day. Artists of all abilities are encouraged to capture the beauty of Burden on canvas or camera, and many come for painting or photography classes held at the property. It’s yet another way to embrace the great outdoors at Burden. 

Floyd pointed out that the Burden Museum & Gardens experience is “all about simple pleasures. It’s a place to contemplate and enjoy, nothing more and nothing less. It’s marvelous, really.”

A few activities going on this month, plus more at discoverburden.com:

June 18: Garden Fest

7:30 am–1 pm

Tour the property on a hayride; taste fresh tomatoes; enjoy omelets and bloody Marys; and more. $10. Children under 4 free. 

June 25: Children’s Garden Series

9 am–11 am

Get your children interested in gardening via the creatures that delight them so completely: frog and toad. Ages 6–11 will learn how to create miniature gardens that entice these happy hoppers. $15 per child.