
Samantha E. Krieger
The Louisiana Treasures Museum in Ponchatoula
Ten minutes west of Ponchatoula’s Memorial Park, of Strawberry Festival fame, lies the Louisiana Treasures Museum at 10290 Highway 22. A picket fence of hand-cut cypress boards, salvaged from a circa-1850 antebellum home, encircles several structures: old jails in the front; the tin-roof, driftwood-covered museum space; and small rental properties in the back.
By the tales eighty-three-year-old property owner Wayne Norwood spins, one might imagine he has lived a dozen lives: serving in the army and FBI, working as a police officer and recovering bodies in the water as a diver, starring as the sheriff in Cryptid: The Swamp Beast, and climbing Mount Rainier, among others. Each life comes with an accumulation of collected artifacts. About ninety percent of the displays in the Louisiana Treasures Museum are Norwood’s; friends and visitors donated the rest.
At the entrance of the museum, the gold-lettered words ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’ overlook a wall filled with over five hundred photographs of Louisiana officers killed in the line of duty, each featuring a photograph, name, and cause of death. The Louisiana Law Enforcement Memorial is an ongoing project of particular importance to Norwood and his wife Debbie, who co-owns the museum with him; both are retired officers.

Photo by Austin Krieger.
Wayne Norwood, owner of the Louisiana Treasures Museum. pictured holding a magazine feature on his interests as an amateur historian.
Norwood’s introduction to collecting was unusual. As a recovery diver for the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Department, he was tasked with retrieving human remains from Louisiana water bodies. During one of his searches, he discovered a hand-blown bottle from around 1750 and caught the collecting bug. Norwood collected so many artifacts diving in Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico that he had to build the current museum to store it all. “I got a shed at home bigger than this, and it’s full with even more stuff,” Norwood said. “I got two thousand bottles at home!” Indeed, he has collected so much that he will urge visitors to leave with souvenirs to make space. When asked if he would ever consider sipping from one of his many bottles, many of them sealed tight with mysterious contents inside, he laughed. “I don’t drink, but everyone who comes in here tells me it would be potent!” No longer diving, Norwood still strolls Lake Pontchartrain at low tide for items that wash ashore.
‘Entertaining’ and ‘thorough’ best describe Norwood’s tour of the museum. “That’s my first wife right there,” Norwood said, gesturing to a seated plastic skeleton. “I told her I’d never leave her!” We reached a section of the museum’s wall adorned with unique walking canes. “When I get old and I need some protection, I’ve got this!” Norwood said, unsheathing a two-piece cane with a sword concealed inside.

Samantha E. Krieger
Exhibitions of Native American artifacts at the Louisiana Treasures Museum
Walking through the building, you start noticing that the museum is as much a container for Louisiana treasures as it is an archive of Norwood’s colorful life. Newspaper clippings and photographs headline unbelievable feats: Norwood apprehending six robbers as an officer, or holding one of one hundred alligators he moved from one pond to another in a single day. There’s a photo of his wife holding a bear cub named Oreo, who they raised for thirty-five years, and another of his mother playing with “his other pet”—a bobcat. There are karate trophies, too, from when Norwood competed in karate tournaments, at one point winning the United States championship. Ask Norwood to expand on any of these stories, and he’s already moved on to another treasure.
Passing a small bottle of kerosene, Norwood tells me stories about when he was growing up in Ponchatoula, and his mother used it as a medicine. “A million times I stepped on a nail or cut my foot or something, and Mama would say, ‘Go get the kerosene can and pour it on there.’” Objects as inconsequential as an old restaurant menu (whose most expensive item was a strip sirloin from $2.85-3.85) or an iron jumpstart Norwood’s memory, providing a glimpse into a life unknown today. “In the wintertime, all we had was a wood stove. Mama and them would put one of these [irons] on, and when you were getting ready to go to bed, you [got] it real hot, wrapped it in a towel, put it at the foot of the bed, [and] kept your feet warm,” Norwood said. Grabbing a pair of tongs, he explained that his family had an ice box but no refrigerator; a man would visit their house twice a week, early in the mornings, to drop off a large block of ice with the tongs. His rate was forty cents per week.
Other items of note include a silver 1940s Galatoire's coffee cup, taxidermied trophies of elk, geese, and mountain lions; and uniforms, canteens, and a circa-1917 footlocker from various American wars. There are displays of Native American artifacts, including cooking stones, arrowheads, jewelry made from animal bones, pottery, and a raccoon baculum—used as a toothpick. There are also many items retrieved from St. John Parish after it was ravaged by the Hurricane of 1915—a subject Norwood is a particular expert on, having researched and written the book The Day Time Stood Still: The Hurricane of 1915 about survivor Helen Schlosser Burg.
The museum is open Saturdays from 9 am–3 pm and Sundays from 11 am–3 pm. Visitors can also schedule appointments outside of these days, such as for senior and school groups. Admission is $8. Visit the Louisiana Treasures Museum Facebook page or call (225) 294-8352 for more information.