At the southernmost corner of Louisiana, where the ecosystems of the freshwater bayou and the Gulf’s coastal marsh finally merge, so too do interwoven stories of human settlement and culture. From the Houma Tribe, who have coexisted with these watery ecosystems for millennia, to the Cajun and Creole settlers who infused the landscape and its resources with the traditions of their French ancestors, to the legacies of the area’s seafood, sugar, and petrochemical industries—Lafourche parish is home to overlapping traditions of innovation, survival, and community that continue to shape the parish today. To better understand the history that built this part of our region, visitors of all ages are invited to visit one, or many, of the parish’s numerous museums and cultural centers.
Bayou Lafourche Folklife and Heritage Museum
A great place to start for anyone interested in learning about Lafourche Parish’s rich history and distinct cultures, the Bayou Lafourche Folklife and Heritage Museum in Lockport is operated as a nonprofit dedicated to “preserving, promoting, and interpreting the human history, cultural heritage, natural history, arts, and folkways” of the region. Opened in 1994, the museum is housed in the circa-1910 Merchants and Planters Bank, and displays exhibits on history along Bayou Lafourche, Cajun music, local Mardi Gras traditions, wooden decoys, and more. Open Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 am–4 pm, with last tour beginning at 3 pm (other days and times by appointment); $2 per person. Learn more at bayoufolklife.org.
Exhibits at Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center give guests a closer look at Bayou Lafourche history.
Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve
Since 1992, the cultural center inside Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve has showcased the area’s ways of life through exhibitions and artifacts, featuring everything from historic textiles, cuisine, religion, and geology to natural history and the local fishing industry. On Tuesday evenings, visitors can also see the culture in action here: come at 5 pm to listen in to (or take part in!) Cercle Francophone, where aspiring Cajun French speakers can come and practice speaking the language with each other. Immediately after, the Center hosts “Music on the Bayou” concerts featuring zydeco, gospel, blues, jazz, Cajun and other indigenous local genres.
On Fridays and Saturdays at 10 am (October – May), explore Bayou Lafourche up close through the Center’s ranger-guided boat tours of “America’s longest Main Street,” which will take you to the E.D. White Historic Site, the circa-1825 home of Edward Douglass White, who was appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1894 and served as chief justice from 1910–1921. Exhibits expand on the history of the region, including information on the area’s Native people, the Acadian settlers, the history of slavery and the sugar industry here, and more.
Admission into the Cultural Center is free (Monday–Saturday from 9:30 am–4:30 pm); boat tours are $15 per person. Reservations are recommended at (985) 448-1375. Learn more at nps.gov/jelaplanyourvisit/wetlands-acadian-cultural-center.htm.
Stitching by hand, net-making presentations at Chine's Net Shop showcase the significance of fishing and shrimping to Louisiana culture.
Chine’s Cajun Net Shop
This local business has been a hallmark of the tiny town of Golden Meadow for over fifty years now and is the last of its kind in Louisiana. Opened by Lawrence “Chine” Terrebonne in 1966, the Cajun Net Shop has historically served the local shrimping industry by providing hand-stitched trawling nets that were originally fashioned from cotton webbing, and are today made with polyethylene or spectra material. Reflecting changes in technology and the area’s seafood industry as a whole, the shop has been described by its dedicated workers as a “dying breed”. Visitors are invited inside to see the process in action, with stitchers providing demonstrations of the traditional Louisiana craft while discussing the history of Bayou Lafourche’s fishing and shrimping industries. Schedule a tour at (985) 475-6788; hours are Monday–Friday 5 am–5 pm.
At Bayou Country Children's Museum, an interactive game allows children to "drive" a sugarcane combine harvester.
Bayou Country Children’s Museum
Introduce your little Cajuns to the wild and wonderful world of Louisiana’s Cajun Bayou with this regionally-inspired children’s museum. Through hands-on learning experiences and interactive exhibits, children ages 2–12 will get to live out “life in Louisiana,” and play out all their wildest swamp fantasies. They can “drive” a sugarcane combine harvester or “Clotile” the shrimp boat, climb an oil platform, and throw beads a-la-Mardi Gras. They can boogie on a piano board to traditional Cajun music and hide inside a duck blind. An estuary water table will teach them about local marshes and the creatures that live there, and a “shopping trip” to Rouses will introduce them to Cajun and Creole ingredients for all their favorite dishes. Hours are Monday– Saturday 10 am– 6 pm; Sunday noon– 6 pm. $10.94/per person; $32 per year membership. Learn more at bayoucountrychildrensmuseum.org.
