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Evangeline, Salt Domes and Joie de Vivre: Traveling the Bayou Teche Scenic Byway

by Ann Gilbert

The road kill includes an alligator and a deer, and we quickly learn what a different landscape the Bayou Teche Scenic Byway presents. On the car radio, a French-speaking D.J. plays Cajun “chank-a-chank” songs.
The music is the perfect accompaniment as we follow the meandering Bayou Teche. We had decided to combine my husband’s business meeting in New Iberia with a quick tour of Southwest Louisiana from Morgan City to Franklin, New Iberia and St. Martinville, all small towns noted for their history, architecture, food, music and joie de vivre. The Teche slowly curls its way through soybean and sugarcane fields from its origins near Arnaudville to Morgan City and the Atchafalaya River.

Morgan City

In downtown Morgan City, the 22-foot seawall stands ready to hold back the Atchafalaya River; the Mississippi River may claim her one day, according to scientists. Struggles to revitalize Morgan City’s Main Street seem to be working; boutiques wear black canvas awnings and sport classy wooden signs with gold lettering. We climb the steps to the walkway on top of the seawall and catch the smell of seafood wafting from the shrimp boats lining the dock. Excitement ruled in this town when Sean Penn and Jude Law filmed scenes for “All the King’s Men.” Denzel Washington was also in the neighborhood filming “Déjà Vu.”

Leaving Morgan City, we are jolted by a Bear Crossing sign. Then we recall that, years ago, the black bear was reintroduced to the Atchafalaya Basin.

Patterson

Cypress trees line the watery roadsides as we cross the Atchafalaya River from Morgan City to the town of Patterson. Patterson’s state museum immortalizes the family of F.B. Williams, who introduced cypress to the world in the early 1900s. Two historic collections share space in the sprawling new museum structure near the Kemper Williams Park: the Wedell-Williams Aviation Museum and the Cypress Sawmill Museum. On the concrete floor rest vintage aircraft, soon to be suspended from the towering ceiling. Aviation buffs will relish a visit here. The museum remains below the radar, if you will excuse the pun.

Two of F.B.’s sons made their mark, in quite divergent ways. Harry Williams married silent screen star Marguerite Clark and settled on St. Charles Avenue in what is now the Latter Library. He and Jimmy Wedell put Louisiana on the aviation map with a commercial air service. Harry owned 42 planes. Wedell was most known for his air racing awards and adventures. Both men died in plane crashes in the mid-1930s. Harry’s widow sold the company to Eddie Rickenbacker and Eastern Air Lines. Another son, Kemper, founded the French Quarter’s Historic New Orleans Collection and the Williams Research Center, which contain one million artifacts dealing with New Orleans and Southern history.

Grand Old Dames

We leave U.S. Hwy. 90 (four-lanes—the future I-49) for Scenic LA 182 in Centerville and are blessed with the sight of seven majestic live oaks shading the 1860 white-framed Presbyterian Church. The moss dances in the breeze. So much history has passed beneath their thick arms.

Continuing down winding LA 182, a row of stately plantation homes slows traffic: Bocage, Frances, Dixie, Arlington. Some of these “grand old dames” have historic plaques; some say, “Tours by appointment”; and others warn, “Private.” My husband cautions me to take all photographs from outside the front gate.

Dixie was the home of Murphy James Foster, the great-grandfather of our recent governor with the same name. M.J. was also a Louisiana governor, in addition to being a U.S. senator. One of his claims to fame was dissolving the state lottery in the late 1800s. It seems the winners were seldom paid!

Oaklawn Manor, on nearby Route 28, is the current home of the recent governor. Save time to stroll the grounds when visiting this house. It is surrounded by a breathtaking stand of centuries-old live oaks. The circa-1835 plantation home has a famous collection of John James Audubon prints, including an Elephant Folio and a letter in Audubon’s handwriting. There is also a stunning wooden bird sculpture collection by Don Gomez, who has been called the “modern Audubon.” (Don’t call his work duck decoys. I was corrected by the guide.)

Franklin

Just up the road is the little town of Franklin, which oozes with primarily-Anglo-Saxon history, from its five Louisiana governors to the boyhood home of Jefferson Davis. We were unprepared for the majesty of Franklin’s main street—a boulevard lined with antebellum and Victorian mansions and cast iron street lamps painted in white. The lights date to 1915 and wear signs “Do Not Hitch Horses” and “No Chickens on the Boulevard.”

We cruise the side streets of Franklin past dozens of architectural gems—Franklin boasts of having 450 “notable homes.” The Episcopal Church is a charming Gothic structure built in 1847, and the post office is stunning Greek Revival. Many of the old homes are bed-and-breakfast inns. Our route on this trip has other names, such as Cajun Coast and Spanish Trail, although Franklin, with its deep British roots, is not Cajun in the sense of St. Martinville or Breaux Bridge.

Behind the courthouse on the main street are two war memorials. An historic marker says that beneath the waters of the Teche are the boilers of the Civil War gunboat Diana. Across the bayou, we pause beside a monument to 2nd Lt. Edward Loustalot, the first U.S. soldier lost in Europe in World War II, and all who gave their lives in war. The earthen work, resembling a Civil Defense bunker or an Indian mound in a cruciform shape, honors the New Iberia native, who was killed in Dieppe, France August 19, 1942.

The Franklin city fathers barely saved the mansion called Grevenberg, circa 1850. Incredulously, it was once a city recreation center where local children roller-skated across the building’s cypress floors, according to our guide. A highlight of our tour was learning that the wallpaper patterns are authentic back to the 1800s, “preserved because local newspapers were printed on the back of wallpaper and people saved newspapers.” The walls of Grevenberg are also lined with Tenerife (Canary Island) lace, Civil War memorabilia and Hudson River painter Thomas Cole’s “Voyage of Life” series.

The builder of Grevenberg was an ancestor of the Grevenberg who, as state police chief, smashed slot machines in the 1950s in an effort to “clean up the state.” Leaving Grevenberg, we drive by the 1807 sugar mill that sprawls in the middle of town with towering stacks. It’s a noisy place in the fall grinding season, filling the air with smoke and the smell of boiling sugarcane 24 hours a day. With huge cane trucks clogging the two-lane roads, harvest season is not the best time to visit sugarcane country.

Jeanerette

We had lunch in nearby Jeanerette at the Yellow Bowl, which claims to be the oldest continuously operating crawfish restaurant. The Sunday church crowd was large and lively, but the hostess was able to accommodate us in the spacious diner. Don’t judge a place by its exterior. For $15.95, we had a platter of crawfish served five ways: étoufée, au gratin, cocktail, fried and in crawfish cake. It’s one of the house specialties, and was easily enough for two. “Come back for the dancing at 4 p.m.,” the waitress said. They move all the tables back for swamp pop on Sunday afternoons.

The Chitimacha

Cypress Bayou Casino sits in the midst of a sugar cane field on the Chitimacha Indian Reservation near Charenton. About one mile behind the casino is the Chitimacha Museum and Cultural Center. The Chitimacha is one of the four Louisiana tribes recognized as a nation by the U.S. government. They are the only state tribe to operate an elementary school for their children. In recent years, they have reclaimed their language, once replaced by Cajun French, by using recordings made in the 1930s. Visit this tribute to the early people of Louisiana and see the extensive displays of the unique Chitimacha woven cane baskets. The small museum is of excellent design and content.

The Salt Dome Islands

Indians were the first to mine salt from the five domes in southwest Louisiana. Called islands because hills on tops of the domes are surrounded by marsh, Avery Island and Jefferson Island are two of the most famous of the five domes. Weeks Island was farmed by the family that built Shadows on the Teche as their townhouse in New Iberia (called Nuestro Iberia when founded by the Spanish), our next town on the Bayou Tech Scenic Byway. We check into our hotel and make a dash to the Avery Island Jungle Gardens before it closes.
Thankfully, this area so rich in hot sauce, geography and history—the salt mines were operating in the Civil War—was not devastated by Hurricane Rita. Alligators are plentiful and kept us from meandering on some of the trails and boardwalks. Covered with green slime, one was artfully camouflaged until he raised his head, opened his mouth and showed his teeth. We got the message.

Thousands of snowy egrets nest in another area. Human visitors are provided with a viewing stand to observe and listen to this wonder of nature. Avery Island has a peaceful aura, complete with oriental pagoda, bridges over small lakes and serene glens encompassed by giants oaks. Yet there is great shopping for souvenir collectors in the Tabasco shop.

New Iberia

New Iberia is noted as home for two famous men: the late jazz trumpeter Bunk Johnson and novelist James Lee Burke. Acquiring national fame for his music in the 1940s, Johnson is the subject of a special collection at the library branch on Main Street. Louis Armstrong is said to have followed Johnson around trying to learn from this master. Burke’s fans can take Dave’s Domain tours, following in the footsteps of the author’s fictional detective, Dave Robicheaux, who put New Iberia on the literary map.

The Shadows on the Teche home is in downtown New Iberia on the main street and on the bayou, of course. Many details are known of its rich history because of the 40 trunks found in the attic containing letters, receipts, photographs and clothes.

The next morning, we head to another historic sight near New Iberia—Jefferson Island and the Rip Van Winkle Gardens. The French Moorish house was the winter retreat of the actor Joseph Jefferson, who was known for his portrayals of Rip Van Winkle. This popular attraction made international headlines when a drilling operation in the lake punctured a salt dome and the water swirled down, taking barges and buildings. The lake eventually refilled. Many of the horticultural treasures were spared. Visit in the spring when the azaleas are in bloom.

Broussard

From New Iberia, we breeze down LA 182 to Broussard and its very short main street with eye-popping architecture. The small town has 14 properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

St. Martinville

Next on the Bayou Teche Scenic Byway is the village of St. Martinville. Our first trip to the town, famous for the Evangeline legend, was in 2005 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Acadians’ expulsion from Nova Scotia by the British in 1755. My father’s ancestors, the Richard (Ree-shard) brothers, were among the displaced Acadians who settled in St. Gabriel south of Baton Rouge in 1785.

St. Martinville is a walkable town with a picturesque green surrounded by an old Opera House, historic inns and circa-1855 church. Nearby are multiple museums, small but excellent.
In the St. Martinville Acadian Museum, a bronze memorial resembling the Vietnam Wall allows me to touch the names of the Acadians whose ships docked in New Orleans. This Cajun learned something new that afternoon at the Acadian Memorial: In 2003, Queen Elizabeth apologized to the descendants of the people in the Acadian Diaspora.

After the museum, it was time for some levity. We found it in the Cajun music and songs of Ophe “Be-Be” Romero in the small park that surrounds the Evangeline Oak. Romero has been playing the accordion beside the Teche for 14 years.

Continuing our exploration of life along the Teche, we visited the nearby Longfellow-Evangeline State Park and its Olivia House, circa 1815, constructed of brick and bousillage (mud and moss). The structure has not been “prettied up,” so one can really get the feel of life in the early 1800s. In the back yard is the magnificent Gabriel Oak, named for Evangeline’s lover in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s tragic poem about the Acadian exile.

Breaux Bridge

The Bayou Teche Scenic Byway ends in the next town, Breaux Bridge, with its quaint architecture, great seafood and good music. It is also the site of a large bronze snake-like rendition of the bayou honoring the Chitimacha Indians, who named the Teche after a giant snake in one of their myths. According to the legend, the snake squirmed and squirmed into the ground and created the bayou.
The Teche has since nourished generations.