Fontainebleau State Park

We camped at the state park and found the history of the park very interesting.

Native people have lived in the area for thousands of years.  Tchefuncte, Acolapissa, and the Choctaw lived here at different times. The tribes were known to eat Buffalo (Bison) as a large part of their diet.  Yep, herds were found this far east at that time.  An interesting thing about the Aclapissa was that they covered their bodies with tattoos.  Most of the native people were killed by disease brought by the Spanish or French and many were enslaved by them.

In the early 1800's, this area was a sugar cane plantation, brickyard, and lumber mill.  It was near 3,000 acers of land and included a large main house, slave quarters for over 150 people, and a processing plant.  The plant boiled down the cane juice to syrup and sugar. People could visit the area by small steam ship that would cross the lake from New Orleans in under 3 hours.  The plantation was in operation until the mid 1800's.

What remains of the processing plant shows that time will erase anything eventually.  I would imagine that 50 years from now only a pile of bricks will remain.

What was the primary promenade to the plantation is lined with enormous oak trees.

All the trees are covered with Spanish moss, beware of chiggers. Their bites cause a lot of pain and inflammation.

The park has a very nice campground, 12 cabins, a huge grass area for picnicking, 6 miles of hiking trails, large playgrounds, and a big splashpad.

On our walk around the grounds, we found several small deer antlers and some interesting mud mounds from some sort of land crab.  We never did see the animal.

Near the lake was a small pond with just the kind of warning you would expect in this area.