Louisiana’s Other Side – A Picture Story
What would you call a place where a retired doctor produces gourmet coffee and is the state’s largest grower of iris flowers, where an engineer turned vintner asks strawberry farmers for advice, a football coach changed the way the game is played, and ‘The King’ began his rock ‘n roll reign to fame? Would you believe the northwest corner of Louisiana?
My own tour of the region began in Monroe-West Monroe after a short flight from Shreveport-Bossier. The Monroes are best known for antiquing. I had planned to visit West Monroe’s Antique Alley but became so wrapped up in other activities that the clock ran out for me.
Returning to Shreveport by car along Interstate 20 I stopped in Ruston, known for its end of June peach festival. From peach skins to pigskin, a new museum tells the story of why so many star football players credit their success to one mighty man.
The twin cities of Shreveport and Bossier straddle the Red River as the biggest communities in the region. They describe themselves as being a little different from the rest of the state, mixing equal parts of ‘spicy Cajun attitude and wide-open Texas spirit’ – Louisiana’s other side.
PHOTOS
1. Waterfront Grill – It was a full house at Monroe’s Waterfront Grill when I arrived for dinner. Testing the waters after the BP oil spill, I ordered a plate of shrimps. No need to worry, I was told by Don, the owner, “78% of Louisiana’s shrimp beds were not affected.” Nasty as the spill has been, in some respects state aquaculture has been damaged more by fearful headlines than the oil itself.
2. Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge is the pride of Monroe, located on the edge of town. At the Interpretive Center Ranger Gay Bartley showed me a web photo of a bird covered with oily muck on the Gulf coast. “That’s a brown pelican, our state bird”, she said. Fortunately, recovery from the disaster is happening sooner than expected. Black Bayou is a world away.
3. Dragonfly at rest – Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge
4. Balancing act – Black Bayou NWR. A great blue heron and white egret perform a delicate balancing act among the bald cypress and tupelo trees that live in water.
5. Flying Tigers stamps – Chennault Aviation & Military Museum. Republic of China commemorative stamps of the 1st American Volunteer Group which fought with the Chinese in World War II. Led by Lieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault, the AVG was unofficially known as The Flying Tigers.
6. Dragon robe – Chennault Aviation & Military Museum. Dragon robe presented to Chennault while in China. According to the description, it’s thought to have been worn by Pu Yi, the last emperor of China. A wall painting dramatizes Flying Tiger supply flights over ‘the hump’ (Himalayas) from India to China.
7. P40 Flying Tiger – Chennault Aviation & Military Museum. The museum is housed in the only remaining building of the Selman Navigation School which trained over 15,000 pilots in WW II. This ¾ replica of a fighter aircraft with its trademark shark teeth and red nose was being moved from a trailer. On the civilian side, Monroe was the birthplace of Delta Airlines.
8. Warehouse No.1 – It was the lunch special of burger and sweet potato fries for me at Warehouse No. 1 Restaurant. The cavernous wood building has been repurposed from its initial use as a cotton warehouse. A resident hawk often sits on one of the boat landing posts that still reach into the Ouachita River.
9. Coke ‘pop’ demo – Biedenharn Museum & Gardens. Guide Tom Jacobs was a born performer (actually, a retired clown) as he told us the story of Coke, demonstrating how early Coke bottles opened with a pop, giving birth to the term soda pop. To stand out from copycat bottlers ranging from Charcola to Pepsi Cola, the company patented the now familiar ‘hobbleskirt bottle’ which has since been slimmed down to the present fluted shape.
10. Dining room – Biedenharn Museum & Gardens. The museum consists of rooms showing how the Biedenharns lived, a landscaped garden, a Bible museum plus Coke soda fountain and deliveries garage.
11. Biedenharn Museum & Gardens.
12. A Model T Ford truck complete with a load of the last Coke bottled by Biedenharn in 1996. In 1884 Joseph Biedenharn became the world’s first bottler of Coca Cola.
13. Vineyard welcome – Ethan Landry welcomed me to the brand new tasting room of Landry Vineyards in the rolling hills of West Monroe. It’s the last place I would expect to find a vineyard, but what a find! Owners Jeff and Libby Landry came here from southern Louisiana, liked a church in the area, stayed and started a winery.
14. Jeff Landry, vintner – “You’ve got to have passion”. The family’s goal, says Jeff, is producing wines with a distinctive Louisiana character that complement the regional Cajun foods. To my surprise, I think they’ve done it. First plantings were Blanc du Bois, a white European American hybrid grape. Next came Cynthia/Norton red, and now others.
15. Country road – West Monroe combines bucolic countryside and meandering roads with the occasional oil derrick on a front lawn. Oil and recent natural gas finds lie beneath many properties and are a source of considerable wealth for some people.
16. Ponchatoulas Restaurant in downtown Ruston was a happening place on a Saturday night: couples with baby baskets, groups young and old, singles at the bar and latecomers waiting outside. I went local with spicy sausages and beans on rice. Parts of the surrounding 18-block historic district have undergone a facelift with new sidewalks, lighting and landscaping so you may have to look for the crowd to find your way on future visits.
17. Joe Mitcham, Jr. carries on a second generation family tradition of peach growing as he operates the largest orchard in the state as Mitcham Farms. Twenty-one varieties find their way into jams, jellies, syrups, sauces and even ice cream sold at the orchard store. But it’s not all peaches and cream for farmers, as an edible mushroom fungus (Armillaria mellea) continues to decimate southern crops by rotting a tree’s root system.
18. Ripe peach – Joe cut a sunbrite variety peach for an inside peek of freshness.
19. Peaches and cream – Peyton Johnson and Audrey Free “came all the way from Shreveport just for this” (lactose, cholesterol free peach ice cream).
20. Military Museum – (L-R) Director David Ernie and staffer Jake Barge, North Louisiana Military Museum. It began as the Vietnam Veteran’s Museum with just a few artifacts, but has grown into a substantial compendium of military memorabilia from the Civil War to Afghanistan. Although not a historian, Ernie’s aim is to show America’s involvement in every war. The museum is completely non-government.
21. Eddie G. Robinson Museum – Sports pioneer Eddie G. Robinson, 56 years as football coach at Grambling State University, now has a campus museum dedicated to his life and winning philosophy. As one of the newest African-American attractions it’s close to being a pilgrimage for young black athletes.
22. Eddie G. Robinson Museum – A wall of famous athletes inspired by coach Robinson is testimony to the man’s impact on others and his enduring positive spirit.
23. Eddie G. Robinson Museum – The museum is a combination of interactive displays, elements of the game, artwork and personal talks.
24. Eddie G. Robinson Museum – As the coach with the most wins in Division I-AA college football history Eddie G. Robinson’s life as a coach defines the inspiration to improve and succeed.
25. Diamond Jack’s Casino & Hotel, Bossier City, was my address for a few days in the Shreveport-Bossier area. The community began as hard scrabble but was proudly the last Confederate capital to surrender west of the Mississippi.
Due to state legalities which prohibit gambling on land, the hotel has its casino on a portion of the building over the river as a boat, complete with fancy smoke stacks and a complete crew including a captain in the wheelhouse.
26. Trestle in mist – Summer mornings can be muggy, as I observed in this river scene from the hotel car park.
27. Crawfish, as they say in these parts – An evening at nearby Plantation Coffee in Mooringsport began with heaping plates of boiled crawfish on the patio.
28. Sunset over Caddo Lake, a view from the plantation house.
29. Plantation Coffee – “When you retire you have to do something with your life”. Having retired from his medical practice, Stanley Schikowitz now spends time on personal projects such as a custom-built plantation house, expanding his premium coffee business (he’s the master roaster) and planting a new bed of 60,000 irises. “We try to have a major project each year.”
30. Balloon sunrise – Timing is everything when you’re making a morning balloon flight. The sun burnt through a thick mist to reflect on the red River during our ascent. “We’re a bit heavy”, owner/operator Pat Harwell said, “so y’all lift your right foot.”
31. Tower of dimes – We glided over the top of the town’s water tower, dropping lucky dimes on the roof as our own aerial version of cash and dash.
32. Balloonist Pat Harwell at the helm. His company, American Escapes Aerosports Inc., offers rides year round 7 days a week. “Your job’s to wave at everyone”, he told me.
33. Bayou view – The bayous seen from a different perspective, 100 feet up at 3 mph.
34. Mature alligator – Gators & Friends Alligator Park & Exotic Zoo has about 200 of these watery predators. The gators are raised for their leathery hides, with a legally required 12% returned to the wild in order to sustain the reptile population.
35. Tastes like chicken – Feeding time with chicken nuggets for young alligators.
36. Pygmy goats can be hand fed by visitors.
37. Newborn deer – A European fallow deer gives birth and within minutes the fawn is able to stand, still covered with fluid and somewhat wobbly.
38. Red lily – Past its prime yet still beautiful, this lily was planted in the Gardens of the American Rose Center in Shreveport, official 118 acre gardens of the American Rose Society. The gardens took the snowbird route when they came south from Columbus Ohio in 1974. My problem was having visited in June when little was in bloom.
39. American Rose Center – My sentiments exactly!
40. A mural produced by Meg Saligman titled ‘Once in a Millennium Moon’ adorns the AT&T building in downtown Shreveport. Using a paint by number system Meg had 40% of the mural painted by the community on pieces of cloth which were then applied like wallpaper. The people are real, documented with family heirlooms to create the largest public mural in the county. 1,500 gallons of paint can certainly change a brick wall.
41. Homes – There’s some fine mixed architecture old and new sprinkled around town.
42. The King – “Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve never heard of this young man before, but one day you’ll be able to tell your children and grandchildren that you heard musical history made tonight”. With these words Elvis Presley was introduced to the audience in the Memorial Auditorium on The Louisiana Hayride radio program in October 16, 1954. Statues of Elvis and guitarist Jeff Beck stand in front of the building marking that historic day.
43. Elvis’ dressing room – Memorial Auditorium. The dressing room presumed to have been used by Elvis. The first 18 months of his career were spent in Shreveport-Bossier.
44. Spotlight – Memorial Auditorium. A worn spotlight rusts in the attic.
45. Herby K’s Restaurant has been a veritable institution since 1936 when the name came about from a school fad to shorten a person’s name and add a letter. It’s a one of a kind greasy spoon eatery with character. Herby’s grand daughter Angela Busi Doe now runs the business that reportedly once tossed out Elvis because he was tipsy.
46. Onion rings and shrimp at Herby K’s.
47 Enchanted Garden – Deb Beckman (L), owner of gift and home décor shop Enchanted Garden, typifies the enduring and personable small businesses that stand out in smaller communities like Shreveport-Bossier. With Deb is employee Tina Boyer, who has since moved back to her home state of Utah.
48. Forrest Dunn, Director (retired), Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, used to sell furniture. He loves his current job, telling me “I never thought I could find anything I would like as much as the furniture business, but this is it.”
49. Diorama – Louisiana State Exhibit Museum. The building combines Neoclassical and Modern design in a circular layout. As stated on the official website: ‘The museum highlights 18 world-renowned dioramas created from beeswax by the museum’s second director, the late Dr. Henry Brainerd Wright.’
50 Michael Brady – In a rare moment for contemplation, gourmet chef/owner Michael Brady of Wine Country Bistro pauses during evening food preparations. I was given entrée (so to speak) to the restaurant kitchen, as our group dined luxuriously out front. Michael is a fanatic about freshness, sourcing exotic ingredients from Texas, grits from Arkansas, vegetables from a great eco farm in Ohio, plus sources on the East and West coasts. Regarding soft shell crabs…“They don’t like this, but when a crate arrives, I turn it upside down, and the ones that don’t run away I send back on the truck.”
51. Wine Country Bistro – “The beauty of a great kitchen is that it’s a team effort.”
52. Wine Country Bistro – “We focus on (French) technique and on great ingredients.”
53. Krewe of Gemini Mardi Gras Museum. Despite the throwaway beads, Shreveport’s annual Mardis Gras is family oriented. The Museum houses the largest collection of Mardi Gras royalty costumes in the northern hemisphere. It’s is a hive of costume and float production during summer months, as these ladies exuberantly demonstrated. Oh, don’t worry about the parade volunteers; every float has a bar and toilet.
54. Krewe of Gemini – Giant masks under wrap until next year’s parade.
55. Oakland Cemetery is the resting place for, among others, 1,000 Confederate soldiers and veterans, and 759 citizens who died from the great yellow fever epidemic of 1873. The cemetery appeared in the film Mr. Brooks, starring Kevin Costner and Dane Cook.
56. Colourful lampshades led me to Artspace at the West Edge where a finger popping celebration for 50 Years of Bubblewrap was on display.
57. Artspace at the West Edge – 50 Years of Bubblewrap.
58. The R. W. Norton Gallery is one for which you almost feel the need to arrive in a limo though that’s not the case at all. Comfortable galleries sit amid a manicured landscape. American and European art are its strength, including art of the American West.59. Marilyn & Monet – It takes a special place like the R. W. Norton Gallery to bring together a classic M&M — Marilyn and Monet.
60. Winchester, R. W. Norton Gallery. A specially decorated Winchester carbine was just one of the items in an extensive gun collection.
61. Elvis’ view – I went through the Memorial Auditorium twice, the second time on an escorted tour. This was Elvis’ view of the acoustically superb hall during his first performance for which he was paid the sum of $18. Here too Frank Page first spoke the words “Elvis has left the building” following the King’s last concert. This stage has supported many others — from Jimmy Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Roy Rogers and Trigger to circus elephants that had to duck beneath the art deco chandeliers when entering through the front lobby. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark 2 years ago.
62 Quilted flag – An over-sized flag of quilted children’s patriotic designs and comments graces a wall in the airport.
Useful websites and contact info:
Louisiana North www.exploreLouisinaNorth.org
Shreveport-Bossier Convention & Visitors Bureau www.shreveport-bossier.org Tel. 1-888-45-VISIT
Ruston Lincoln Convention & Visitors Bureau www.experienceruston.com Tel. 1-800-392-9032
Monroe-West Monroe Convention & Visitors Bureau www.monroe-westmonroe.org Tel. 1-800-843-1872
Please note: All story material and photos are copyright © Gary Crallé. No reproduction in any form for commercial purposes without written consent.