Thoughts of Thanksgiving in St. Francisville, LA

Thoughts of Thanksgiving in St. Francisville, LA
By Anne Butler

Thanksgiving turns our thoughts backward, back to the 1620s First Thanksgiving celebrated by Plymouth pilgrims with the Native Americans who taught them survival skills, back to our heritage and history, back to “Over the River and Through the Wood, To Grandmother’s House We Go.”

These days, Grandma might just as well be on a skiing trip to her condo in Colorado instead of laboring over a hot oven roasting turkey for the multitudes, and anyway, the original poem penned by Lydia Maria Child said we were going to Grandfather’s House. And while Ol’ Man River keeps on rolling, rolling, rolling in timeless fashion past St. Francisville, we’re missing two of the icons of a trip over the waters. The ferryboat we rode for a century or so has been replaced by a grand new bridge. And Miss Emily, ah, we miss Miss Emily.

For more than 30 years, the long wait at the landing for the ferry to cross the Mississippi River between St. Francisville and New Roads was brightened by the much anticipated sight of Miss Emily. Braving the freezing breezes or broiling sun, straw-hatted Miss Emily trundled along the landing road with a bright red Radio Flyer wagon loaded with her famous homemade pralines, teacakes, boiled or roasted peanuts. Generations of travelers from around the world grew to love Miss Emily, daughter of an old-time pastor/carpenter. Miss Emily worked for many years as nanny and housekeeper for the Wilcox family in St. Francisville, but she needed more income to support her seven children. When she came up with the idea of hawking snacks, she asked the Lord to give her a recipe, and after a few failures, she and the Lord perfected the ingredients and technique for what visitors and residents alike called the world’s best pecan pralines.

When she died in September at the age of 84, longtime St. Francisville mayor William H. D’Aquilla, “by the authority vested in me by the State of Louisiana and the Town of St. Francisville,” officially proclaimed October 3 as Ms. Emily Smothers Williams Day in recognition of the great respect with which she was viewed in the community.

Today her grandson Antonio Williams, long her understudy, continues to make her popular pecan candy, selling it from her home across from the town post office as well as in the local historical museum and other shops in St. Francisville, carrying on the tradition in fine fashion.

This being November, the month of nostalgia, there’s another salute to tradition and heritage on Sunday, November 1, when the Hemingbough Blues Festival pays tribute to the roots music from which so many contemporary musical genres spring, everything from jazz and R&B to rock and roll or hip hop. From 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 11:30), the Baton Rouge Blues Society has assembled an incredible array of talent to give concert goers the opportunity to enjoy world-class blues played by some of the best musicians around.

Hosted by radio personality Rob Payer, the festival features blues and soul man Luther Kent, who was born in New Orleans and began singing professionally at age 14. One-time lead singer for “Blood, Sweat and Tears,” he has been inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame as well as the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Another member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame is Gregg Wright of the stellar guitar and soulful voice fame, called King of the Rockin’ Blues. Wright played 75 concerts as Michael Jackson’s guitarist on his legendary 1980’s Victory Tour. Worldwide audiences proclaim him one of the most innovative guitarists of our time, in the top echelons of the great blues guitarists.

They will be joined by Chris LeBlanc, for over 20 years a mainstay on the Louisiana music scene, whose performances resonate with the rich bluesy sound of the south; Betsy Braud with her upbeat gumbo bayou jazz with a hint of the swamp; talented LSU music school grad Kiki Lynell; and beloved local blues band the Delta Drifters. Also appearing are Oscar “Harp” Davis, one of the region’s best blues harmonica players and member of the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame; John Gray, educator and trumpet player noted for his wide range of musical genres from classical to jazz, funk and R&B; Chris Belleau, physiatrist by day and in Zydeco bands by night, whose album Knee Deep in the Blues featured him on vocals, harmonic and Cajun accordion.

Tickets for the Hemingbough Blues Festival are $20 in advance, $25 at the gate, and are available at Phil Brady’s Bar and the Elizabethan Gallery in Baton Rouge. No coolers are allowed; food and drink are available on-site for purchase.

So if you don’t have an accessible Grandma to go home to for Thanksgiving, come on over the river and through the wood to St. Francisville, eat some of Miss Emily’s legendary pralines and hear some soulful sounds of the southern blues for which this area is famous.
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and
Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination.  A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation, Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).

The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.

For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).

St. Francisville’s Yellow Leaves

By Anne Butler

In just about the only part of south Louisiana whose woodlands experience an explosion of autumn coloring as frosts turn leaves brilliant reds and yellows and oranges, it is only fitting that one of the most popular area celebrations is called the Yellow Leaf Arts Festival.
Held Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the fourth weekend of October, the 24th and 25th, it’s a gathering of dozens of artists, crafters and musicians performing, demonstrating and selling their original handcrafted creations in downtown St. Francisville’s oak-shaded Parker Park.

(In the event of rain, Yellow Leaf Arts Festival moves to the covered pavilion at the West Feliciana Sports Park at the north end of St. Francisville just off US 61.)

This 13th annual event is sponsored by the umbrella arts organization called Arts For All to celebrate all arts for all persons.
Yellow Leaf 2015 brings together more than 50 artists plus fun children’s activities, great food and live music by Young Songbirds, Luke Ash, The Fugitive Poets, Clay Parker, Nancy Roppolo, Gina Forsyth, The Wilder Janes, Jodi James, Ryan Harris, Melissa Wilson, and a Songbird Jam. New this year is a drawing tent, and the popular photography contest showcases images of Louisiana Wildlife.
Featured artist is Mitch Evans, whose art graces this year’s festival poster, a gracefully sensuous design of a tall tree rendered in…what? Oils? Acrylics? Watercolors? Nope. Actually, Evans is an artist who more or less paints in wood, as well as sculpting or carving it.
With the beauty of its lush natural resources and its fascinating depth of heritage, the St. Francisville area has inspired many a painter and writer. Audubon responded to the call of its prolific birdlife; Walker Percy responded to the echoes of its history. Today, it’s the wood that speaks to Mitch Evans, whether live oak or black walnut, sinker cypress or hackberry, pecan, river birch, red maple or sweet gum. And he listens and he understands, letting the chunks of wood tell him what to make of them…trencher bowls, vases, designs like paintings rendered in slivers and bits of wood, even a piece where he has used his chainsaws, grinders and sanders to turn small bits of wood into what you’d swear are shiny river rocks.
He calls himself a “wood geek,” and says he loves everything there is about trees and wood, finding wonder and amazement in the pure and simple beauty of wood as revealed in all stages of its life and eventual death, through growth rings and textures and varying colorations. He says in many ways his relationship with his wooden creations is his own personal religion, and the beauty of his creations inspires awe in beholders as well as the artist.
Always looking for a new way to present the drama of Mother Nature, Evans has lately been inspired to recreate in wood the exquisite turnings of a Nautilus shell. He has also produced a series of what he calls Progressions, made by laying out small cuts of different woods that lead the eye in dramatic fashion from beginning to end on a magical mystery journey, a visual concept of how individual pieces seem so simple in one dimension but yet are intricately and inevitably connected when viewed in a different dimension. Evans finds the analogy to humanity profound, humankind separate and yet connected, with an entirely new vision of beauty revealed in the whole.
Arts For All calls the Yellow Leaf Festival a celebration of the “friendly, relaxed, authentic, small-town quaintness that is St. Francisville,” (for information, www.artsforall.felicianalocal.com). And October in St. Francisville is crowded with other events that celebrate its diverse passions as well, running the gamut from ghosts to gardens, from inmate rodeo bull riders to the Warrior Dash on October 3, a down-and-dirty mud-covered survival-of-the-fittest footrace (info@redfrogevents.com) . And every one of these diverse celebrations adds to the richness of life in this southern small town.
This being the season of witches and goblins, The Myrtles Halloween Experience scares the pants off visitors every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in October from 6 to 9 p.m. in a historic plantation house calling itself the most haunted in America (for tickets, telephone 800-809-0565). Indeed, when the attached gift shop caught fire last year, the ghosts were said to have saved the 1790s main house (the local firefighters just might’ve helped, too).
For a taste of authentic historic funeral customs, nearby Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site is dressed in mourning garb the entire last week in October. On October 29 at 4 p.m. the costumed staff of this National Historic Landmark relates Soul Stories of Rosedown family members’ lives and deaths (call 225-635-3332 for information). At the Audubon State Historic Site, All Hallows Eve is marked October 30 and 31 from 6 to 8 p.m. with a special evening tour of the grounds, slave cabins, the only existing grave on the place, and a candlelight tour of Oakley house spiced with legends, myths and ghost stories (call 225-635-3739 for information).
Every Sunday in October, the Angola Prison Rodeo draws more than 10,000 eager spectators to witness death-defying bravado in events like bareback bronc or bull riding, wild cow milking, wild horse race, buddy pick-up, bulldogging, inmate poker (last one seated wins, the other players having been hooked sky-high by charging brahma bulls), Bust Out (six bulls released at once) and the crowd-pleasing Guts and Glory when inmates on foot try to snatch a $100 chit from a bull’s horns. “The Wildest Show in the South, ” which keeps the audience on the edge of their seats from the moment the black-clad Angola Rough Riders charge into the arena at break-neck speed, also features prisoner hobbycraft sales, tons of food, and inmate bands. Other than the ladies’ barrel racing, all rodeo participants are inmates in this enormous maximum-security prison. Grounds open at 9 for the arts and crafts, and the fascinating state museum at the entrance gate will also be open. The rodeo starts at 2, and advance tickets are a must (www.angolarodeo.com provides information and spells out regulations which must be observed on prison property).
Somewhat more sedate activities are offered October 23 and 24th at the 27th annual Southern Garden Symposium, a series of entertainments, workshops, tours, demonstrations and lectures by prestigious speakers in this the land of glorious antebellum gardens. Workshop topics this year include floral design, shade gardening, promising plants for southern landscapes, bizarre botanicals, cool nurseries, establishing a horticultural sense of place, southeastern native plants, and a special presentation on Rosedown’s Gardens which were begun in 1835 and have been beautifully maintained and restored. Lecture and workshop locations include Hemingbough, Rosedown and Afton Villa Gardens, and historic downtown churches, with entertainments at Wildwood and the Underwood Cottage (www.southerngardensymposium.org).
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and
Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination. A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation, Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting, and kayaking on Bayou Sara. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.
For visitor information, call West Feliciana Tourist Commission and West Feliciana Historical Society at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224, or St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).

Bayou Sara Kayak Rental

Bayou Sara Kayak Rental revives access to St. Francisville creek

By Anne Butler
Photos from Ava Barrett

            Flatboaters in the late 1700s used to pull into the still waters of Bayou Sara creek where it emptied into the Mississippi River to get out of the river’s strong current and spend a peaceful night on the way to New Orleans. Often these same boatmen also stopped there on their walk back up the river to wherever they started their journey; their boats, with no engine power, could hardly travel upriver against the current, so the flatboats were broken up and sold for lumber, setting the crew afoot as they headed for home.
            And so a little shantytown sprang up and took its name from the creek, and it soon grew into one of the most significant ports along the Lower Mississippi, with extensive commercial and residential districts, its wharves crowded with steamboats and packets. The creek Bayou Sara was navigable for several miles to the north of St. Francisville, allowing plantation owners along the waterway the luxury of shipping their produce to the river from their own docks, at least through most of the 19^th century.
            Alas, the port of Bayou Sara was situated right on the river’s banks below St. Francisville, which had the sense to develop on a high ridge. Washed by floodwaters most springs, devastated by fires that destroyed dozens of woodframe structures in the business district, shelled during the Civil War, by 1909 the port city had seen better days. A newspaper report of that year gives an amusing account of a scheduled visit by the battleship Mississippi. The chairman of the local Bayou Sara reception committee, chagrined at accounts of elaborate banquets and balls given the ship’s officers and crew at New Orleans and Baton Rouge, wired its captain, “This is a hell of a place to receive anybody, but we will do the best we can.” And when a newspaper correspondent, tongue in cheek, wired back inquiring whether civilians should dress in high silk hats and frock coats during Bayou Sara’s welcome ceremony, the response was a hospitable “Not necessary to wear anything at all. Come ahead!”
            But by the late 1920s, particularly after the devastating flood of 1927 that displaced millions of people along the Mississippi River corridor, most of Bayou Sara port city’s occupants had moved their residences and businesses up the hill to St. Francisville, and what was left was abandoned to the river’s current. Even the creek called Bayou Sara declined, silt filling its deep swimming holes, no longer navigable by most boats except during flood times when river waters backed up into it.
            Now, nearly a century later, the beautiful creek called Bayou Sara is once again coming into its own, thanks to a new business called Bayou Sara Kayak Rental, brainchild of avid fisherman Andy Green and his fiancée Ava Barrett (who admitted to preferring to pass the time on the water with a good book until she too caught the fishing bug). Since they started last fall, they have had enthusiastic support from not only tourists, who revel in the unspoiled bayou scenery and unusual wildlife, but also from locals who gain a whole different perspective from water level, not to mention a good physical workout.
            Clear swift-running waters at its upper end near its mouth pass sandy beaches and clay bluffs, while the creek widens as it approaches the river and its turbid waters fill with alligators, otters, beavers and plenty of waterbirds—egrets and herons, roseate spoonbills, woodpeckers and the occasional eagle. The fishing is fine and Andy always manages a good catch for customers, whether fishing the fall run of white and striped bass, reeling in enormous catfish, or simply enjoying birdwatching and exploring flooded forested wetlands. Cat Island is accessible through the ditch when water levels are right and Andy also offers guided fishing trips to the Gulf Coast.
            Reasonable rates are $35 for two-hour guided kayak trips, $50 for four hours. All day non-guided rate is $35 per single kayak, $50 per tandem (two-person) kayak. The Pelican kayaks (sit on, not in) are built for stability; no experience is required, and the two-person tandem kayaks are perfect for trips with children. Guided Gulf fishing trips are $75, with full service provision—rods, lures, life vests, dry storage for valuables. Andy and Ava plan on expanding by adding more kayaks, sponsoring a Bayou Sara Cleanup community project and maybe a catfish rodeo, coordinating youth kayak lessons with the parish sports park and possibly even a summer camp.
            “Bayou Sara is such a pretty waterway and it’s not fully appreciated locally. It’s one of only two tributaries that enter the Mississippi River in Louisiana from the east, and kayaking Bayou Sara provides a glimpse of the state’s natural beauty that you will never forget,” says Andy Green. Give him a ring at 225-202-8822 to schedule a trip.
            One location along Bayou Sara is featured on the popular annual Hummingbird Celebration on Saturday, September 12, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hummingbird biologists Nancy Newfield and Linda Beale capture, study and band these amazing little birds, giving onlookers a chance to get up-close-and-personal. Admission is free to the two banding locations: artist Murrell Butler’s property along Bayou Sara at 9485 Oak Hill Road just north of St. Francisville, and Carlisle Rogillio’s Wild Bird Sanctuary at 15736 Tunica Trace (LA 66) near Angola.
            Sunday, September 13, from 3 to 5 p.m. at Hemingbough, A Celebration of Literature and Art presents an afternoon of words and song called Watermelon Wine and the Poetry of Southern Music. Frye Gaillard, journalist and author, will read from his classic book on country music, Watermelon Wine, and rising country music star Anne DeChant performs her favorite tunes, including some composed in collaboration with Gaillard. The performers will converse with the audience prior to the event, from 1 to 2:30. Tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com; CLA members $10, non-members $20 for both events.
            Another September event attracting visitors to St. Francisville is the LAVetsFest at the West Feliciana Sports Park on September 27, promising all sorts of sporting events, live music (big names like the Lost Bayou Ramblers), runs and bike races, fishing tournament and rodeo, car show, auction and jambalaya cook-off, all in tribute to veterans of all military branches.  Proceeds from concessions benefit the Veterans Foundation.
Located on US Highway 61 on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA, and
Natchez, MS, the St. Francisville area is a year-round tourist destination.  A number of splendidly restored plantation homes are open for tours: the Cottage Plantation, Myrtles Plantation, Greenwood Plantation, plus Catalpa Plantation by reservation; Afton Villa Gardens and Imahara’s Botanical Garden are open in season and are both spectacular. Particularly important to tourism in the area are its two significant state historic sites, Rosedown Plantation and Oakley Plantation in the Audubon state site, which offer periodic living-history demonstrations to allow visitors to experience 19^th-century plantation life and customs (state budget constraints have unfortunately shuttered Oakley Monday and Tuesday).
The nearby Tunica Hills region offers unmatched recreational activities in its unspoiled wilderness areas—hiking, biking and especially bicycle racing due to the challenging terrain, birding, photography, hunting. There are unique art galleries plus specialty and antiques shops, many in restored historic structures, and some nice restaurants throughout the St. Francisville area serving everything from ethnic cuisine to seafood and classic Louisiana favorites. For overnight stays, the area offers some of the state’s most popular Bed & Breakfasts, including historic plantations, lakeside clubhouses and beautiful townhouses right in the middle of St. Francisville’s extensive National Register-listed historic district, and there are also modern motel accommodations for large bus groups.
For visitor information, call St. Francisville Main Street at 225-635-3873 or West Feliciana Tourist Commission at 225-6330 or 225-635-4224; online visit www.stfrancisvillefestivals.com, www.stfrancisville.net or www.stfrancisville.us (the events calendar gives dates and information on special activities).