Page 5

Approaching LeCompte, (named after a race horse "of the times"*) you cannot miss this monument to Louisiana's Sugarcane Refining Industry. It is massive and magnificent. The brick work is the finest. Another industry has taken it's grounds. They make something that sounds, well, not as good as sugar.. The last time I was here a very fat rent-a-cop chased me on foot. I was just taking a picture and had penetrated the property, maybe, I was on a unmarked driveway. Lucky, he didn't catch me. I was on the Guzzi.

Always looking, I saw this road sign. Lamourie. It just rolls off the tongue. It is a wonderful word. Say it. la-moo-ree. It is so French, so Louisiana. Such an elegant sounding word. It probably means "pig" or something. I had to check it out.

Of course a bayou crossing was part of its route. Any elegant Louisiana road has a bayou or two.

Another one. What caught my eye was the round window in the attic. My aunt's home in Clinton sported a simular window and very simular upstairs and downstairs matching doors. Notice no rail. There was no historical marker. From what I saw it was a working farm. I will call it LaMourie Plantation, built in 1859 or 1840. I am sure there is a tale as to why it was not distroyed by the villain, General Banks, after his defeat at Mansfield during the Red River Campaign. Banks was headed to Simmesport. Maybe LaMourie was off the road.

I would suspect that is an old slave cabin, above, or maybe a sharecropper's house, or a farmer's simple home.
Louisiana is full of contrast. A run down trailor park can be next to a grand home. Rural Louisiana was not subdivided. Now, that's changing rapidly.

This historical marker was found in LeCompte, back on US.71. LeCompte deserves an article of its own. It is extremely historical. Here was the first railroad west of the Mississippi. Also, White is mentioned. Was he the same White that Whiteville was named after, maybe.

Why am I looking at this shack?

It's personal.

   I'll tell you. You knew I would.
   This is what is left of the Willow Glen Tourist Court (a motel). Tourist Courts were a new thing (modern) Before, there were only hotels and rooming houses for the traveler to stay the night. It is right across the old railroad bridge on McArthur Dr. (US 71 entering Alexandria from the south) During the late 50's or early 60's I remember us staying in one of the cabins or rooms. It was a long stucture made up of rooms which were raised on piers. Each room had a covered carport, see to the right of the "office" door. I was amazed to find it. Actually thrilled. It should not have survived. We all define our treasures and have our visions of what the past was. Believe it or not, even remembering the name of this place made the trip.
    The revisional trip to Shreveport was going well. Maybe in a couple of years I can get up into those hills.

Home.

On the Last Leg to Alexandria

   Old Route 66 is praised with 4566 signs noting its location.
    The "Old Baton Rouge Hwy". has 1. There it is. The 2 lane road to its left is it. The 4 lane to its right is the new Baton Rouge Hwy.
    You don't get this kind of information everywhere. They are both straight and boring, but the trinkets attached to both, are not.

Before you can leave you have to read this. It is one very beautiful poem written by my late Aunt, a former Poet Laureate of Louisiana.
So you see, diggin' the state is in the blood. She knew it and I'm learning it.

Lovely Louisiana
     by Emma Wilson Emery
               Past Poet Laureate of Louisiana

Let me live in Louisiana
Where the winding bayous flow,
Where the mocking birds sing all night long
And wild azaleas grow.
Where cottonfields are ghostly white
When the harvest moon rides high and bright,
Where voices are crooning with delight
In lovely Louisiana.

Let me hear the forest singing
To the melody of years
As it sang to hearts of the long ago
In their laughter and their tears.
Where stately pines and sycamore
And age old oaks on the sandy shore
Will whisper their secrets evermore
In lovely Louisiana.

Let me live in Louisiana
Where the wild geese furl their wings
Near the trapper's hut in the trembling marsh
And the upland's crystal springs.
Where faithful souls of an exiled race
Still pray to God through His loving grace-
In this whole wide world I have found no place
Like lovely Louisiana.

For those starting from the Home Page and doing the "Re-rides" This is Boeuf Number One, you're read it. It features more of this great area, stuff that I've mentioned here but ignored. A great mapped ride throught the area of Bayou Boeuf and Cocodrie. Click that "next".

A good side Trip: Two pages of old stuff, including those Confederate graves at the Methodist Chruch. Most of th pictures are from this area.

* used when you don't know the date

Ok, what do you want to do now? All links open in new windows except the next one which is the way back to the HOME PAGE.
That means you can visit the other pages without losing your place here. That because a link to the next ride into the Boeuf is coming.

Continue the Boeuf Adventure and Find the Source