Sites associated with the Alabama, Bayogoula, Biloxi, Caddo, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma, Tunica, and other Native American groups have yielded such items. Side-scan sonar was used to determine that part of one of the cribs in the upper dam remained intact. This would create an arsenic-like liquid she planned to pour in the batter for a birthday cake she was making for one of the children. Near the Amite River which is across from the ruins of Galvez town. Owned and in continuous operation by the original family since 1839. $50,000 in gold coins, family plates, and jewelry, Near Edgard, Louisiana on the north bank of the Mississippi River. It is widely believed that her intention was not murder, but instead just to make the girls and their mother sick, so she could nurse them all back to health. Baton Rouge: Coastal Environments, Inc., 2001. Take a guided tour to see three memorials dedicated to telling the story of slavery in Louisiana, as well as an original slave cabin and church. Lost Plantations of the South - amazon.com Today, these homes are available for tours, exploration and special events This mix of history, remembrance and celebrations make visits to Louisianas unique plantation homesa very fascinating way to spend an afternoon. Have you ever visited one of these spots or found anything special when you were digging around our state? In Lost Plantations of the South, Marc R. Matrana weaves together photographs, diaries and letters, architectural renderings, and other rare documents to . Maybe someday someone will find one of Jean Lafittes many buried treasures. She was laid to rest in the family . North of Cheniere Ridge, Louisiana near a shell bank on Lake Misere, Gold and silver coins that date from 1802 to 1809, $100,000 to $500,000 worth of gold and silver coins and jewelry. Janie, Thank you for your support. Whitney Plantation has closed for the time being; the management is seeking donations for what will be expensive repairs. Its located two miles southwest of Sunset Louisiana on the Bayou Bourdeaux. The first oil in the state was discovered in 1901, and pipelines, natural gas plants, and refineries built to process it. Union ironclad gunboat USS Eastport had been scuttled at this location in April 1864, while the side-wheel steamboat Ed. Take a tour to see the historic house museum, an open-hearth kitchen that often hosts cooking demonstrations, a pigeonnier (c.1825 structure that housed various game birds) and more. During the Civil War, southern refugees reportedly buried their treasures at Old Camp Place, about 10 miles from Monroe, LA. Soon rebuilt, the barn operated until 1934 and was demolished in 1941. Plantation heiress and manager Laura Lacoul Gore's (1861-1963) autobiography tells the family's history and her experience living at the plantation. In Lost Plantations of the South, Marc R. Matrana weaves together photographs, diaries and letters, architectural renderings, and other rare documents to tell the story of . The mansion was moved in 1961 to Jeanerette, Louisiana but the old gardens there might still be visible. The sunken remains of the CSS Arrow, a wooden coastal steamboat converted into a Confederate gunboat in 1861, were located during a magnetometer survey of the West Pearl River in St. Tammany Parish in 1991. So either the remaining one is still buried there or the Union troops had taken it when they were camping near the Parlange Plantation garden. Slave cabins still standing in the state are rare and quarters complexes (i.e., sets of cabins and sometimes overseers houses, plantation hospitals, and other buildings) rarer still. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Many were established near Native American villages where land had already been cleared. It constitutes one of the few Confederate naval vessels in the country to be discovered and studied. The family never returned to Houmas House, and those back in Louisiana who knew her and her love of the plantation mourned their loss. During the Thomas Jefferson Presidency, a high priority was to build roads to New Orleans, specifically the Natchez Trace and the Federal Road through Georgia, initially intended to facilitate mail delivery. You can even visit and tour the plantation by appointment. Intensive excavation in the AshlandBelle Helene Plantation quarters, built between 1840 and 1842 in Ascension Parish, uncovered the brick foundations from eighteen cabins, an overseers house, and a blacksmith shop. Antebellum (and earlier) sites also exist in urban parts of the state. Searching for the Lost Graves of Louisiana's Enslaved People By Alexandra Eaton, Christoph Koettl, Quincy G. Ledbetter, Victoria Simpson and Aaron Byrd June 27, 2021 There are thousands of. In my opinion, the treasure was probably unearthed by the Union Troops that were camping in her garden. LOST PLANTATIONS OF THE SOUTH - Facebook Descendants of Slaves Seek Shelter from Ida In A Plantation's Big - NPR The plantation was once the center of a 900-acre operation not far from the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge. Antebellum Louisiana: Agrarian Life The layout of these house lots, and the artifacts they contained, were compared to those of the African American workers at Goodland to look for differences in social and economic class and ethnicity. Three small cribs constituted the upper dam. We showcase libraries, societies, and genealogy businesses so researchers will find these great resources and the industry will flourish. These finds help researchers understand how Native Americans managed the complexities of European interaction. For instance, the archaeological remains of the Grand Houmas Village (17131785), depicted on French period maps, were identified in Ascension Parish in 1983. For instance, archaeological remains at the 18301890 Plaisance Sugarhouse in Iberville Parish showed that this building was initially a two-room boiling and curing house. Mississippi was a paddle frigate that sunk in the waters of the Mississippi River on the Northwest tip of Profit Island which is about 12 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Its presumed that it is still buried somewhere on the Thibodeaux Plantation. 1825-1830 by Antoine Gosserand. This page is not available in other languages. Sam Houston visited while in the area soliciting funds for his Texas army. The Pirate Jean Lafitte lived here at one time. The French and Spanish gave such medals, sometimes known as peace medals, to the chiefs with whom they conducted official negotiations. At the time of the cotton gins invention, the sub tropical soils in the Eastern United States were becoming depleted, and the fertilizer deposits of guano deposits of South America and the Pacific Islands along with the nitrate deposits in the Chilean deserts were not yet being exploited, meaning that there were fertilizer shortages, leading to a decline in agriculture in the Southeast and a westward expansion to new land. Arcadias kettle train was originally fire heated but was later replaced with a steam train. Beyond the Great House, Archaeology at Ashland-Belle Helene Plantation. In Lost Plantations of the South, Marc R. Matrana weaves together photographs, diaries and letters, architectural renderings, and other rare documents to tell the story of sixty of these vanquished estates and the people who once called them home. In the following, I highlight each of these plantations and their associated treasure story. After the war, many planters, having lost access to enslaved labor and the capital their ownership represented, lost their land. Pearson, Charles E. and Thomas C.C. Tour Louisiana's Plantations on River Road She gathered some leaves from an Oleander plant and boiled them in water. Chretien Point plantation still stands today. [citation needed], Under ownership of Spain, the city of New Orleans held the strategically important location between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. and fortunes were hard to come by and easily lost. Fallen Springs is located east of the Toledo Bend reservoir a few miles from Many, Louisiana. 3. With all that wealth he acquired by smuggling and capturing merchants vessels Lafitte was nervous that he would be caught by the authorities and subsequently had to bury his treasure to keep it safe. In the Louisiana colony, the French and Spanish Crowns granted tracts of land, known as concessions, to loyal subjects for political and economic reasons. It was used by both Confederate and Union troops during the Civil War. Located on 650 acres of land in St. Francisville, the homestead was built in 1796 by General David Bradford. [citation needed] Cloth, shoes, and clothing were imported from Europe and from the Northeast U.S.[citation needed], The self-sufficiency of plantations and cheap slave labor hindered economic development of the South. Excavations revealed numerous alterations and additions to the main house and kitchen not mentioned in historical documents. Louisiana has lost many of her plantations through the years (fires, age, Civil War) but others have been restored or actually maintained through the years allowing us to see their history in the present times. F. Dix struck and sank on top of the Eastport in June 1865. Although Lafitte was headquartered in Louisiana he also visited other states that he supposedly buried treasures including Texas and Alabama. Yet the archaeological remains of the small farms they established are rare due in part to riverbank erosion, levee construction, and obliteration by later occupation. This town was notably used by pirates and many treasures have been unearthed in this area. Per the Code, all property transfers and many wills, marriage and building contracts were drafted, guaranteed, and archived by notaries. Everyone who visits the Whitney Plantation, located on the west bank of the Mississippi less than an hour's drive from New Orleans on Louisiana's historic River Road, receives a similar card . Thanks for visiting! Aboriginal pottery, some of which imitate European forms, and animal bone constitute most of the artifact assemblage from this site. Soon after the officers were killed by Union troops and the treasure is said to still be buried there on the Estate. Cotton and sugar plantation sites typically include several components: a main house with associated outbuildings (kitchen, milk house, chicken coop, etc. We love to hear your memories of these Only in Louisiana trips! Ryan, Joanne and Thurston H.G. The concession was established adjacent to the Bayogoula-Mugulasha-Taensa Native American village. In 1864, a Union naval squadron, in retreat after the battle of Mansfield, was trapped in low water above rocky rapids on Red River at Alexandria. Therefore, the arrival and settlement of the French in 1699 is generally accepted as the beginning of the historic period in Louisiana. By the time the Civil War came to Louisiana, the once-tiny plantation had grown to a massive 2,640 acres. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and metal detecting and digging is probably forbidden but it wouldnt hurt to ask. These are just a few of the many lost treasure stories that come out of the state of Louisiana. Plantation record book kept by Samuel Leigh and Lewis F. Pulliam, overseers of the sugar plantation owned by A. Ledoux and Company, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in a map. Yakubik, Jill-Karen and Rosalinda Mndez. Historical background of the plantation era, Magnolia Plantation (Schriever, Louisiana), Oakland Plantation (Natchitoches, Louisiana). Together the couple had three daughters, Cornelia Gale, Jane, and Mary Octavia. We do this by listing sites in our directory and spotlighting these resources on our social media channels. He reported went into the bayou that was south of his plantation house and buried the treasure there. Virginie treated the General as though she supported the Union side but in reality, she was very much for the confederacy. North of Cheniere Ridge, Louisiana near a shell bank on Lake Misere it is said that Jean Lafitte buried a treasure here. [citation needed] The Carondelet Canal, which was completed in 1794, connected the Trem section of New Orleans with Bayou St. John, giving shipping access to Lake Pontchartrain as an alternative route to the Gulf of Mexico. Ceramics were imported from France (faience), Spain (majolica), Great Britain (delft, creamware, and pearlware), Germany (salt-glazed stoneware), and China (porcelain) before local production could meet demand and tariff restrictions were imposed.