Here is the rest of the story from our day trip to Natchitoches.

228 Henry Blvd. – my great-grandparent’s house where my grandmother (Frances Thomas Walker) grew up.

My Dad said he remembers staying here as a little boy when his family would visit for the weekend.

 After driving around Natchitoches for a while, we decided it was time to hit the “Old Cane River Road” and see all the countryside and all the beautiful, old plantation homes that line the river.  Here are a few of the sights we saw.

We never could figure out what the name of this place was….but it looked like it came straight from the history books.

One of several old church building we saw as we drove.

One of the slave’s houses on the Oakland Plantation grounds.  Over twenty-two original building still stand,  some dating back to the early 1800’s.

A side view of the Oakland Plantation main-house.  It had an awesome wrap-around porch that was probably 12 feet deep and 10 feet off the ground and had rocking chairs!

Melrose Plantation, also known as “Yucca Plantation,” was a mecca for visiting writers and artists in the early 1900’s, including Clementine Hunter, who lived and worked at Melrose for most of her life.  She died in 1988.

Another beautiful, smaller plantation home on the “Cane River Road.”  We’re not sure of the name of this one either.

Looking up the driveway towards Magnolia Plantation, which was already “closed” for the day.  Supposedly an elderly woman still lives here with a whole bunch of cats, and will only let people see her “clean” rooms.

Well….we drove south until we hit I-49 about 20 miles south of Natchitoches, so we figured it was time to turn towards home and find our way back to Ruston.  I always enjoy taking the “back-roads,” so we drove back through Ajax, Coushatta, Ringgold, Fryeburg, Bryceland, Arcadia, and finally made it to Ruston.  All in all, we had a great day of seeing some of our beautiful home state, Louisiana!  Hopefully we’ll have a few more journeys to write about soon!