Louisiana Attractions

Feast your eyes with the Cane River National Heritage Area as it unfolds its splendid and spectacular Creole buildings, houses, and other establishments that exude the fusion of nationalities and ethnicities into one multi-cultural state. The Cane River National heritage area is within the town of Natchitoches, the oldest town in the territory covered by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The area also consists of the Kate Chopin House and the commemorative areas of Los Adaes, Fort St. Jean Baptiste and Fort Jesup. Within the heritage area also lies the National Historical Park which preserves more than 60 historic landmarks at two locations, the Magnolia Plantation and Oakland Plantation. These plantation sites are nestled along the Cane River, established as national shrines by the U.S. Congress in 1994 so as to save the remnants of old French and Creole design and architecture and preserve the long multi-cultural history of the state.

Another must see in Louisiana is the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, which features a wonderful sampling of the lavish natural and cultural creations in the state's Mississippi River Delta. The park derived its name from a renowned French privateer who fought in the Battle of New Orleans. Jean Lafitte National Historical Park includes six separate sites. These are the Acadian Cultural Center, in Lafayette; the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center, in Eunice; the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center, in Thibodaux; the Barataria Preserve, in Marrero; the Chalmette, in New Orleans; and the French Quarter, also in New Orleans.

Louisiana is not Louisiana without jazz. Prospective travelers must visit the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park to relish unique Louisianan sound. Established in the early 1990s to commemorate and map out the origins and evolution of jazz, the park is a four acre land within the Louis Armstrong Park. It provides a scintillating tour that depicts the history of the people and places that brought the progression of music into jazz. Travelers will sing their heart out as musicians and singers creatively play their way to tell the origins and progression of jazz as a global music genre.