cane river national heritage area

I love to visit the cane river. It's so beautiful and hanging out in Natchitoches for a day is fun. Great place to go on a pretty day.

We truly like to visit historic Natchitoches. The old brick streets are narrow but inviting. The Cane River Lake is a perfect backdrop for a day of exploring Front Street.

Tim was great - we were the only ones there for the tour so felt quite spoiled! Very rainy so we only toured the house but still very interesting and a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Very quiet drive with little traffic. Scenic landscape to enjoy, plantations to tour and alot of interesting history. Don't miss Oakland, Melrose, and Magnolia plantations. Oakland was our favorite and it's free!

This is a great stop with lots of history. The ranger, Abby was very knowledgable and gave a great tour of Oakland Plantation. I would highly recommend.

A beautiful place. It had quite a lot of history. The tour guide, Don was very knowledgeable. The grounds were beautiful and the out buildings were very well kept for something that is over a 100 years old.

My mom is from Kinder, LA and so every time we go home to visit we take the back highways around Natchitoches, so happy it finally became recognized as a "trail". the views are spectacular along the lake.Take a walking tour of the the neighborhoods in town, many are older than you think, and the downtown area has some nice shopping and food.The gorgeous old homes are amazing and I always recommend the Oakland Plantation for touring, as well as a stop at Magnolia. I recommend a skip of Melrose, it is not a great tour, alot of the history is ignored, I can see history rewritten for less money elsewhere.

I had not been to Natchitoches in several decades and remembered the front street and river front as run down and something to be avoided. This trip I was amazed and impressed at the difference. It is now restored and charming, and well worth a diversionary side-trip. Quaint and attractive, with the old downtown in top shape and the graceful old homes well kept and with sweetly manicured lawns and gardens. And the walk along the river is a treat.

My friends and I LOVED touring two homes in the National Heritage Area. The docents were very informative. One charged a $10 fee. The signs around town helped us to navigate our way.

Be careful as your GPS or OnStar will send you to a closed building. It did however have area NPS park brochures out front that I found helpful. Follow the highway and make sure and see the plantations. It will give you a feel for what the area was really like.

The Cane River National Heritage Area has three main plantation sites to visit. Two have guided tours. One is unguided. The Visitor's Center has information about these plantations and a good map on how to get to them(no easy matter). Melrose Plantation is sponsored by a local preservation society and an entrance fee is required and well worth the tour. Melrose Plantation has a gift shop with a good selection of literature that relate to the history of the area and some interesting pottery by a local artist. One book I purchased, "The Awakening" by Kate Choin, is a good read. However, I was disappointed in my $24 "Gumbo Ya-Ya", paperback of folktales collected by writers in the Louisiana Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the 1930's. Some of the writings do not seem historically correct, such as the writer's definition of what a Creole is. To visit all three places, one should arrive in the morning as soon they open. Start at Melrose and work your way back to town. In the summer you want to be finished by 3 p.m.or so because it can get too hot for much touring after that hour. Driving in the area takes one back to a dreamy, surreal time.

Visited Oakland Plantation and the Caroline Dorman Preserve. Both areas interesting and beautiful. Guides were excellent and informative.

It was a great history lesson... We learned a lot about that time period ....Things I bet a lot of us did not know!

We spent a day visiting most of the shops on Front Street and the park. Many must visit restaurants are located downtown. We also visited three plantations, Magnola, Oakland and Melrose. Magnola was a self guided tour. Pick up a map at the general store (not open when we were there). Several buildings have a telephone number you can call to get recorded information. Oakland and Melrose both had a tour guide and we had the same guide, Joann, for both plantations. Joann invites your questions. She really knows a wealth of information about the history and genealogy of the area. I would recommend reading the information on the internet about both plantations before you visit.

After walking around the historic area of Natchitoches and along the park by the river we arrived too late to go on an organized tour of Oakland plantation. We thoroughly enjoyed walking the grounds of a real working plantation and best of all it was free.We drove along the picturesque Cane river going by the Melrose plantation and St. Augustine catholic church. Could easily spend more time here.This whole area is a little off the beaten path and to me is much more interesting. It really is relatively undeveloped as far as commercial tourism. Or at least compared to the New Orleans area