Support for LR 64 is provided by.

Office of the Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.

Keep.

Louisiana Beautiful and the Louisiana Office of Tourism.

In this episode of LA 64, hit the road with me to explore Rapides Parish, the literal heart of Louisiana, where grand hotels whisper tales of generals and governors.

A sawmill town stands frozen in time.

Baby goats greet visitors on a country farm, and the piney woods still echo with the footsteps of soldiers who once trained for war.

Join me in central Louisiana, where every road leads somewhere in the state, and every stop reveals a little more of Louisiana's soul.

I'm Karen LeBlanc, a travel journalist and Louisiana native.

Join me on LR 60 for a journey through all 64 parishes, exploring Louisiana's less traveled paths.

It's.

Lafayette Robert Parish sits in the geographic heart of Louisiana, where the Red River divides the twin cities of Alexandria and Pineville, and the landscapes shift from riverbanks to piney woods and farmland.

On this journey, we'll criss cross Rapids Parish, beginning in Alexandria, the parish seat, heading north across the Red River to Pineville, continuing northeast to the bill, then traveling south through the forest to Longleaf and Forest Hill, the nursery capital of the world.

Each stop reveals another layer of central Louisiana story.

Alexandria's military roots have shaped the city's commerce, character, and culture.

The city was incorporated in 1819 and serves as the parish seat during World War Two.

Alexandria was the center of a nine state area for the training of military personnel.

The Hotel Bentley stands as a witness to history, legend, and lore.

The storied hotel known as the Biltmore of the Bayou is my home base for the week as I explore repeats parish.

Can I meet the famous Coco Chanel?

Is this the family dog?

Yes, ma'am.

During World War II, two generals, including George Patton, Omar Bradley and Dwight Eisenhower, stayed here while training troops in central Louisiana.

From generals to movie stars to a rescue dog with their own fan club.

This hotel offers a front row seat to history.

Patton.

All of these great generals had homes in Alexandria, Louisiana, and lived right here for years.

And with some 500,000 troops stationed here, they were running the maneuvers that led to the invasion.

On those beaches that really led to the liberty of the world in many ways.

Hotel Bentley carries the name of its visionary founder, Joseph a Bentley.

He was one of our Bede's most influential businessmen.

And when he built this grand hotel in 1907, he wasn't thinking small.

He chose the board's neoclassical style.

It was a bold architectural statement for central Louisiana, complete with a sweeping marble staircase, an ornamental dome, a fountain and mosaic tiles blanketing the lobby floor that hold a secret.

So we have gold, ivory, black, green and cranberry.

And there is one blue tile the size of a quarter somewhere within the 10,000ft².

So we'll challenge you to find it.

Preservation exist within the property.

When you look at the grandiose lobby.

But we do have an accredited World War Two mini exhibit that gives you a really detailed timeline of the hotel's history.

Alexandria has a way of punching above its weight when it comes to heritage and culture.

You see it all over town, from the Painted Heart sculptures that turn sidewalks into statements to the Alexandria museum of Art anchoring the Arts District inside a restored 1898 Renaissance Revival bank building.

We are the only accredited art museum within about an 80 mile radius.

You know, we're lucky to have an art center also here in town that has artists, studios and, you know, lots of theater groups and performing arts.

So we really have a pretty vibrant arts community here in Alexandria.

The Collection Gallery on the museum's third floor highlights enduring topics in the museum's permanent collection of artwork, including several famous Louisiana artist.

Here you'll find works from George Rodriguez, an early James Michael Abacus painting and new pottery.

One of the most important American art pottery movements of the early 20th century.

And it was born right here in Louisiana.

You know, some people think that museums are just pretty pictures on the wall.

And we do much more than that.

You know, we're preserving history.

We're preserving legacies of artists, and we're providing impactful community programing in many ways for adults, for children, for students and all of our community.

A few blocks away, I joined artist Leslie Carmouche in her studio at River Oaks Square Arts Center for an art lesson in her signature style of throwing paint down on a blank canvas, then adding texture.

So this is your process.

This is nice.

So this is going to be layer one of art.

Sometimes ten layers, sometimes four layers, sometimes three until I see something emerge.

So the painting tells you what it wants to be.

So it might be a storm, maybe a hurricane.

I see a store.

Store?

Yeah.

A few weeks later, Leslie sends me a photo of the finished piece.

Our experiment on canvas has transformed into number six in her latest series, Summer shades.

She calls it cooler than me.

It's amazing here.

And I think being part of River Oaks, the reason it's amazing is because there's other artists.

And when you just start, there's friends and you can be like, help.

And they're so helpful.

They help share stuff and friendships.

I think it's all about friendships.

I love it.

River Oaks Square Arts Center provides studio space for local artists at an affordable, subsidized rate, a community to collaborate with, and a venue to showcase their work.

It's like a colony.

But, I like to think of it more of like an artist incubator.

So right now we have 27 resident artists, here at the Arts Center and those mediums vary from watercolor to ceramics to landscape painters to abstract painters.

The center's gift shop showcases original works by resident artist and makers from across Louisiana.

If you're looking to support local talent and take home something truly made in Louisiana, this is the place to shop.

Just a few minutes away, another kind of world class attraction awaits where conservation and education takes center stage at the Alexandria Zoo.

The zoo holds full accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

It's a distinction earned by only a select number of zoos nationwide.

Hi, Karen.

Welcome.

Welcome to the Alexandria Zoo, where local action becomes global conservation.

And you're at 100 year old plus zoo.

And I'm going to show you around today.

I'm so excited to have you guys here.

You're going to see things that you can't find anywhere else in the state of Louisiana.

We step into the land of the Jaguar, where four brilliant Blue, High and Mccalls are perched nearby.

And then there's Babu, the jaguar.

Orphaned as a cub in the wilds of Panama.

He found a second chance here at the zoo at 13 years old.

He became a conservation success story of his own, fathering an offspring.

They are so genetically important because the genetics of this wild animal are nowhere else in the population.

So it was global news within the zoo world.

We had all the bigwigs in the zoo world calling us at the Alexandria Zoo.

The animals come first.

Carefully designed habitats near the wild, complete with heating and cooling shelters to keep every creature comfortable year round.

It's all part of a philosophy that prioritizes dignity and natural behavior.

There's a strict no human contact policy, no petting, no hand feeding, allowing the animals to remain truly wild at heart.

A bird's eye view of the zoo brings into focus the nation's oldest nine hole, par three golf course, dating back to the late 1920s.

Locals have been teeing off here for generations.

I travel deeper into the past at Kent House, one of Louisiana's oldest surviving Creole homes.

The house predates the Louisiana Purchase and now welcomes visitors as a state historic site.

In its early days, Kent House functioned like a small, self-sustaining village.

Today, visitors can explore the grounds and its six remaining outbuildings, including a blacksmith shop and an open hearth kitchen.

People need to see and understand history, but with the hands on behavior it becomes more real that this actually happened.

This is how people lived early 1800.

And we don't always approve of how things were back in the 1800s.

But we do want to show the reality of what it was like having slaves.

And they started off with 40 and had 122.

And the property doesn't shy away from that fact.

No.

We show the truth of this is this is the way it was.

History in Alexandria doesn't shy away from the hard chapters.

A few miles away, another home tells a story the world came to know through the book and film 12 Years a Slave.

That story connects directly to central Louisiana.

At the upper House, a modest home on the campus of Louisiana State University of Alexandria.

The house belonged to plantation owner Edwin Epps and was built using enslaved labor, including a free man of color from New York named Solomon Northup.

Kidnapers abducted Northup in 1841, sold him into slavery in Louisiana, and held him in bondage for 12 years before he finally regained his freedom.

The home is such an integral part of his story, and I think it's the reason why so many of us even know his story.

It provided an opportunity for him to reach out and let people, his friends and family know that he had been kidnaped wrongly.

And because it's standing here today, we can kind of experience a little bit of what Solomon Northup, the environment he was in when he was in Louisiana.

While exploring Rapids Parish, I start my mornings the same way a lot of locals do, with a cup of coffee and a plate of eggs, grits and bacon.

At Century Grill in downtown Alexandria, the diner sits inside a 1906 building, and the sign inside proudly says it's been serving self for more than 60 years.

This was all redone by Walgreens back in 1957, and we've done pretty much everything we can to keep it that way.

There's something about a diner that makes the coffee taste better the bacon, the eggs, and the grits more flavorful.

It's just like the whole ambiance, you know?

Well, and, you know, one of the things we're really proud of and online is the fact our menu has been pretty much the same.

We serve a basic breakfast.

We don't get a meal, fancy stuff for plate lunches.

Locals point me to Pamela's Bayou in a bowl in Alexandria.

Pamela Pietri owns the restaurant and cooks up soulful southern dishes from family recipes passed down through generations.

I think everyone enjoys comfort food, like, you know, every now and then you want to go to the fancy schmancy restaurants.

But for the most part, everybody likes a home cooked meal and they don't get it very often.

So, you know, like, like it's a price point that pretty much everybody can afford or, you know, just comfort.

Warm dinner brings me to Diamond Grill, where Alexandra's past and present share the same table.

The building opened in 1931 as a jewelry store.

Today, the restored Art Deco landmark serves steaks and seafood in the glamorous atmosphere of early 20th century downtown Alexandria.

It is a Louisiana base, but also a French based restaurant, and we believe with the ambiance, it's a very quiet, intimate restaurant globally to come and enjoy.

What's its claim to fame?

Absolutely.

The history of is not just did not used to be an actual restaurant.

People love the wine cellar.

Be able to come in and look and see where it used to be a vault.

People absolutely love it.

Alexandria anchors the south bank of the Red River across the bridge and you're in pine ville.

Locals call this whole area Sin law.

The name stands for Central Louisiana, but around here it means something more.

It's a sense of place where roads stretch out in every direction.

Within 2 to 3 hours, you can be anywhere.

New Orleans, Shreveport, Baton Rouge within a timely manner.

So they love pine.

It's a safe community.

I met up with Painesville Mayor Joe Bishop along the shores of Lake Bulow.

So this lake is also known for a national, fastest lake in the world with boat racing.

Would you say that Pineville is in the midst of, reinvention, revitalization?

Absolutely.

Years.

Just a few years ago, pine wall became wet where it could sell alcohol.

So the restaurants are exploding right now in Pine Wheel pine Needles Historic District comes with fresh energy murals splashed color across the brick walls, and old storefronts open their doors again with new purpose.

I met Bonnie White, co-owner of Hemingway's House of Stories and Spirits Inside, a restored 70 year old building where the literary spirit lives on shelves.

Spotlight local writers and artist, giving the community a place where stories are shared, creativity is celebrated, and Pine Mill's next chapter is being written.

And why Hemingway?

Where?

Where did your literary connection come from?

I'm a I'm a public school teacher.

I taught English for over 15 years and I've always loved books.

I'm a writer also, I love poetry.

In travels.

I'd been to Cuba and had seen Hemingway's life and work and just just kind of loved it.

One of the things we talked about in Building Community is to support our local creatives.

So that's that's our consignment shelves.

So anybody who writes and wants to publish and just needs a place to grow, we want that for them too.

Historic Pine Bill's creative and commercial revival continues to unfold, thanks in part to the vision of local businessman George Rocha.

He's restored many of these Main Street buildings, investing not just in the properties, but in the possibilities of what this community can become.

A lot of people tend to overlook the history, the local history, the architectural jewels that we have.

They just need to be polished and recouped.

It's important also to give, to breathe life back into these buildings, to repurpose them.

Pine Bill's military roots date back to the Civil War with the construction of Forts Randolph and Bulow.

Today, the earthen fort remains are open to the public as a state historic park.

Confederate troops built Fort Randolph's and Bulow in 1864 to defend the Red River in the city of Alexandria.

The forts never saw a major battle, but the site became part of one of the war's most remarkable engineering stories.

So building those two forts was very important for the Confederate Army.

However, a lot of people don't know that this is also the site where Bailey's Dam was constructed.

And the dam was constructed for the U.S.

naval fleet so that they could move their gunboats south down the river.

Next, we head outside and follow a wooden boardwalk leading to the earthen remains of Fort Randolph.

This wall, there's an inner area of this wall, and that's where the soldiers would have been.

So if you can picture, I guess you know, the opposing side coming over this wall.

And they were down here, and then you had troops up there.

It would be an easy shot and be an easy target.

And then they would have to scale that wall.

And I mean, this is this has been taken out a lot by erosion.

So it was even steeper.

Wow.

In that time we end our visit at Lake Pearson, a serene 13 acre lake open to the public for fishing and regularly stocked with catfish and rainbow trout.

I leave Pineville and head northeast to De Ville, a quiet rural community where Old Mills Farm invites visitors to slow down and spend time with its friendly farm animals.

We own a farm with Scottish Highland cows.

Wow!

Look at the sheep, horses, bunnies, goats and lots of other animals.

And I get to pet animals.

Yes, you get to pet and feed them and learn all about them.

With a moo moo here and a baa baa there, Mills friendly farm animals greet visitors throughout the property, including goats populated with celebrity named goats.

I meet its latest resident, a newborn goat named zydeco.

I just, I want to take them home.

We raise and breed and, the babies go to new homes.

Mel didn't grow up on a farm, but she fell in love with farm life.

After her husband started raising cattle and sheep, she brought home a few Scottish Highland cows and quickly discovered how much she enjoyed brushing and caring for them.

I do like that I can make you pretty.

One animal led to another and another, and before long, her farm filled with creatures of all kinds from tiny button quail to sassy the pig.

I sassy scratch up under a belly real hard.

Just a lot of times a light.

Oh, there you go.

Oh, she's going to let you love her belly.

I'm her new best friend.

Now, why is it so important for you to share your farm and your animals with the public?

If, we don't do this, it's going to be agriculture.

And farming is just going to kind of die out.

I had a lot of kids come in from Alexandria that have never been on a farm, never seen a farm animal.

And so they these animals bring me joy.

And it brings me joy to see these animals bring other people joy.

A visit to Mills Farm is more than a photo opportunity.

It's an experience and a reminder of a disappearing way of life.

Next, I travel south, about 23 miles from Alexandria to the Southern Forest Heritage Museum.

The site preserves the largest surviving sawmill complex in the nation.

The entire property sits on the National Register of Historic Places and holds national significance as a living window into Louisiana's lumbering past.

All aboard!

I am taking you on a ride through one of Louisiana's chapters of Hidden History.

I climb aboard a Sheffield rail car with museum director Doug Rhodes for a ride through the old longleaf sawmill property.

First built in 1895.

The mile long track winds through a 60 acre complex dotted with more than 30 historic buildings.

Many of them stand open for visitors, offering a close up look at how the lumber industry once powered this town.

Steam powered logging locomotives, skitters and massive loaders stand like iron relics of a bygone era.

Here on this is one of the rarest machines in the country.

As far as we know, there's only two in existence, and this machine was able to set up in one position, and it could pull in logs from four different directions, and they could clear a 40 acre block of land.

I end my visit wandering through a cluster of historic buildings, each one telling a chapter of Langley's story.

This mill wasn't just cutting timber, it was fueling a war effort.

Southern yellow pine harvested here became the critical front beams of the Higgins boats.

They carried Allied troops onto the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.

The same lumber helped build Camp Claiborne, transforming central Louisiana into a strategic training ground, which is where I'm headed next.

The Casati National Forest stretches across seven parishes, including rapids where the Piney Woods still hold the remnants of Camp Claiborne, a World War Two training site active from 1940 to 1946.

Today, visitors can take a self-guided driving tour through the camp.

Scattered ruins.

One of the neat things about the National forest is we do all things all the time.

I mean, we recreate, we hunt, we fish, people come out film and horseback riding motorcycles.

There's a little of everything to do.

But one of the greatest things we're really passionate about is the historical significance.

More than 50,000 troops trained at Camp Claiborne during World War II to briefly making it the third largest city in Louisiana.

Forest Service Ranger Supervisor Lisa Lewis co-wrote a book about the camp's history.

The National Forest was actually, established in 1934.

The Department of Agriculture of that time transferred over here at Camp Claiborne, about 27,000 acres to establish Camp Claiborne.

When World War Two ended, the U.S.

government closed Camp Claiborne, leaving the Quiet Forest to reclaim what was once a bustling military city.

The Army came in, and then after it was decommissioned and everything torn down, then basically, the Department of War deeded all this property, the 27,000 acres, plus what they had acquired through a combination of private land, and gave that back to the Forest Service.

My final stop takes me to the southern edge of parish, to the town of Forest Hill, known as the Nursery capital of the world.

This small community holds one of the largest concentration of wholesale plant nurseries in the United States.

Farmers here, discovered in the early 1900s that the sandy, well-drained soil and long growing seasons were perfect for ornamental plants.

Small family farm slowly grew into a thriving horticulture industry.

One of them is Doug Young Nursery, opened in 1976 and now run by third generation grower Samantha Young.

What is it about this place that makes it perfect for plant cultivation?

I believe that being the middle of Louisiana, we have every season, sometimes in one day.

But it's the perfect growing area for all kinds of trees, shrubs, flowers.

And in spring, the weather is just absolutely perfect.

Like today.

Like, it's amazing today.

And it's the middle of February.

Plants grown in Forest Hill filled garden centers and landscapes across the south and far beyond Louisiana.

Doug Young Nursery operates mainly as a wholesaler, but visitors are welcome to a stop at the Gardner shop, get you a map and permission to wander through the greenhouses, bursting with shrubs, hanging baskets and potted plants ready to brighten someone's yard, making the world a prettier, happier place.

One plant at a time, right?

One plant at a time.

At a time?

Yes.

From river towns and pine forest to family farms, lumber towns and fields of blooming nurseries.

Every stop revealed a different piece of Louisiana's cultural landscape, where beach parish truly sits at the crossroads of Louisiana, where influences in every direction meet, creating a cultural alchemy that feels like a little piece of the whole state in one place.

Support for Le 64 is provided by office of the Lieutenant Governor, Billy Nungesser.

Keep Louisiana Beautiful and the Louisiana Office of Tourism, and by the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area, the Saint Landry Parish Tourist Commission.

Northwestern State University, and by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.