I decided this week to continue my tour of Texas by going to Louisiana. I'm eventually going to tour the country, so why not start with our eastern neighbor, right?
This week was a collection of firsts: My first trip outside of Texas, my first stay in a National Forest, and my first visit to a German settlement in Louisiana.
Wait! Germans in Louisiana? I thought the state was French? Isn't the state covered in Fleur de lis? And what about that whole "Laissez le bon temp rouler" thing?
All of that applies, but northern Louisiana, particularly the area around Minden, has quite the German presence.
In the 1800's throughout the country, different sects were attempting to establish "Utopia", or the perfect society. Most were based on religious principles, with the intent of living the Christian life while perfecting body, mind and soul in preparation for the rapture.
Bernard Muller, or Count von Leon, was the leader of one such society. Having come to America in 1831 with his followers, the count landed first in Economy, Pennsylvania with the colony founded by George Rapp, one of the originators of the movements.
But that didn't last. Rapp's idea of Utopia and that of the Count didn't quite jibe, so von Leon moved on, first to Indiana, then down the Ohio river headed to Louisiana, where he intended to establish his Utopian colony in Webster Parish, on the latitude of Jerusalem.
The Count made it to Louisiana, but never saw the culmination of his dream. He contracted yellow fever in Grand Ecore, just north of Natchitoches and perished. But his wife, the Countess von Leon carried on the mission. She and the remaining followers made there way to land donated by the Parish commissioner, where they established the colony.
The colony lasted for almost 40 years, making it one of most successful of all the Harmonists. They lived a communal lifestyle, prizing hard work above all. They survived through the use of a colony general store where they sold clothing from homegrown cotton and silk from the silkworms they brought with them, furniture made by the men of the colony and tools made in the blacksmith shop.
The museum house three of the original buildings as well as several reproductions. There is also a collection of artifacts from the colony.
It's open Wednesday through Friday and offers free tours and free admission.
Minden itself was founded by a friend of the colony. An itinerant salesman had met the Muller's group during their journey from Indiana, but separated with they got to Grand Ecore. He returned later only to find they had moved on, found them, decided to hang around and bought the land that is now Minden.
Minden is almost frozen in time. A small town with a small town central area, it doesn't seem to have succumbed to those two typical eventualities of small towns : death or gentrification.
The downtown area still has a brick main street, with shops lining the road. It's active and seems prosperous, but you won't see the typical tourists traps. Sure, there's an antique shop. But there's also a couple of barber shops, a hardware store, bridal outlet, insurance agent and other storefronts you might have seen 50 years ago.
No T-shirt shop, frozen yogurt shops or any of the other stores you seen in some more tourist centered areas. These folks have figured out how to keep their town alive.
It's kinda cool to see a real old school small town.
I stayed at Beaver Dam campground, part of the Kasitchie National Forest. The park is very nice, with spacious campsites and all the amenities you'd expect in a national forest: flat sites, tent pads, lantern hooks and two upgrades, new picnic tables and those fancy new high efficiency double wall fire rings. The park has two lakes, Upper and Lower Caney Lake. Both are small lakes, but popular with boaters and fisherman.
Next week, I'm headed back to Texas. I'm staying at Governor Hogg City Park in Quitman. Plus a quick trip to Dallas to say celebrate Mother's birthday and hang out with family for a bit.
Oh, and YouTube is back! I put together a little tour of German Town with a few more neat things.
https://youtu.be/C7Kn2lgAMgk
Comments