Louisiana History Lessons

     Delhi, Louisiana

    On Monday, July 13th, we left our home base of Abbeville, LA, and traveled to the northeast region of our state, an area we don't recall ever visiting before.  We stayed at Poverty Point Reservoir State Park in Delhi, LA. This park is conveniently located just a few miles north of I-20, has fantastic amenities, and we highly recommend it for anyone traveling through the top right corner of "The Boot."

    Included as part of the State Park's facilities, but located a few miles north, is a marina, concession store, fishing pier, and a beach.  Both areas have a boat launch, a well-equipped fish cleaning station, picnic areas, and air-conditioned public restrooms. In addition to the RV sites, the park offers a few lodges and waterfront cabins for overnight guests.

One of several of the park's walking trails.

    Louisiana History Lesson #1

    While searching for an ice cream shop, we were pleasantly surprised to find an old-fashioned soda fountain and grill inside a 153-year-old pharmacy conveniently located in the very quaint downtown area of Delhi. We felt like we stepped back in time as soon as we walked into the "E.W. Thomson Drug Co." which was established in 1873.  It's not just a pharmacy; it's also a very charming gift shop, and the cherry on top is that it also has the original soda fountain and grill.  We were in awe of just how delightful this place was with its checkerboard tile flooring and dining area furnishings.

    The grill was already closed for the day; it only serves breakfast and lunch, but they were still serving ice cream. We each got a big scoop of Blue Bell's creamy deliciousness and sat ourselves down in one of the 50s-style diner booths located next to a mirrored wall that posted several newspaper articles and memorabilia of the store.  It was as if they removed a few pages from a Louisiana History book and attached them to the wall so that visitors would have an opportunity to read from their small chapter of the book! Also posted were photographs of the store's celebrations of its 140th and 150th anniversaries.  

Mr. Aging Cajun is ready to order!

   A couple of interesting facts we discovered on the store's 1935 wall calendar -- their phone number was 57, and they offered "Swamp Chill & Fever Tonic" for sale!  

    If you're ever traveling on I-20 through Delhi, we highly recommend taking Exit 153 and visiting "Louisiana's Oldest Drugstore Pharmacy, Gifts, Soda Fountain & Grill." You will definitely appreciate the history, plus you'll be supporting a locally owned business! We've been to the famous Wall Drugs in Wall, SD, and it's definitely a "must-see" tourist stop, but we loved the quiet intimacy of this one so much more!  

    The lagniappe to finding this historical soda fountain was that there is a store located right next door named "Depot Marketplace," which is a chic boutique and antique store.  In addition to being adventurers, we are also resellers, so we just had to check it out! Even though the prices were above our reselling budget, we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with the very friendly owner who has traveled to all 50 states and was able to give us some good travel tips.

    Louisiana History Lesson #2

    We still had a whole day left to explore this area before leaving for our next destination, so we decided to go to the Poverty Point World Heritage Site, which was recommended to us by one of the park's employees.  This place is managed by, and is part of, Poverty Point State Park, but it is located in Epps, which is approximately twenty minutes north of the campground. It is a 3,400-year-old archaeological site which features massive, concentric earthworks built by indigenous people between 1700 and 1100 BCE, making it one of the most complex hunter-gatherer societies in North America. 

    We had no earthly idea that this UNESCO World Heritage Site existed in our home state!  Imagine our surprise when we saw it listed in the "World Heritage Sites in the United States" brochure, right alongside the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and the Everglades, just to name a few that fall in that category.

    In addition to watching a brief film and going through the museum of artifacts that were excavated from there, you had an option for a guided tour on a tram. The small fee for the tour was well worth it to us; however, if you'd prefer, you could drive around the site in a self-guided tour, or, for the in-shape adventure seekers, you can go on a guided hiking tour. Fortunately for us, we were the only ones who were in that particular time slot, so we got a private tour from one of the very knowledgeable park rangers.  

    For us, the only drawback to having a personal guide was that at one point in the tour, this young man looked us square in our eyes and asked if we ever read about this site in our Louisiana History book ... we both looked at him like a deer in headlights ... we had to confess that we couldn't remember much of anything we read about in school, we’ve slept a whole lot sine then!!  

    We thoroughly enjoyed learning more about those who came before us, and appreciate the preservation of our Louisiana history. We highly recommend this off-the-beaten-path site as a must-see if you're even traveling through northeast Louisiana.  If you do, you'd be smack dab in between the world famous Duck Commanders (they can certainly "quack" you up) and the Civil War sites of Vicksburg and Natchez, all of which will enhance your history awareness!  

Until next time ... blessings from our neck of the woods to yours!

Psalm 127:1 (This scripture is printed underneath the logo of E.W. Thomson Drug Co.'s 150th anniversary t-shirt .)