Afternoon excursion to visit a grand, former sugar cane plantation, Oak Alley, a National Historic Site maintained by a non-profit foundation. When you visit these sites, you are given an opportunity to roam around on your own. The home/mansion is available to tour, always guided. They have done a wonderful job of maintaining the gardens and buildings with signage everywhere to provide an authentic, historical perspective.

On the cruise, there have been many other opportunities to see one of these grand mansion homes. This is my one and only so I have nothing to compare it to. Quite an interesting place. While it dates back to the late 1700’s when it was initially built by a Frenchman. He died, his wife ran it into the ground and then came the Civil War. Fortunately, she signed an allegiance paper to the Union and it was spared. Her son ran it after the Civil War and he went bankrupt. From that time until the 1920’s, it was held by various individuals because of the sugar cane acreage, did not live in the house. The slave housing is still standing. These were the real people operating the plantation. They were smart enough though to plant their own crops and make a little money on their own.

In the 1920’s a wealthy couple, purchased it and renovated it. They resided in the home, 1946 the husband died, but his wife stayed until 1972. She then setup the Oak Alley foundation to maintain the property as a historic site.

Plantation Overview

So why is it called Oak Alley – well, the original owner brought in Live Oak Trees planting them in a row on either side of the road leading up to the home. Beautiful, majestic, breathtaking, magical.

Besides the trees, the gardens are lovely. In addition, there is a video about how they grow and harvest sugar cane. Nicely done.

The Louisiana sugar refinery is conveniently located across the river from Vacherie and Domino Sugar processes the sugar we use in USA in New Orleans.

It was interesting to learn about this agriculture product still being planted in the USA and exported to the world.