in-the-right-lane: The Battle of New Orleans

While we were in New Orleans I visited a historical library and the Jean Lafitte Center looking for proof to what I had always read about the Battle of New Orleans being fought on my ggggggrandfather's plantation but with no success. Charles Mynn Thruston had moved to New Orleans about 1811 and died in 1812. That night once again I googled the man, since I have done no genealogy for years. What should I find but research done for the Jean Lafitte National Park center in Chalmette. Indeed Thruston's descendants sold his land to Chalmette after he died in 1812. So we were off to visit the battlefield at Chalmette where the Battle of New Orleans took place in 1815.

The visitor's center was closed but I finally did find the maintenance man who was most helpful. Although Thruston was buried on his plantation the man who mows knows that there is no tombstone. Mission accomplished!

The home that is now at Chalmette wasn't built until 18 years after the Battle of New Orleans and was used as a country residence in the 19th Century. It was never associated with a plantation. There were 4 feet of water in the house during the hurricane and it is now closed and being restored. I wandered in with the ranger who had the key while a guy did a fire inspection. Part of the property later became an African-American village called Fazendeville. The adjacent Civil War Cemetery suffered tremendous damage during the hurricane and is in the process of being repaired tombstone by tombstone.

Leon enjoyed the 75 degree day with his latest book under the shade of the giant live oaks while I explored.

The St. Bernard Parish was really devastated by Hurricane Katrina and as we drove through one neighborhood close to the battlefield we noticed only a few of the nice brick homes appeared to be occupied.

After we left Chalmette we took highway 90 along the bay to go to the lunch buffet at the Silver Slipper Casino near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. This was the area hit so hard by Hurricane Rita and the damage from that is still evident all along the route we took. There were many lot for sale signs, boats upside down in ditches, and posts standing as silent sentinels as to what was once atop them.

On the way back to Fontainebleau we stopped at Abita Springs again. I couldn't resist a tour of the UCM Museum which is a collection of junk housed in a vintage gas station.

The Tammany Trace bike trail follows the old Illinois Central Railroad corridor and connects Abita Springs, Covington, Mandeville, Lacombe, and Slidell along its 31 mile long trace. We never found time to ride on it on this trip. The train station sits alongside the trace in Abita Springs.

The pavillion in the Abita Springs park was designed for the Mississippi exhibit of the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition of 1884 in New Orleans. After the exposition the pavillion was taken apart and reassembled in 1888 to cover the then famous free flowing spring.