Happy Birthday Coach Robinson

Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana, owns a great history — and this year that history honors a milestone.

Grambling was home to legendary coach Eddie Robinson, who scored more than 400 wins and became the first college football coach — and only one of two — to do so. Robinson was born on Feb. 13, 1919, and the school celebrates his birthday centennial this year.

Happy Birthday Coach Robinson.

For a list of his birthday events this year, click here.

Coach Robinson spent his entire career at Grambling State, from 1941 to 1997, and won more than 400 victories during that time. More than 200 players under his command were sent into the National Football League, including four Hall of Famers. Alumnus Doug Williams was the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXII.

The Eddie Robinson Museum at 126 Jones St. in the city of Grambling honors the man and coach. Exhibits include recreations of Robinson’s office, the football team’s locker and film rooms, a “Hall of Honors” displaying the team’s trophies, awards and accolades, and a room with pro football jerseys from notable Grambling alumni who played under Robinson.

The school’s other claim to fame is the exciting, vibrant Mighty Tiger Marching Band, which faces Southern University’s band every Thanksgiving in the annual Battle of the Bands contest in New Orleans.

Grambling State began in the 1870s as a school for independent African American property owners in Lincoln Parish. Eventually, the school morphed into the first all-black municipality in Louisiana, opening as an agricultural and industrial university in 1905 and then as an accredited institute of higher learning.

If you’re visiting the Grambling campus, be sure to visit the Charles Adams House, home of the founder and first president, and the Eddie Robinson Museum.

On the trail of the Longleaf Pine

Rugged hills and a "Little Grand Canyon" in Louisiana? You'd be surprised.

In the heart of Louisiana the flat swamps and marshlands of the south turn to hills, rolling through the “Great Piney Woods” surrounding Alexandria. One of the gems of central Louisiana is the Kisatchie National Forest, 600,000 acres of pine forests, lakes and beautiful scenic drives.

Largely because of its unusual terrain, the Kisatchie Ranger District northwest of Alexandria is considered by local residents to be the “crown jewel” of the Kisatchie National Forest. Variations in topography range from level land to steep bluffs.

One such stretch of this region is the Longleaf Trail, located 5.5 miles south of the Derry Exit on Interstate Highway 49, a 17-mile route that follows a high ridge through the rugged Kisatchie Hills area. The Trail has been designated a scenic byway and touted as one of the most scenic drives in Louisiana. The terrain is exceptionally rugged for Louisiana, ranging from 120 to 400 feet in elevation, which allows for dramatic overlooks that go on for miles. Visitors will find mesas, buttes and sandstone outcrops, backdropped by longleaf pines, and the Kisatchie Bayou, a state natural and scenic stream. The Trail also traverses the National Red Dirt Wildlife Management Preserve, which includes the Kisatchie Hills Wilderness for about half its length. It provides numerous opportunities for viewing the wilderness.

Be sure to stop at the Longleaf Vista, which offers picnic areas in addition to the gorgeous view and 1.5-mile trail down to a bayou and over to the visitor’s center. Most of the Vista’s buildings were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Camping — most of it primitive — is also available within the forest. 

To access the Longleaf Trail, exit I-49 at the Derry Exit, then head west on Louisiana Hwy. 119 to Hwy. 59. After traveling through the Kisatchie Forest, the Trail ends at the intersection with Hwy. 117, south of Bellwood. Longleaf Trail is a two-lane paved road suitable for all vehicles. It remains open year-round.

 

The Kisatchie Hills Wilderness lies next to the byway and is known locally as the "Little Grand Canyon" because of its steep slopes, rock outcrops, and mesas. Hiking and horseback riding trails lead you into this wilderness area. The Longleaf Vista Picnic Area is surrounded on three sides by this 8,700-acre wilderness area. A 1.5-mile nature trail is located here, as is a small visitor center. Restrooms and drinking water are also provided.

Wildlife observers will find white-tailed deer, foxes, opossums, squirrels, raccoons, and coyotes inhabiting the area. An occasional roadrunner can also be seen. Birdwatchers will delight in the numerous songbirds.

Most of the camping areas along the byway are primitive but do have drinking water or restroom facilities. Dogwood Campground is the most developed and has 20 RV and tent sites, drinking water, and flush toilets. Kisatchie Bayou has 17 walk-in sites and only one drive-in unit. Drinking water and vault toilets are provided. There is no water at Coyote, Cane, and Oak Campgrounds.

Information: Kisatchie National Forest, PO Box 5500, Pineville LA 71361 / 318-473-7160.

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by travel and food writer Chere Dastugue Coen, who loves getting outdoors in the woods.

Seeing red at New Orleans Red Dress Run

I’d heard about the Red Dress Run for years, a three- to four-mile fundraiser for more than 100 local charities that happens every August in New Orleans. The one caveat is everyone must wear a red dress while they run through the French Quarter.

Nothing prepared me for the onslaught of red and folks running in every type of costume you can imagine. After all, this is New Orleans, the crazier the better!

This year’s Red Dress Run is Saturday, Aug. 8, beginning at 9 a.m. In addition to running in a red dress and raising money, participants receive free beer, food and live entertainment after the event. The event requires runners to be 21 — no exceptions — and to register before the run, either online or the day of the event.

You can register for the Aug. 8 run or for the Hasher registration which also includes the Red Lingerie Run on Friday night, a special area on Saturday, and the Hangover Run on Sunday.

            Check out the web site for more information. For a sneak peek, check out photos below (please remember all photos on this blog are copyrighted by the author). 

Cheré Coen is an award-winning travel writer specializing in the Deep South. She is the author of "Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History," "Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana" and "Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana" and co-author of "Magic's in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets." She also writes Louisiana romances under Cherie Claire, including "A Cajun Dream" and "The Letter." Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Chimp Haven a wild and rare opportunity outside Shreveport; Fall Festival will be Nov. 8

            This falls under wild and unusual rather than weird, and when they open their doors to visitors it’s a rare opportunity not to be missed.

            Just outside of Shreveport in Keithville, Louisiana, is Chimp Haven, an oasis where chimpanzees used in biomedical research go to retire. This National Chimpanzee Sanctuary is part of the federal plan to move chimps from the laboratory back to nature.

            Many of the chimps are elderly, many enjoy large habitats and some remain  in cages due to not being able to acclimate from a window-less concrete environment in which they had lived.

            Naturally, since these are wild animals, Chimp Haven is not open to the public. But several times a year they open their doors for a peek inside. The Chimp Haven’s Fall Festival will be Saturday, Nov. 8, the second of two yearly festivals held at the facility in the Eddie D. Jones Park off Highway 789. Events will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission prices are $6 adults, $3 children  ages 6-12 and free for children ages 5 and under. Activity tickets are 50 cents each.

            Activities include games and food, a local band, Cajun-Dixon Line, cake walks, a string maze, face painting, chimpanzee story time and behind-the-scenes tours. 

            Sanctuary visitors are encouraged to bring jars of peanut butter for the chimpanzees. The individual who brings in the most peanut butter will win a prize package that includes a behind-the-scenes tour.
            Check Chimp Haven before coming if weather starts to turn; they cancel for bad weather. The fall festival was rescheduled from October due to lightning and rain. To check on the fall festival status, call (318) 925-9575 and press 1 when prompted or visit Chimp Haven’s Facebook, Twitter page or website.

             Want to know more about Chimp Haven? I wrote a story on the facility for Country Roads magazine.

Cheré Coen is an award-winning travel writer specializing in the Deep South. She is also the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Fiddling my life away — and that’s OK

            Southerners have a love affair with the fiddle that hails back, no doubt, to the population’s origins in the British Isles. The majority of the original free settlers were of Scotch-Irish descent so naturally much of our roots music includes a heavy dose of fiddle.

Suroit

            My personal background includes a Southern migration from Georgia to New Orleans on my mother’s side but also Creole on my father’s side, a mixture of French, Spanish, German and Irish immigrants who arrived in Louisiana to create a new home for themselves, mixed with Cajun. So I’m especially partial to the fiddle, loving American roots music as well as Cajun and zydeco.

            Not that this is weird, mind you, but I do tend to veer to the fiddle performances when I attend music festivals.

            Take Festival International de Louisiane, for instance, the largest free Francophone festival in North America and one of the greatest weekends to be had in America. There are several stages scattered throughout downtown Lafayette, Louisiana, the heart of Cajun and Creole Country, plus arts and crafts, performances, great food, lectures and so much more happening the last weekend in April. And it’s all free!

            This past weekend I was fortunate enough to hear Suroit perform from the Madeleine Isles of the Canadian Maritime Provinces, with Felix Leblanc dancing a jig sitting down while pounding out his Acadian fiddle. The International Fiddle Summit — sponsored by Festivals Acadiens et Creole that happens in October in Lafayette, also free — blended the remarkable talents of, from left below, Leblanc, David Greeley, Joel Savoy, Chad Justice, Amelia Powell and Dirk Powell. Dominique Dupuis of New Brunswick, who I saw perform as a child at Festival International in 1999, returned to stir up the crowd with a passionate performance on her own as well as accompanying the legendary Zachary Richard on opening night.

            It’s now Monday after Festival and I have lots of company in Lafayette today experiencing Festival withdrawal. But I also have my latest CD of Suroit to keep me company. Time to listen to Leblanc’s beautiful lilting “Rosalie,” written to his daughter.

International Fiddle Summit

The odd bayou art of Kenny Hill

The following is an excerpt from “Exploring Cajun Country: A Tour of Historic Acadiana” by Cheré Coen

            Bricklayer Kenny Hill settled in the small bayou town of Chauvin in 1988, just below Houma, Louisiana, erecting a tent on a bayou-side lot while he built his home. Then in 1990 he started creating pieces of concrete sculptures throughout the property, mainly those with a religious tone or a Biblical reference. There are angels and other celestial figures, a 45-foot-tall lighthouse made up of 7,000 bricks, cowboys, soldiers and the artist himself, sometimes expressing a conflict between good and evil. Hill didn’t create these folk art pieces to share with others. He called his work a “story of salvation,” according to Nichols State University, which now owns the property, although by the year 2000 when he was evicted for not keeping the grass and weeds down, he was dismayed by religion and reportedly knocked the head of Jesus off a statue when he left.

            The Kohler Foundation purchased the property, which has been gifted to Nichols State in Thibodaux and is now the Chauvin Sculpture Garden and Art Studio. The site at 5337 Bayouside Drive is open to the public from dawn to dusk but the NSU Folk Art Studio’s hours vary; call (985) 594-2546 or the Nicholls State University Division of Art at (985) 448-4597.