Trappers Cabin & Boat Shed

Spanish moss had a second life as a manufactured fiber. In the early 1900s processed moss was used commercially to pad car seats, and it also went into mattresses, packing, building insulation and mulch. More than 10,000 tons of processed moss were produced in 1939. Smaller amounts are gathered today for crafts and flower beds. It is still used in bousillage, the clay-and-moss wall material of Louisiana's older houses, and in nativity scenes in parts of Louisiana. Dried moss also forms the pads of desert swamp coolers.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vermilionville — steps away
  A living-history village of about 23 acres on Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette, opened in 1990 to interpret the Native peoples, Acadians, Creoles and people of African descent of the Attakapas region.
• Cypress Island Preserve at Lake Martin — 5.7 mi
  Nearly 10,000 acres of bottomland hardwood and cypress-tupelo swamp at the south end of Lake Martin, owned by The Nature Conservancy, with a boardwalk and a rookery of egrets, spoonbills and alligators.
• Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site — 12 mi
  A bayou-side state site on former Attakapas hunting ground, with a raised Creole cottage of about 1815, a reproduction 1800 farmstead and its slave quarters, and the story behind Longfellow's Evangeline.
• St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church — 12 mi
  The Mother Church of the Acadians, founded in 1765 on St. Martin Square in St. Martinville, with a late 1870s Lourdes grotto and, a block away, the Evangeline Oak on Bayou Teche.

More markers nearby

• Mouton Kitchen (La Cuisine de Maison Mouton) — steps away
• Attakapas Chapel (Chapelle des Attakapas) — steps away
• School House (L'école) — steps away
• Acadian House (Maison Acadienne) — steps away