Unearthing The Past

The Quarters at Magnolia housed generations of enslaved and then tenant workers, but the cabins themselves say little, so archaeologists have dug there since the Park Service took the land in 1997. A bottle of Hoyt's Cologne lay buried before the door of a room added in the 1900s; gamblers used the cologne for luck, and oral history says the room was sometimes used for gambling. A Miraculous Medal found in a cabin shows the Virgin Mary, her image apparently altered. The French Code Noir, which governed enslaved people, required that all of them be baptized Catholic.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 3.6 mi
  The parish church at the heart of the Cane River Creoles of color, begun by Augustin Metoyer on his family's land and still holding Mass for the community that grew from Marie Thérèse Coincoin's children.
• Melrose Plantation — 3.8 mi
  The Cane River estate built on land granted to Louis Metoyer, son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin, with the Yucca House and African House, later an artists' retreat; guided tours Thursday to Sunday.
• Kisatchie National Forest: Longleaf Vista — 6.1 mi
  A free ridge-top overlook and 1.5-mile loop above the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness on the Longleaf Trail Scenic Byway, in the forest Caroline Dormon helped win in 1930.
• Cane River Creole National Historical Park — 8.7 mi
  Oakland and Magnolia, two Cane River cotton plantations kept as they stood, told through the enslaved families who worked them, the 1864 and 1804 freedom seekers and the tenant farmers who stayed into the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• The Tornado — steps away
• The Quarters Community — steps away
• Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1804 — steps away
• Escaped! Freedom Seekers in 1863 — steps away