Patterson was once home to the world's largest cypress sawmill, owned by F. B. Williams, and in 1997 the Louisiana legislature named the town the cypress capital of Louisiana. Lumbering was the state's first major manufacturing industry, and the museum's sawmill collection holds artifacts, photographs and film from it. The Louisiana State Museum runs the building as the state's official aviation and cypress sawmill museum.
Harry P. Williams, born in Patterson in 1889 to F. B. Williams, and the pilot Jimmy Wedell founded the Wedell-Williams Air Service there in 1928. Wedell, born in Texas City, Texas, in 1900, designed the racers. In 1933 he set a land-plane speed record of 305.33 mph and won the Thompson Trophy. He died in Patterson on June 24, 1934, in a flight-training accident. Williams died on May 19, 1936, when his Beechcraft crashed on takeoff near Baton Rouge. Aircraft on display include the Miss Patterson #44 and the Gilmore #121, with 1930s racing trophies, and the David J. Felterman Theater shows a film on the 1932 Cleveland National Air Races.
The museum is at 118 Cotten Road, open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed Sunday, Monday and some state holidays. Tickets are free through the museum's ticketing page. A changing exhibit on model airplanes in Louisiana is listed from September 26, 2026, through September 10, 2028.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour