The Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center is a Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve site on Bayou Lafourche in Thibodaux. Its exhibits follow the Acadians, who became Louisiana's Cajuns, and the other people whose travels brought them to the bayous, through recreation, clothing, home furnishings, religion, cuisine and fishing, with artifacts, videos and films. A 200-seat theater is used by the Thibodaux Playhouse and for other programs.
The bayou has an older name. The Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana says Bayou Lafourche was called the River of the Chitimacha before the wars with the French pushed its Chitimacha communities south and west. The center's ranger-guided boat tours take that water to the E. D. White Historic Site, the house on the bayou where Edward Douglass White was born in 1845.
The tours run Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon, October through May, at $15 a person. They leave from the center at 314 St. Mary Street, and reservations are required, though walk-ins are taken when space allows. There is no tour from June through September or on federal holidays. The park charges no admission and accepts donations. It posts operating hours for each of its sites, so check the park's hours page before driving, and plan on a car.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour