ENTERTAINMENT

3 amazing things about the Atchafalaya Basin

Jessica Goff
jgoff@theadvertiser.com
The troop paddles along Evangline Area Council's Swamp Base kayak trek which takes them on a sixty-mile path through the basin.

America’s largest wetland is right in our backyard.

Each year, thousands of visitors from around the world flock to see the Atchafalaya Basin’s iconic moss-draped cypress forests and swamps land teeming with wildlife, including nearly 300 species of birds and 65 species of reptiles.

Many of you living here in Acadiana have spent time over the levees and traveled through the Basin’s intricate waterways. It's 1.4 million acres is peppered with camps mostly accessible by boat.

But it remains undiscovered by many locals living just a short drive away. I recently asked a coworker if he had ever been to the Atchafalaya.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I’ve driven over it.”

When it was built in 1973, the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge was the longest in the United States. Its 18-mile stretch offers a view of the wetlands from Interstate 10, which is about all of what many of us have seen.

“If they aren’t from the immediate area, they have no idea what’s out here,” said Captain Tucker Friedman, owner of Atchafalaya Basin Landing & Marina. “Not everyone are boaters. So they don’t have the experience of coming out here.”

Captain Tucker Friedman talks about the Basin’s ecosystem during a boat tour.

Swamp Tours

Sounds touristy, right?

I’m from South Florida, so you can bet I know what tourists are like. That being said, have you ever been on a swamp tour?

If you don’t have access to a personal watercraft, this might be your chance to step off the dock and travel deep into the Atchafalaya’s wilderness that you can't see from I-10.

“If you one day out here and haven’t been on one, take an airboat tour,” said Mark Hamlin.

He was spending the afternoon visiting Henderson with his wife, Diane. Residents of north Michigan, the couple have been vacationing in southLouisiana for several years.

“You’ll understand when you get back.”

Swamp tour services can be found all along the Henderson Levee Road. For a list of companies and rates, visit the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area’s website, www.atchafalaya.org.

Swamp tours do draw tourists from around the world seeking southern Louisiana’s iconic landscape. But according to Friedman, many of those seeking guided tours are local.

“I’d say close to half our business is local,” he said.

Jeaux Biff’s Burgers and Beer at 625 Grand Point Ave. in Breaux Bridge is just one of many spots to grab a bite just off the Basin.

Off the levee food

Offering live music and dance floors with a view, venues like Pat’s Fisherman’s Wharf and McGree’s Landing are hot spots for Basin visitors to grab some levee-side grub.

Menu items offer a taste of regional cuisine to those stopping through the area. You can even get crinkle-cut fries shaped like tiny alligators at McGee’s.

OK, that's a little touristy, but cute.

But don’t pass up local stops down the road in nearby areas such as Breaux Bridge.

I stopped in Jeaux Biff’s Burgers and Beer at 625 Grand Point Ave. The Ganaway family has operated the Breaux Bridge restaurant for four years.

With a full bar, front porch and menu items ranging from crabmeat-stuffed jalapenos to po’boys and fried chicken pork chops, and a mounted flat screen set to sports, the restaurant stays busy with local clientele, owner Mark Ganaway said.

“We’ll be busy tonight, that’s for sure,” he said Good Friday afternoon, noting his Lenten special that day was the fried catfish po’boy.

The building itself is part of Breaux Bridge’s history. During its 117-year existance, it served as a schoolhouse and then a bar.

“If these walls could talk, we’d learn a lot,” Ganaway said.

Turtle’s Bar sits right on the Atchafalaya River Basin. ©2013 A.Dannette Photography

It keeps changing

Decades ago, the Basin was ravaged by the logging industry, which decimated its native cypress.

The remaining stumps of enormous cypress chopped for lumber can still be found throughout the Atchafalaya's wetlands.

Those images inspired the title of photographer and activist Greg Guirard's book, "The Land of Dead Giants." Guirard and many others, including nonprofit Atchafalaya Basin Keeper, work to protect the Basin's sustainability

Its ecosystem has been impacted by storms, the encroachment of the Mississippi River's water, pollution and logging. Yet is still produces rich new life as it moves from season to season, Friedman, who lives along the levee, said.

"What makes it nice is it’s never the same. Every day it changes," he said.

"The water's either coming up or going down, and everything changes with it. It’s a changing environment every day, so it’s never the same. It doesn’t get old.”

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