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| Old oil derrick, Oil City, LA |
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| Cool old Chevy truck! |
On Wednesday, we left Mississippi to camp in
Jimmie Davis State Park in the middle of nowhere...just kidding, it's about an hour southwest of Monroe, Louisiana, but, seriously, there's nothing around it for miles and miles. Yikes. Lots of driving.
Nonetheless, on Thursday, March 15th, we drove up to Shreveport to see the city and found ourselves driving even farther north to the
Louisiana Oil and Gas Museum in appropriately named,
Oil City, a tiny little town whose whole existence seems to have stemmed from the discovery of oil in the early 20th century. The museum focused on the development of the oil and gas industry in Louisiana, including the use of increasingly new drilling technologies through the years, as well as the environmental, social and political impacts of the prosperity it created.
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| Oil well pump, Oil City, LA |
The museum explained that the oil is trapped beneath the earth's surface in a variety of porous pockets, usually surrounding salt domes in the northern Louisiana area. Natural gas normally occurs as a layer of the pocket of oil and both are extracted. Oddly, there are small oil wells all over the area, even in folks' backyards, along the highway and next to driveways.
Outside the museum were several historic buildings moved from Trees, Louisiana, a now defunct oil boom town. We toured through the old post office and the former bank building. Behind the post office building, an old Chevy truck sat decaying, but it looks really cool in pictures!
We ate lunch in Shreveport at a little dive called
Herby K's. This neat little restaurant is known for having been in business since 1936 as well as for its Louisiana soul food. Apparently the original cook, Ms. Gracie, worked (and owned) the restaurant for 40 years before her daughter took over. The daughter has been cooking at
Herby K's for over 30 years now! Wow...talk about keeping it in the family. We snacked on catfish and seafood gumbo and crawfish etouffee...tasty! But their homemade tartar sauce is worth eating by the spoonful. YUM.
Shreveport is known for, among many other things, its casinos. So, win some, lose some. Well, I won some...and Ken lost a little more. But at least we had fun for a couple of hours.
Later, in the afternoon we were touring around the city, and came across a beautiful mural painted on two sides of one building. The mural, titled "
Once in a Millennium Moon", is an 8-story 30,000 square foot work of art by Meg Saligman depicting the people of Shreveport and the journey through the cycle of life. It was visible from the highway and is a visually arresting display of public art in an otherwise ordinary big city. Outstanding!
Outside the museum were several historic buildings moved from Trees, Louisiana, a now defunct oil boom town. We toured through the old post office and the former bank building. Behind the post office building, an old Chevy truck sat decaying, but it looks really cool in pictures! 
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