The Great River Road National Scenic Byway follows the course of the Mississippi River for 3,000 miles, from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The route passes through 10 states, including Louisiana, the only state where the Great River Road runs along both banks of the Mississippi River. The historic national byway connects New Orleans to Baton Rouge in South Louisiana, shaping culture and commerce. In the 18th century, huge agricultural estates prospered along the River Road before the start of the Civil War. 

The Great River Road Museum

The Great River Road Museum in Darrow, Louisiana, offers an honest retelling of the Antebellum period. It serves as a love letter to Louisiana, highlighting its infamous characters, customs, and claims to fame. 

Located next to Houmas House, the largest sugar cane plantation in the South, The Great River Road Museum doesn’t sugarcoat how fortunes were made along the River Road.

Exploring the Great River Road’s Rich History

My guide, Jim Blanchard, is an artist and historian whose research informs the museum’s exhibits. Some items on view are from his private collection. 

“We have about 20,000 square feet of exhibit space here, showing and focusing on the Great River Road from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. The rich soil on each side of the river created the greatest empires of sugar, sugar cane farmers, and sugar industry, which built Louisiana,” Jim says.

A large map of the River Road’s agricultural estates anchors the exhibit as the starting point for exploration. The narrative of each state unfolds on the surrounding walls with photos, timelines, and historical facts. 

The Untold Stories on the River Road

“Many of these properties detailed here had owners of different races, including free blacks who were part of society. They owned plantations and slaves,” Jim says.

The exhibit chronicles more than 600 homes along this stretch of River Road, most of which no longer exist. The museum doesn’t shy away from the historical fact that people owned people on the River Road properties that prospered growing sugar, indigo tobacco, and cotton. 

The Africans in Louisiana exhibit shows all sides of the story. A scene depicting a slave auction unfolds at the entrance.  “Slave auctions were very popular at that time, mostly in New Orleans and Baton Rouge,” Jiim says.

Disturbing imagery and effigies offer an honest retelling of life along the River Road, including a costume worn by the grand wizard of the KKK.

“We have this costume on display to remind people of a terrible chapter in Louisiana’s history. It was wrong then. It’s still wrong today. We can’t go back and change it. What we can learn from it and move on,” Jim says.

Louisiana’s Origins: From Native Americans to Napoleon’s Legacy

The museum traces Louisiana’s origins from its earliest settlers, including the Houmas Indians who once inhabited this site, to the death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte III, who sold Louisiana to the United States. 

“Very seldom do people talk about the Native Americans who arrived here along the River Road in the 1700s as the region’s first explorers. We have three of the journals written by the native Louisiana Indians, which include drawings of plant life and animals. Everything is documented in those journals.”

Artifacts and Relics: Preserving Louisiana’s Civil War Heritage

A vast collection of artifacts and relics from the Civil War and the South’s Succession are on loan from private collections. “This is the first time this flag has been unfurled and put on display,” Jim says.

Throughout the museum, a cast of Louisiana characters in wax makes appearances. “We acquired these figures from the wax museum in New Orleans after it closed down. We’ve restored them and put them back in to tell the stories of Louisiana.”

“Governor Edwin Edwards lived right down the road before he passed away. He came here and spent the day with his wife and his son. And he posed with his wax figure, and it was just quite a moment.”

We pause to listen to a restored pipe organ originally housed in the Lyric Theater in New Orleans, where jazz greats performed. Today, the organ produces computer-generated tunes on this stage.

Unique Collections: Pipes, Steamships, and Ribbon Maps

One of the museum’s newest exhibits is a collection of more than 5000 pipes. “South Louisiana, along the river,  is the only place in the world where Perrigo tobacco is grown, and the collection shows pipes for smoking it.” 

Steamships also shaped culture and commerce along the Mississippi River. A glass case holds unfurled ribbon maps depicting every family farm and plantation between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, popular steamship souvenirs.

From Mardi Gras costumes to nostalgic items, the museum also serves as a love letter to Louisiana. It’s funded by a Federal Department of Transportation Grant as part of the National Byways program to introduce people to Louisiana’s roads, bayous, and rivers. The owner of Houmas House put up a 20 percent match and donated the land to build the museum.

What to know if you go:

To learn more, watch my tour of The Great River Road Museum

If you plan to explore the River Road, The Great River Road National Scenic Byway pilot’s wheel signs will guide you to a network of Interpretive Centers, where you’ll learn about the important people and places along the Mississippi River. 

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