Exhibition Overview
Passed Villemonte's prairie…Those prairies are planes or savannahs without timber, generally very fertile, producing an exuberance of strong thick and coarse herbage. When a piece of ground is once got into this state in an indian country, it can have no opportunity of re-producing timber; it being an invariable rule to fire the dry grass in the Fall or winter, to obtain the advantage of attracting game when the young tender grass begins to spring; & thus the young timber is destroyed, & annually the prairie gains upon the wood land; it is probably that the immense planes known to exist in America may owe their origin to this practize.
William Dunbar, October 25, 1804.
When we drive through Southwest Louisiana, most of us don’t notice the vestiges of Louisiana’s Prairie. It is hard to imagine that the pastures, ponds, and fields we pass were once a 2.5 million-acre tallgrass coastal prairie teeming with life so thick that it was hard to drive a wagon through it.
This exhibit reconnects us to our natural heritage that gave rise to our cultural heritage. It explores how natural elements reveal the small parts that run the grand prairie ecosystem. In learning about this natural and cultural ecosystem, we hope it inspires you to do what you can to conserve our prairie home.
This exhibit is a companion to Louisiana Grass Roots, a documentary film by Jillian Godshall and Phyllis Baudoin Griffard. The exhibit and film are projects of OurBio: how the biology of our region has shaped our story.
Louisiana’s Old State Capitol is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.