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Home/Regions/Bayou Region

Bayou Region

Travel “down the bayou” to towns where the slow-moving waterways were once the highways that connected communities and cities to the some of the nation’s most productive fishing grounds. Enjoy fresh caught shrimp, oysters, redfish and trout, or take a sightseeing tour into the swamps and bayous for an up close experience with alligators, wading birds and other wildlife.

black and white photo of Navy blimp near large hangar

Houma Blimp Base

Dave McNamara
May 13, 2025

The Houma blimp base, once a vital hub for U.S. naval defense during World War II, played a key role in tracking and deterring German U-boats prowling the Gulf of…

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northern lights streaking red white and green above snow capped mountain in norway

Norway Northern Lights

Dave McNamara
December 31, 2024

It was a bucket list item for me, a trip to the Lofoten Islands of Norway for a chance to experience the Northern Lights. Not only was I rewarded with…

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small wooden Cajun style boats in museum

Cajun Boats

Dave McNamara
November 26, 2024

Cajun boats, once essential to life along Bayou Lafourche, are at the heart of an effort to save Louisiana’s boat-building heritage. For years, the Museum of Traditional Boat Building in…

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palmetto hut near tree branches on a mowed grass lawn

Houma Language

Dave McNamara
August 20, 2024

An effort is underway to reclaim the Native language of the Houma Tribe of southeastern Louisiana. Though tribal members stopped speaking the Houma language generations ago, a simple song has…

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Decorated lighthouse in sculpture garden with sunburst

Chauvin Sculpture Garden

Dave McNamara
January 2, 2024

You are likely to do a double-take if you drive south of the city of Houma on LA Highway 56 through the bayouside community of Chauvin. There, across the waterway,…

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brown pelican landing in midst of many nesting pelicans on queen bess island

Queen Bess Pelicans

Dave McNamara
December 26, 2023

The robust recovery of Queen Bess Island, a speck along the Louisiana coast, serves as a testament to the power of restoration efforts and the resiliency of nature. This tiny…

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dilapidated two story yellow wood building on Grand Isle

Restore Grand Isle

Dave McNamara
October 26, 2023

To understand what residents of Grand Isle, Louisiana, want to restore, you need to drive a few blocks off the main highway to find the town’s oldest structures. These historic…

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closeup of hands weaving a disk from palmetto straw

Houma Indian Baskets

Dave McNamara
October 17, 2023

Members of the Houma Indian Nation are determined to preserve their style of baskets that are woven from strands of palmetto leaves. But one of the tribe’s unique styles of…

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cemetery with crumbling brick grave and dead tree from 1893 hurricane

Cheniere Caminada Hurricane

Dave McNamara
September 25, 2023

Residents of coastal Louisiana are marking the 130th anniversary of a monster Hurricane in 1893 that wiped out the community of Cheniere Caminada. The unnamed category 4 hurricane is considered…

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boardwalk over grass covered dune to distant beach at Grand Isle State Park

Grand Isle State Park Reopens

Dave McNamara
June 3, 2023

Nearly two years after category 4 Hurricane Ida pounded Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island, Grand Isle State Park has reopened to visitors. The park opened June 1, 2023 for day…

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man in yellow t shirt holding duck carving

Duck Carving

Dave McNamara
May 23, 2023

Cajun Heritage festival Duck carving began out of necessity as a way to make wooden decoys for hunting. But in the last couple of generations, it has turned into works…

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bright orange colored bird being held in hand

Migratory Birds at Grand Isle

Dave McNamara
April 4, 2023

As many as two billion migratory birds make their annual flight across the Gulf of Mexico every Spring, and one popular place to see those colorful tropical birds is Grand…

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giant preserved alligator surrounded by Cajun collection of hunting artifacts

Cajun Collection

Dave McNamara
February 28, 2023

An avid fisherman and duck hunter from Galliano has created a massive Cajun collection of memorabilia that preserves his family’s history and culture. Coonie Lefort says that his collection is…

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man in blue shirt and red cap playing accordion and man in blue shirt and hat playing guitar at jam session

Thibodeaux Cajun Music

Dave McNamara
January 24, 2023

You can listen, dance or even play along to Cajun music at a twice-monthly jam session in the southeastern Louisiana city of Thibodaux. Organizers say the musical gatherings are a…

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old wooden house with hurricane damage in black and white

1893 Hurricane

Dave McNamara
December 17, 2022

Cheniere caminada survivor still standing The Curole family home was one of the few structures that survived the devastating 1893 Hurricane at Cheniere Caminada on the southeastern coast of Louisiana.…

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closeup of bald eagle head carved from wood

Wood Carver & the Eagle

Dave McNamara
December 9, 2022

A world champion wood carver from Terrebonne Parish has a new masterpiece in the middle of his living room. Curtis Fabre has finished work on a life-sized bald eagle, a…

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art painting of old wooden white church in Louisiana

Louisiana Art

Dave McNamara
July 12, 2022

The paintings of the chief justice Louisiana art covers the walls in the office of the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Chief Justice. The paintings of marshes, moss-draped trees, century-old buildings and…

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sunrise over Grand Isle, Louisiana

U-boats in the Gulf

Dave McNamara
April 26, 2022

Did you know? More Allied ships were sunk by German submarines in the Gulf of Mexico during World War Two than were destroyed in the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. …

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Bald eagle flying over treetop in southern Louisiana swamp

One Afternoon in a Louisiana Swamp

Dave McNamara
January 9, 2022

I grabbed my camera and a long lens and joined a few other photographer friends for an afternoon cruise into a Louisiana swamp in western Terrebonne Parish. We wanted to…

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Hummingbird on nest on tree branch Louisiana

Hummingbird Nest

Dave McNamara
December 22, 2021

Finding a hummingbird nest in the wild is a nearly impossible task. The tiny camouflaged nests look like a small knot on a tree branch, often hidden by leaves. That’s…

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exterior of cypress sawmill museum in patterson louisiana

Cypress Trees to Louisiana Sawmill

Dave McNamara
April 13, 2021

The booming lumber industry of the early 20th century and its appetite for virgin cypress trees in Louisiana are featured in this state museum in the town that was once…

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;eople on boardwalk observation deck over Louisiana marsh for watching and photographing birds

Watching the Birds of Louisiana

Dave McNamara
March 2, 2021

I joined a dozen members of the Terrebonne Bird Club for a frosty early morning walk through the Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge in Houma, Louisiana. The scenic nature trail got…

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side view of propeller and cockpit of small Air Force One with presidential seal below window

Bayou Air Force One

Dave McNamara
January 20, 2021

A small propeller-driven version of Air Force One used by President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s is on display at the Regional Military Museum in the bayou city of Houma.…

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