Two Favorites

[HostDave]

October 9, 2012
By Christopher Kyte, President

Sailing the American Queen, you’ll see certain ports pop up more often than others. We spend almost half the year on voyages that focus on the Mississippi River from Memphis on south. We love Oak Alley, Houmas House, Vicksburg, Natchez and Baton Rouge. Each embodies the spirit of Southern hospitality and each is a star on the itinerary. If pressed, I don’t think it would be possible for me to choose which one I enjoy the most because each is unique. I can be a bit eccentric at times and I love to explore just a bit off the beaten path. One of my favorite things about travel is when I discover a place I never knew much about and it turns out to far exceed any expectations I might have had.

On our voyages on the Lower Mississippi, two of my favorite such ports are Helena, AR and St. Francisville, LA. Between the two ports, you’ll find a wonderful blend of music history, Civil War battlegrounds and a tug-of-war between countries.

Like virtually every city and town along the Mississippi, Helena exists only because of the river itself. In the 1800s, the river was the nation’s superhighway, long before railroads and trucks, and carried most of the nation’s goods and people through the heartland. Just like a community boosted by the construction of an exit off a highway, Helena became an important local port as steamboats flourished. And unlike many river towns, the town was built on a ridge that protected it from all but the worst flooding.

Of course, the Civil War put an end to Helena’s prosperity. The Union Army occupied Helena and on July 4, 1863, Confederate soldiers launched an assault on Helena to retake the town. The attack was part of a broader strategy to divert Union forces from the Battle of Vicksburg taking place at the same time. Unfortunately, the Confederate attempt to recapture Helena took place the same day that Confederate forces surrendered at Vicksburg and just a day after the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. Helena remained firmly in Union hands. Today, it is one of few communities with relatively undamaged and original battle sites from the Civil War. Helena also served as the staging location for a Union push to capture Little Rock, AR later in the war.

The city was rebuilt and by the 1940s and 1950s, a vibrant blues community had developed. The area has produced blues greats Robert Lee McCollum, Roosevelt Sykes, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Robert Lockwood, Jr. Helena is also the hometown of country music star Conway Twitty and gospel singer Roberta Martin. The town’s roots in music are deep, indeed. In fact, Helena is the home to King Biscuit Time, one of America’s longest running daily radio programs which first aired in 1941.

The tiny town of St. Francisville has bounced between countries during its two centuries of history before becoming part of the United States. Founded in 1809 by the English, it is perched on a narrow ridge above the Mississippi River, earning the town the description of being “two miles long and two yards wide.” The town’s importance as the center of commerce for the surrounding plantations made it a key port for steamboats during their heyday. In fact, the settlement of Bayou Sara below St. Francisville’s bluffs was the center of the action before the Civil War and at one time was the busiest river port between New Orleans and Memphis. Eventually, fires and constant flooding wiped Bayou Sara off the map. A handful of structures were brought to the top of the ridge and survive today, but otherwise little remains of the antebellum steamboat hub.

The town’s location also put it at the center of a bone of contention regarding the boundary of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. France, England and Spain all laid claim to the land. In fact, in 1810 the town served as the capital of the Republic of West Florida, an independent republic set up by settlers who resented Spanish rule. The experiment lasted less than three months before St. Francisville officially became part of the United States once and for all.

Measuring less than two square miles and with a population of fewer than 2,000, today St. Francisville is the parish seat of West Feliciana Parish and is working hard to preserve its past by restoring several local plantations and Victorian homes. The town relies heavily on tourism for its well being and the entire downtown area is a National Register Historic District. St. Francisville owes much of its prosperity after the Civil War to large number of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in Germany who settled in the area when others were leaving the economically-devastated region.

I love these two towns because they truly represent the fabric of America. If you were driving on a highway, you might never stop and probably wouldn’t even notice they existed at all. It is only through a river voyage that one comes to appreciate each thread in our country’s fabric. Just like a quilt made from many different panels, each has its own story to tell.