627. We interview Kelly Jackson, founder of the Cane River Film
Festival. Natchitoches has a long and intimate history
with American cinema. The Cane River film festival represents
the latest chapter in that history. We are as diverse as the
community that we represent. Our mission is to showcase,
nurture, and support the emerging creative student and
independent filmmakers stories about and or filmed in Louisiana.
We want to share their films with an audience, seek
opportunities for distribution and celebrate their achievement
in telling their story that they want to tell. The Cane River
film festival is not just a film festival — it's an experience.
- Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy.
The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it
as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in
print for the first time in 221 years. Order your copy today!
- This week in Louisiana history. May 24, 1963. Birthday of
great Shreveport basket player Joe Dumars the Former NBA guard
and 6-time All-Star who helped the Detroit Pistons win
back-to-back NBA Championships in 1989 and 1990.
- This week in New Orleans history. On May 24, 2013, City
Putt, a 36-hole mini golf complex with two courses opened in
City Park. The Louisiana Course highlights cultural
themes and cities from around the state. The New Orleans
Course showcases streets and iconic themes from around the
city, with signs detailing the city’s historic sites at each
hole.
- This week in Louisiana.
El Camino Real de los Tejas
National Historic Trail
TX, LA
Trail sites are located across 2,580 miles and 5 states (in
the U.S.) and thousands of miles in Mexico.
The trail runs from the city of Lafayette to the town of
Natchitoches. The trail travels west from there into Texas. It
splits into two trails while in the state of Louisiana, and
joins again at the border with Texas.
Website
The Trail is administered by the NPS office located at:
National Trails Office Regions 6, 7, & 8
El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail
1100 Old Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87505
During the Spanish colonial period in
North America, numerous “royal roads” — or caminos reales
— tied far-flung regions of the empire to Mexico City. One
particular collection of indigenous trails and trade routes
became known as El Camino Real de los Tejas, the primary
overland route for the Spanish colonization of what is today
Texas and northwestern Louisiana. The trail’s name is derived
not only from its geographic extent but also from some of its
original users. Spaniards referred to a prominent group of
Caddo Indians as the Tejas, a word derived from the Caddo term
for ‘friend’ or ‘ally.’ Thus, the Spanish province of Tejas,
the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, and the historic trail
traversing them owe their name to the Caddo language.
- Postcards from Louisiana. Albany Navarre. Building
Blocks for Financial Literacy (ages 6-18). Louisiana
Book Festival.
