Vermilionville opened its doors to the public after being closed for almost a month because of the historic flooding.

Water covered the entire historic Cajun and Creole village.

Vermilionville is right off of the vermilion river, which played a major role in the flooding.

River levels rose 12 feet in 10 hours during the historic flood.

Brady McKellar, The director of museum operations says “There was so much water that it actually changed the direction in the bayou that it flowed, from south more towards the north.”

As soon as the river reached a certain level, park workers were able to use the drainage system to pump the remaining water out.

Locally grown crops like sugarcane and okra were damaged along with some of the structures.

We were told that the staircases in front of some of the homes were misplaced because of the rising flood waters,

Renovations and repairs are still in the works, but for the most part, everything else is up and running.

There are unique structures to see and places to sit and eat.

Vermilionville has reenactments of what Cajun life was like between 1765 and 1890.

“Anything that you’re interested as it comes to native American, creole, or Cajun culture, food music and crafts we have all those types of things,” says Brady. “there is all kinds of cool things to see.”

Ditting Bear is one of the many people you can learn from about

“Avoyelles parish is named for my tribe, the Avogelle, which means “the fled people,” says Sitting bear.

On Saturday, September 24th, Vermilionville will be hosting a Native American Culture Day open to the public.

The park is open 6 days a week, Tuesday through Sundays from 10am to 4pm.