After many months of preparation and collaboration, St. Martin Parish Tourism is excited to announce the launch of its new microsite!
The Atchafalaya Basin microsite recognizes the beauty of St. Martin Parish, but it specifically highlights its flora, community history, and the Atchafalaya Basin.
By launching this site, the St. Martin Parish Tourism Commission hopes to not only encourage more adventure-seeking tourists to visit St. Martin Parish but to educate its residents on the land’s history and instill its value. Embracing our history and the land where it is made, allows us to form a deeper appreciation for our culture, and equally important, it allows us to share it more effectively with others.
In 2021, the St. Martin Parish Tourism Commission applied for the FY21 Atchafalaya National Heritage Area Small Funds Grant in hopes to fund a new project that would spotlight the Atchafalaya Basin within St. Martin Parish. The Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, Atchafalaya Trace Commission awarded this grant to St. Martin Parish Tourism in May of 2021. With the help of Calzone and Associates, Inc, idea generator, Jude Theriot, microsite author, and ANHA executives, plans to begin this project were quickly underway.
Theriot is a native and current resident of St. Martin Parish. His love for the outdoors began at an early age; he grew up exploring the woods and waterways of his hometown, Catahoula, Louisiana, a small fishing and farming community at the edge of the Atchafalaya Basin. In 2021, after working 20 years as a neurologist across the country, he moved back home to start his own practice and document the natural beauty of his native parish. St. Martin Parish Executive Director of Tourism Laci Laperouse took notice of his work via Facebook. Because of his organic and impactful way of uncovering the secret, natural treasures of the parish, Laperouse commissioned him to write the microsite’s articles. Through his adventures hunting for new stories, Theriot’s love for the outdoors has grown even further:
I’m St. Martin Parish through and through. I grew up as close to the
Atchafalaya Basin as you can be without actually being in it. Yet there
were still so many places I’d never seen, or even known about, until I
started getting out there in my kayak. So that has been a big revelation
for me—a deeper appreciation for the place I call home. The more I’ve
seen of the parish, the more I feel like we live in a kind of paradise and
don’t know it. We underestimate it. The Atchafalaya Basin is our Amazon.
And in terms of raw natural beauty, St. Martin Parish can easily hold its
own against any exotic location around the world.
The St. Martin Parish Tourism Commission invites you to view the new microsite which can be found at www.experienceatchafalaya.com.