March 2017
by: Anne-Marie Bauer
In June of 2016, Louisiana’s Hodges Garden State Park was on the short list of potential park closures due to state budget cuts. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Hodges Garden is located in Sabine Parish near Toledo Bend, a short drive north of Fort Polk off US Highway 171. It is a beautiful park. It would have been a travesty to shut down such a scenic public treasure. We decided to pay a visit there before potentially losing access to such a gem. Luckily, we heard about a Fairy Garden Workshop being held there at that time and we decided to attend. The workshop was put on by Connie Anne Keppinger of Cockfield’s Garden. The workshop included step by step instructions, plants and materials, as well as growing and care requirements for the plants. A friend and I attended with our tween daughters and built some amazing mini garden creations.
Oil and gas businessman A.J. Hodges, Sr. and his wife Nona Triggs Hodges purchased about 100,000 acres of cut-over land in Louisiana in the late 1930’s near an abandoned rock quarry. They re-planted 39,000 acres of timber. The quarry had supplied rocks for the Port Arthur, Texas jetties in 1898 via a 6 day round-trip horse-drawn wagon ride. Mr. Hodges was a visionary and planned scenic gardens around the natural rock formations of the old quarry site. It opened to the public in 1956 and became part of the state park system in 2007. Today, Hodges Garden State Park features thousands of acres of wild and cultivated beauty. There are iconic formal Southern gardens with roses and azaleas, as well as wild, natural beauty. The park features boating, fishing, cabin rentals, an equestrian campground, and even an annual astronomy stargazing event. There are natural rock formations, bridges, staircases and waterfalls. It is truly a magnificent park. I can’t think of any reason why the state would want to close such an outstanding park. I would encourage anyone to visit. It is worth the trip.
Cockfield’s Garden is located inside Kaffie Frederick General Mercantile in Natchitoches, Louisiana. The Kaffie Frederick hardware store is the oldest store in the state of Louisiana and is located in downtown, historic Natchitoches. It was established in 1863 and has the original, working freight elevator and a 1910 cash register that is still used for sales. Connie Anne Keppinger is an expert in miniature gardens. She builds the most incredible terrariums for sale and has a vast range of expertise and gardening know-how. She is also an incredibly patient teacher. My daughter is a typical fidgety tween and it takes a great deal of patience to cultivate a garden, but we were able to sustain her interest and encourage her to work at the design and landscaping of her fairy garden. Now, we can’t get enough of them and we have more doll furniture outside in the dirt than inside our playroom. In the future, I hope to see more Hodges Garden fairy garden workshops and we are all very relieved that the park remains open to visitors.
Update:
We took a trip to Hodges Garden in April 2017 and learned that the park is again on the state’s list of potential closures. The water was not flowing in the park fountains and it looked very bleak for the park’s future. We are hopeful that Louisiana will keep this state treasure open.
Rosepine Nature Notes 