The Southwest Louisiana Convention
& Visitors Bureau hopes to bring more attention to a national
destination with a new interpretive
center in Sulphur.
The facility will house exhibits informing visitors of everything they can find along the Creole Nature Trail All-American
Road, including where they can see alligators.
Shelley Johnson, visitors bureau
executive director, said a similar center was located on the Sabine
National Wildlife Refuge
until Hurricane Rita “wiped it out.” She said some aspects of the
area were replaced only to be destroyed again by Hurricane
Ike.
“That center was a primary stop where
people could get out and get information about the Creole Nature Trail;
it was a major
site on the west side of the trail for visitors,” she said. “After
Hurricane Ike, it dawned on us that it wouldn’t be a good
idea to put another center there.”
The new center, which will be at the intersection of Arena Road and La. 27, will be at the start of the Creole Nature Trail
just south of Interstate 10 — which Johnson said will draw even more people to the trail.
“Thousands of people enter Sulphur for annual tournaments and things like that,” she said. “This could pull even more people
to the trail. It’s certainly going to help visitors and pull people off the interstate and get them interested in what the
Creole Nature Trail is all about.”
Johnson said about 100,000 people visited the previous center each year.
The project is being funded by $2.5 million in revenue bonds from the State Bond Commission.
The Creole Nature Trail — a 180-mile drive beginning in Sulphur, winding through Cameron and ending in Lake Charles — was
named an All-American Road, which is the highest designation a byway can receive, in 2002.
Johnson said the project is in the early stages and will take about two years to complete.