Annie Miller is one
of a kind. Born in the
bayou country of southern
Louisiana, she’s a remark-
able 88-year-old self-taught
naturalist, former fur trapper
and snake hunter, commer-
cial pilot and grandmother
whose greatest joy comes
from explaining the marvels
of the swamp to outsiders.
Twenty years ago, the
business of catching and
selling snakes and trapping
muskrats became too tough
on Annie and her late
husband Eddie, partially
paralyzed in an oil rig
accident some years earlier.
When friends suggested
she try swamp tours, Bayou
Guests cruise a Louisiana bayou with Alligator Annie Miller, near Houma
Annie’s life took on a new dimension. She discovered that her gift Cajun derived) farmers and fishermen fled to southern Louisiana
of gab and intricate knowledge of the watery wilderness that com- where they were granted land.
prises 75 percent of Terrebonne Parish were salable commodities. Spirited and industrious, but shy and insular in the wake of their
Practically every day since, from March to November, she’s guided treatment by the British, the Acadians dug in and settled the swampy
visitors into steamy green swamps seldom seen by tourists, but that wilderness. They’ve remained there more than two centuries, still
serve as a backyard and cornucopia to Cajuns. speaking their own unique brand of Creole French, farming, fishing,
Descendants of French Catholic settlers banished from Nova making music and plenty of good, zesty food.
Scotia and New Brunswick when the British wrested control of For my wife, Jan, and I, Bayou Annie’s tour proved an exciting
Canada from France in 1755, these Acadian (from which the tag opener for a weekend tour last fall through the heart of Cajun Country.
Bayou Black at sunset
The varied elements that
make Cajun Country unique
come together in Terrebonne
Parish on the Gulf Coast, 55
miles southwest of New
Orleans. Here, in a semi-
tropical climate laced with
the scent of waterlilly and
tupelo, the sporting life
of the hunter, trapper and
fisherman coexists with the
gracious life of the sugar
plantation and the relentless,
high-tech search for off-
shore oil.
Stately antebellum homes,
some still surrounded by
cane fields, share frontage
with humble fisherman’s
shacks along the dozens of
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