By MELISSA PEACOCK

VACHERIE – In the westernmost River Parishes, just 35 minutes out of New Orleans, lies St. James Parish. It is tranquil place of ball gowns and slave quarters, history and imagination, sugar cane and tobacco.

Whether joining a walking tour of “Laura,” a Creole plantation house built in Vacherie in 1805, stopping to look at the exhibits at St. James Historical Society in the historic town of Lutcher or just exploring the scenic beauty of the River Road, a visit to St. James Parish is like stepping into the past.

While tourism is not the most lucrative business in the parish, area tour operators believe tourism this year is no worse than it has been in the past – despite some tourists’ travel apprehension associated with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“We’re seeing about the same sort of growth as in the past,” said Joseph Dunn, director of sales and marketing for Laura Plantation. “Everybody starts to fall off in June, July, August and some in September.”

A study of Laura Plantation by the University of Southern Mississippi found that about 32 percent of visitors learned of the plantation through brochures, 30 percent from travel guides and 15.8 percent by word-of-mouth.

“We don’t put much money into advertising,” Dunn said. “We do advertise in the Louisiana Travel Guide. We go to conventions to pick up tour groups.”

Eight tour groups visit the plantation on a regular basis. The number of walk-ups are almost equal to the number from the tours.

“We did get about 131,000 visitors last year,” Dunn said. “About 35,000 were French-speaking. We’re one of the only tours in Louisiana to offer tours in French.”

According to Dunn, the tour is a unique marriage of architecture, history and narration.

“What we want to do is to present as accurate a picture of Creole life upon the river as possible,” Dunn said.

Dunn and the other staff at Laura make sure visitors get more than just a brief history of the architecture. They get a more intimate look at the house, a journey through the life and lineage of the family that owned and ran the large Creole plantation.

The stories staff members weave into the tour are based on “Memories,” a collection of stories about life on the plantation told by former owner Laura Locoul Gore, and pages of information found in the French National Archives in Paris, France. The tour, written by Norman Marmillion, is a unique blend of fact, humor and family intrigue. The plantation, including the 150-year old slave cabins where the famous folktale “Compair Lapin” or “Br’er Rabbit” is said to have originated, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Laura Plantation Company took over restorations in 1994.

The first tour of the day begins at 9:30 a.m. outside of the large brick and cyprus basement of the house and winds its way through the male and female parlors and into the dining room. The last tour of the day starts at 4 p.m. There are tours every 15 or 20 minutes throughout the day.

Just down the road, in the historic town of Lutcher, the St. James Historical Society Culture and Heritage Center provides the perfect place to stretch your legs and learn a little about the history of the parish. The society was organized in 1984. The museum began operating in about 1989.

“I think maybe its (tourism) been better than usual,” said Joe Samora of the Historical Society. “We seem to have more foreign visitors than before.”

The society’s exhibits are open Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., on special occasions and are opened for groups with notice.

“We have a 100-plus -year-old Post Office building, a functioning replica of a blacksmith shop, and an exhibit of black moss and trapping,” Samora said.

The Perique Tobacco Barn and the Black Moss exhibit are two exhibits that demonstrate the economic heritage of the St. James Parish.

“It’s not produced anywhere else in the world,” Samora said about the Perique Tobacco. “It’s very aromatic. It was used primarily in pipe blends. The main difference is in the processing.”

A Perique Tobacco plant is kept on the property to give visitors an idea of what the plant and its blooms look like.

“Black Moss is the skeleton of Spanish Moss and was used as an upholstery material,” Samora said at the Black Moss exhibit. “It was milled and ginned until the gray was gone. They gathered it in boats in swamps and on higher land in wagons.”

But the most popular exhibit is the railcar.

“It’s a big attraction – they like to ride it on the short track,” Samora said.

The St. James Historical Society Culture and Heritage Center is dedicated to the preservation of Louisiana history and culture. It makes a great supplement to history tours throughout the area.

Heritage Day at the center will be held Sept. 29.