Germantown Colony Museum — Attraction in Minden

Excellent museum. This place is a hidden gem. Knowlegeable and polite tour guides, well-restored following historical preservation board guidelines and best practices. It contains a ton of original artifacts from the period, actual machinery used on the settlement, functional original water well. The buildings are in great shape and carefully refurbished while maintaining the original pieces where possible. The museum is managed and funded by the state and entrance is free, compliments of the Great State of Louisiana. There is a small indoor museum which is nice and interesting. The grounds contain an active cemetery where the descendants of the original settlers are still being buried. The only think I disliked was the Fire Marshall overstepping and forcing the buildings to have fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. There should have been a historical exception especially since the structures preceeded the fire dept. code by 170 years. The fire prevention gear detracts and damages the history. Anyways, Germantown Colony Museum is a home run. Travelers on I-20 should make a brief detour and soak in this hidden treasure. The visit takes about...

First, thing is there is no cost to visit

This is a German Commune that was established in 1835 and the most successful of the 3 locations. The tour last anywhere between 30-45 minutes.

Our tour guide was Jean, she use to teach school in Minden and was very knowledgeable of the colony and the people here.

There is a lot to be see from some of the original homes to the smokehouse and blacksmith work shop that was added later.

From what we understood a lot of the families of the original members are donating items back to the Germantown to be observed by tourist.

When the tour is over and you leave, up on the right is the Germantown Cemetery, very interesting to see when, where they were born and how they...

Sadly I made the drive out from Shreveport on a Thursday afternoon. Hours posted online say they’re open but no one around and all locked up, hours posted on door also state operating hours the same as online. I tried calling number listed and it is unable to connect with a Verizon message saying my call cannot be completed as the party is unavailable. Tried calling 3X to be sure I had the number correctly. Though I am disappointed after making the drive, I did walk around the fence line and snapped a few photos. Maybe we’ll try to come again...