Maybe I can shed some light on the Fort DeRussy situation.

First, and most importantly, the Office of State Parks did not “find money to reconstruct Fort DeRussy.” State Parks accepted the donation of Fort DeRussy only after it was presented to them on a silver platter, with a big red bow tied around it.

In 1994, the Avoyelles Parish historical society (La Commission des Avoyelles) put together a committee to look into purchasing Fort DeRussy. (Art Bergeron, a regular here, was on the committee.) With money from the Marksville Chamber of Commerce and a grant from APCWS (and maybe some local tourism tax money) we were able to purchase 5 acres containing the main redoubt. We used prison labor to clean up the site, after which we invited some NPS and State Parks people over and asked if they’d be willing to help turn the place into a State or National Historic Site. They agreed to help in “any way they could, with the exception of providing money.” That is very close to an exact quote. In order to get funds, we donated the property to Marksville, and were able to get the Legislature to give the town a $75,000 grant to fix up the fort. The Friends of Fort DeRussy were put in charge of spending the money. Some Central Louisiana reenactors got involved, and together we were able to get a lot of publicity for the place. The Delta Queen started making regular annual visits, a lot of interest was generated, we talked the Red River Waterway Commission into donating $150,000 for property acquisition, and to make a long story not quite so long, after five years we turned over to the Office of State Parks a state historic site, 70 acres of property, three granite monuments, a 186-foot-long wooden bridge, a really nice Civil War library, and a $70,000 Federal grant, among other things. I don’t think we did too bad for the state’s initial $75,000 investment. But mind you, Office of State Parks did not put up one dime for any of this.

I must say, though, that the amount of cooperation we got from individuals, local politicians, various governmental agencies (state and parish prison systems, National Guard, Levee Board, Police Jury, etc, etc) was phenomenal. We got pretty much whatever we asked for.

State Parks recently bought a house next door (with some of that Federal money we got for them) for a manager’s home, and La Commission is currently buying a three-acre site (the old barracks property) across from the fort, which will be turned over to State Parks when the acquisition is complete. So far, State Parks hasn’t gotten any money from the Legislature for the operation of the fort, though I expect they will soon.

I can’t address the Camp Moore issue. Don’t know anything about that. But as for Fort DeRussy becoming a state historic site, that was due to a lot of effort (which continues to this day) by a lot of people. But if we had waited for funding from State Parks – or even if we had just waited for some sort of leadership from them - it never would have happened.