Every year the Civil War Trust sponsors Park Day at Civil War sites throughout the country. This year, Fort DeRussy State Historic Site will be participating for the first time since 1999. (Fort DeRussy was turned over to the Office of State Parks in September, 1999.) Fort DeRussy is now once again under the management of Friends of Fort DeRussy, and on Saturday, April 1, 2017, there will be a clean-up day at the site. Anyone wanting to come out and support our efforts to make the site presentable to tourists and history buffs is encouraged to show up at the fort ready to work (Avoyelles Parish, just north of Marksville, 359 Fort DeRussy Road, off of Hwy 1192 a few miles north of the Marksville Hospital). Bring hand tools and work gloves (we don't want you getting blisters but we do want you earning them). Rakes, loppers, ditch bank blades, swing blades, mowers, etc will be needed. Bring them if you have them, but we'll have work for you even if we don't have tools. We'll be picking up a lot of fallen limbs and seeding the earthworks, picking up trash, and will probably have a tour of the fort somewhere in there. We'll have drinks and water donated by the Marksville Chamber of Commerce, but bring a picnic lunch. If you're too old, sick, tired, or lazy to work, come on out anyway and give moral (or monetary) support, or just soak up some local history. We won't be cleaning up the bayou - as bad as it needs it, it's going to be April and the cottonmouths are way too thick to be working in there this time of year. But we'll have plenty to do on the earthworks and the surrounding area. T-shirts to the first 30 volunteers to show up.

The State is not going to take care of our State Historic Sites. Complaining won't get the job done. Working will. Hope to see you out there. Saturday, April 1, 9 AM until 3 PM. Longer if you want to.