Germantown Colony Museum

"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 2hrs. Enjoy."

"Nice stop in Northern part of Louisiana. Learn a lot of information about the early settlement of German in the area. The people have done a lot of work to keep this piece of history alive so other can learn from it. Lots of interesting building to see. The lady gave a great tour with lots of story behind this location."

"This place is perfect. A beautiful representation of a 19th century German commune in the countryside of northwest Louisiana. The person who runs it is an absolute gem, very knowledgeable on the history of the Germantown colony. The scene is very picturesque, with the old 19th century structures against a background of pasture and pine forest. It is very well run and maintained, and am definitely looking forward to another visit to this beautiful site!"

"Fun and unexpected bit of history in northern Louisiana. I am a German speaker so I enjoyed being able to read the books and papers in the museum. We were the only visitors at the time so we got undivided attention and lots of explanations."

"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 had past on."