Timber Ridge Adventure Park

The Lost Treasure Mining Company runs Louisiana's only outdoor gem and fossil mining attraction. The sluice stretches a hundred feet, hand-built wood styled after a 1930s treasure hunter's base camp. Visitors pan for gemstones and fossils. Buccaneer Bayou mini golf and the Bear Factory — where kids stuff plush animals — fill out the family offerings. Dark Woods Outfitters handles self-serve kayak rentals for Sibley Lake, Cane River Lake, and Chaplin Lake. After dark in season, the property becomes Dark Woods Haunted Attraction, rated Louisiana's top haunted house more than six times. Natchitoches was established in 1714 as a French outpost on the Red River. When the river shifted course and bypassed the town, it left a 33-mile oxbow lake — Cane River Lake — in its place. During the Civil War, Union soldiers set the town on fire after a failed attempt to capture Shreveport. Confederate cavalry arrived in time to help extinguish the flames before the town was destroyed. By the early 1970s, the businesses were declining and buildings were boarded up. Preservationists believed that attracting tourists based on the area's historic assets could revive the town. The park offers both. Families mine for treasure by day. The haunted attraction operates by night. The kayak rentals put you on the oxbow lake that defined the town's second act.