Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building

The pirogue — a flat-bottomed dugout canoe developed by the Chitimacha and Houma peoples for navigating shallow bayous — passed into the hands of Cajun trappers and fishermen four centuries ago and never left. They adapted it, argued over the proper proportions, built it in their own backyards, and passed the craft down. This is not a museum artifact. People still build pirogues. People still use them. The Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux preserves and teaches that construction. It is the only institution in the country focused specifically on Louisiana traditional boat building. You will not find another place where the specific materials, methods, and proportions of Louisiana's flatwater craft are treated as living practice rather than historical footnote. Contact the university for tour availability and workshop schedules. What you're visiting is not a collection but an active workshop — wood shavings, templates, the ongoing argument about how to shape a hull for a particular stretch of water.