A unique Louisiana festival celebrating our coastal resources
By Paul Coreil
One of Louisiana’s oldest and certainly one of its coldest festivals is the Louisiana Fur and Wildlife Festival, held each year on the second weekend in January in Cameron Parish. Originally established in 1955, this truly unique festival celebrates the importance of fur trapping, alligator hunting, waterfowl hunting, and commercial and recreational fishing to the economy and culture of Louisiana’s coastal parishes.
For generations, these renewable natural resources have provided food, income, jobs and a way of life for countless Louisiana families. Over the years, the festival has expanded its focus to recognize other important coastal industries, including cattle and energy, which are also major contributors to employment and economic activity throughout coastal Louisiana.
Like many Louisiana festivals, the Fur and Wildlife Festival includes a queen’s pageant, as well as the selection of King Fur, an honorary title presented to an individual who has made significant contributions to the industry being recognized that year. And yes, Avoyelles Parish is one of the 32 Louisiana parishes invited to send contestants to compete for the Louisiana Fur and Wildlife Festival Queen Crown!
The festival’s outdoor competitions are as unique as the event itself. Activities have included oyster shucking, muskrat and nutria skinning, trap setting, skeet shooting, dog trials, and duck and goose calling contests. Over the years, the festival has experienced interruptions and cancellations caused by severe winter weather and devastating hurricanes, including Audrey, Rita, Ike and Laura. Yet, despite these challenges, the people of Cameron Parish have continued the tradition of celebrating natural resources that have contributed so much to Louisiana’s culture, cuisine, economy and way of life.
My Years on the Fur Festival Committee While living and working in Cameron Parish from 1978 through 1992, I had the privilege of serving on the Fur Festival Committee. Putting on an event of this magnitude required the dedication and cooperation of many local leaders. Numerous subcommittees were responsible for organizing the various activities and making sure everything was conducted safely, efficiently and, most importantly, in a way that was enjoyable for festival participants and spectators. I served as chairman of the Outdoor Activities Committee, which was responsible for organizing the oyster shucking, trap setting, skeet shooting, dog trials, and nutria & muskrat skinning contests held on the Saturday morning of the festival weekend.
One of my responsibilities was securing the oysters, nutria and muskrats needed for the competitions. Fresh oysters
were never a problem. We could always count on local commercial oyster fishermen to generously provide the fresh oysters needed for the shucking contest.
Securing freshly trapped nutria and live muskrats for the skinning competitions, however, was a much more challenging undertaking and required considerable advance planning.
Typically, I arranged to pick up freshly trapped nutria on the morning of the competition. Because they did not have to be brought to the contest alive, this was relatively straightforward. Muskrats were another matter. Contestants preferred to skin freshly dispatched muskrats because the animals were easier to skin which helped with each contestant’s skinning speed. This meant we needed a Cameron Parish trapper who was willing to live-trap a sufficient number of muskrats, house and care for them for several weeks, and then transport them to the festival on the morning of the competition. Finding a willing trapper to take on that responsibility was one of my most challenging assignments as Outdoor Activities Committee chair!
The Skinning Contests The nutria and muskrat skinning competitions were divided into three divisions: youth, women and men. Contestants were judged primarily on the amount of time required to skin their allotted number of animals.
Nutria were generally harvested the morning of, or a day or two before the competition and refrigerated until the event. Some experienced contestants, however, would run their traps early on the morning of the contest because they knew freshly harvested animals could be skinned more quickly.
The muskrats were handled differently. The assigned festival trapper responsible for holding them would bring the live animals to the festival. Immediately before the competition, a festival official with extensive trapping experience would humanely dispatch the animals so all contestants were giving an equal advantage during the skinning process. With all the preparation involved, we worked hard to make sure everything went according to plan.
But, as I learned, you can plan for almost everything, except the unexpected!
The Muskrat Skinning Incident One year, we decided to hold all of the outdoor activities inside Cameron Elementary School because of particularly cold weather. The move turned out to be a great decision. Attendance was excellent, and both the contestants and spectators appreciated being able to enjoy the activities in a warm, comfortable environment.
After the oyster shucking and trap-setting contests were completed, everyone eagerly awaited the nutria and muskrat skinning competitions. These contests were always among the most popular events of the festival.
During the women’s muskrat skinning competition, one contestant apparently had brought her own live muskrats to the competition and, somehow, she managed to bypass the Fur Festival official responsible for dispatching and distributing the animals to the contestants. When she began skinning one of her muskrats, it became apparent that the animal had not been completely dispatched and it began moving after the skin had been removed. This was completely unexpected and something all of us never wanted to experience.
As chairman of the Outdoor Activities Committee, I immediately stepped in to deal with the situation. The attending crowd reacted with astonishment, but everyone understood that the incident was completely unintentional and something we never wanted to happen in a pubic setting. For me, however, it was one of those moments that I will never forget. I probably came closer to having a heart attack that morning than any other time in my life!
Memories of a Special Time in Cameron Parish Looking back, some of my most cherished and rewarding career memories were experience during the 14 years I spent living and working in Cameron Parish. During that time, I had the opportunity to work closely with many great people celebrated through the annual Fur and Wildlife Festival.
My professional responsibilities allowed me to provide educational programs and assistance to fur trappers, commercial and recreational fishermen, oystermen, crawfish farmers, crabbers, waterfowl hunters, cattle ranchers and alligator hunters.
These were not simply occupations they were ways of life deeply woven into the culture and identity of coastal Louisiana.
Many of these natural resource-based industries have faced tremendous challenges over the years. Changing economic conditions, hurricanes, environmental pressures and the continuing loss of coastal land have all affected the many great people who depend upon Louisiana’s coastal resources. Yet these resources remain critically important to our state. They are part of the reason Louisiana continues to invest so heavily in restoring and protecting its coast. Just as importantly, they are an essential part of the unique culture, traditions and way of life that make coastal Louisiana unlike anywhere else in the world.
The Louisiana Fur and Wildlife Festival is much more than a cold January festival featuring unique contests and activities. It is a celebration of Louisiana’s people, its renewable natural resources and the generations of families who have made their living from the land and waters of our coast.
I hope and pray that this wonderful tradition will continue for many generations to come and that we will continue to recognize, appreciate and protect the valuable coastal resources and the people who make their living harvesting the riches of the great state of Louisiana.
Until next time,
Paul Coreil
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