LSU’s Rural Life Museum will complete an excavation at the riverfront site where the L’Auberge Baton Rouge casino is under construction to collect and analyze any artifacts found on the property that was formerly home to a plantation and Native American village. University and casino officials announced details of their partnership this morning. The $1.3 million project is being funded by L’Auberge. In the 19th century, the land along River Road where the casino is being constructed was the site of the Chatsworth Plantation, a sprawling estate encompassing 575 acres that stretched to Nicholson Drive. Prior to that and until the 1780s, a Native American village was located on the land now owned by the casino company. The archaeological work began last month and is expected to last through 2014. The casino is nearing completion and has targeted an unspecified summer opening date.
Editor’s note: This story has been changed since its original publication.
