Earlier this week I was parked at the Amtrak station in Lake Charles, Louisiana eating my lunch and hoping that a train might pass by when I noticed something odd across the street. I spied with my little eye something that resembled a horse drawn wagon or carriage of some sort. I peered further and I could make out several such objects in the tall grass.
Being the curious type I drove across the tracks and parked by the field. I was surprised to find that my suspicions were indeed correct, it was a field full of old carriages.
I was curious to find out who would just leave a bunch of carriages out in field so I did a little research and discovered that I had happened upon the abandoned remains of Lake Charles Carriages a company that up until a few years ago provide mule and horse drawn carriage tours of downtown Lake Charles.
Apparently these carriage rides were a big tourist attraction and Lake Charles Carriages provided a plethora of tour packages including The Charpentier Historic District Tour, The Shell Beach Drive Tour, The Historic Downtown Tour, and a Christmas Light Tour. The company's website is still up and running and from what I saw there these tours looked like they were a lot of fun.
So what happened?
From what I gather there were a couple of accidents involving the carriages in 2020. In one case one of horses damaged a tourists car and there was also an accident where a car hit one of the carriages. Reportedly the carriage was severely damaged and several passengers were injured.
Later that year Hurricane Laura damaged numerous businesses in Lake Charles including the Lake Charles Carriages. Apparently that was the coffin nail, because they never reopened.
This past year the City of Lake Charles voted to allow another company to take over the carriage rides in the city.
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