Mardi Gras Shipwreck gives glimpse of life on ships over 200 years ago

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Division of Archaeology and the Capitol Park Museum announce the opening of a new exhibit – The Mardi Gras Shipwreck.
In 2007, a team of archaeologists and researchers mapped, recovered and analyzed more than 1,000 artifacts from an underwater archaeological site in the Gulf of Mexico. While the artifacts and research indicate the ship sank in the early 1800s, the name of the ship and its crewmembers remain unknown.
It’s referred to as the Mardi Gras Shipwreck for the pipeline where it was found in 2002 by Okeanos Gas Gathering Company while surveying the floor of the gulf about 35 miles off the coast in 4,000 feet of water, according to the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism news release.
The Mardi Gras Shipwreck exhibit features recovered artifacts that remained underwater for more than 200 years and represents over a decade of collaborative research and conservation. Visit the exhibit to learn more about what researchers pieced together from the remains of this mysterious shipwreck.
The exhibit opens at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge on Thursday with extended hours that evening from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The exhibit will remain up into spring 2022.
Capitol Park Museum’s regular hours are Tuesdays-Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission prices are $7 for adults and $6 for students, senior citizens and active military. Children six and under are free.
For more information about the Capitol Park Museum, visit the Capitol Park Museum webpage at louisianastatemuseum.org/museum/capitol-park-museum.
To explore more educational and interactive exhibits offered by the Louisiana Division of Archaeology, visit the Division’s Discover Archaeology webpage at www.crt.state.la.us/cul tural-development/archaeology/discover-archaeology/index.