Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser makes "Captain Billy" and Tammy Gaston unofficial ambassadors for Louisiana on Friday.
Nungesser and Gaston share a word before a champagne toast to the opening of Cajun Man's Swamp Tours on Friday.
Dean Schouest cooked jambalaya for the people who attended Friday's business opening, and it was good even when eaten in the cab of an ATV.
Annette Bourgeois, left, and Julie Bourgeois greet Nungesser at Friday's Cajun Man's Swamp Tours opening. Both women wore traditional Acadian clothing, including bonnets. They serve as tour guides at state attractions.
Waylon Thibodaux, a longtime friend of Gaston's, played at Friday's opening.
"Captain Billy" and Tammy Gaston cut the ribbon Friday to open Cajun Man's Swamp Tours. Nungesser and state Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, were among those on hand for the event.
UPDATED WITH STORY: Swamp tour business opens with dreams and hopes
BAYOU L'OURSE – A business opened, a ribbon was cut – a pretty standard event in the local community.
But Friday’s ceremony at Cajun Man’s Swamp Tours, located east of Lake Palourde on La. 662 between Amelia and Bayou L’Ourse, represented something more. It was the culmination of more than a decade of work and trouble for owner “Captain Billy” Gaston and wife Tammy, and it fit into Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser’s plans to revive Louisiana tourism after a rugged 2025.
Nungesser and other dignitaries, including state Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, attended the ceremony late Friday morning, when Cajun Man’s Swamp Tours may have been the most Cajun place on the planet.
The business is on a narrow strip of land between a stand of cypress trees and the Avoca Island Cutoff.
The Cajun Man tour boat was tied up near the shrimp boat Miss Reneé. At one end of the strip of land – opposite the rolled-up artificial turf that will someday be a putting green – is a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
Under the nearby pavilion, Waylon Thibodaux and his band played Cajun, swamp pop and zydeco music. Gaston dedicated the pavilion to Thibodaux, a friend for 50 years, naming it in the musician’s honor.
The wine that went with Dean Schouest’s jambalaya was champagne, with which Nungesser offered a toast to the Gaston’s success.
Being a swamp tour operator, Gaston told the crowd, is “the best job in the world.”
Gaston was overdue for some fun.
During the more than 10 years he’s been working on his new business, he underwent back surgery and gall bladder surgery.
During the pandemic, he spent seven days in the hospital, seriously ill with COVID.
Then, on Sept. 15 last year, his daughter, a 36-year-old married mother of five, died.
“Things will never be the same,” Gaston said. “But she’d want us to push ahead with our dream.”
Nungesser named the Gastons to be Louisiana ambassadors. The lieutenant governor will be grateful for the help.
Last year, when the state was looking forward to putting a float in the Rose Parade, Taylor Swift shows and Super Bowl LIX, state tourism began taking hits.
The New Year’s Eve ramming attack in New Orleans made national headlines. A rare snow storm canceled a trade show. And President Donald Trump engaged in a trade war of words with Canada, a big source of tourists for South Louisiana.
“The 51st state,” Nungesser said after the ceremony. “When the president said that, it hurt us along with some of the tariffs.”
Estimates say the number of foreign visitors was down by up to 20%.
“But we had a great Mardi Gras this year,” Nungesser said. “We had people from Australia in Houma and Morgan City.”
The word for this year is outdoors, a category into which Cajun Man’s Swamp Tours fits neatly.
“This year, we’re promoting the great outdoors of Louisiana …,” Nungesser said. “I wasn’t going to miss this [ribbon-cutting] for anything in the world.”