Much of the forested area here, including most of Cazan Lake Road itself, is about 75-85 feet above sea level, whereas the portion which we farm sits at about 35 feet above sea level. This 50-foot difference in elevation is the result of a westward meandering of the post-Ice Age Red River only about 1,800 years ago. Back then, it neatly sheared the edge of the old Ice Age terrace which had been built up about 18,000 years prior. Standing on Cazan Lake Road near the wading bird rookery and looking eastward, the effects of this abrupt river-shearing action are evident.

Why did the Red River meander westward? Like the Mississippi River, and most other large rivers throughout the Gulf Coastal states, the draining of massive volumes of glacial meltwaters caused these streams to jump out of their previously entrenched courses, carving new courses at the end of each Ice Age glaciation event. Over time, once the major portion of meltwaters had been carried to the sea, the rivers would often shift back into their original courses.

The result of such meanderings is a highly varied landscape containing a diversity of distinct eco-regions and habitat types (aka “plant communities”). Here at PJF Farm, three of the Gulf Coast’s major eco-regions converge, creating six distinct habitat types. We heartily invite you to explore them, along with the plants and animals hosted by each.

Not surprisingly, the ecological diversity here has apparently attracted an equally diverse history of human habitation here. We’ve only recently initiated archaeological investigations which have already documented Native American artifacts dating back to the early Woodland Period (400-800 A.D.). Both archaeologists and anthropologists from the University of Louisiana believe that we’ll eventually discover habitation elements stretching all the way back into the Archaic Period (12-13,000 B.C.E.).