FONTAINEBLEAU STATE PARK, La – He’s a Boy Scout.
On the Louisiana North Shore.
He’s sixteen years old.
He says, “whenever i look at this marker, i think i’m at peace because these people are finally at rest.”
He’s making his mark with the marker he talks about.
That’s according to WGNO News with a Twist fun guy Wild Bill Wood who says the Boy Scout is now one of Wild Bill’s Amazing Kids brought to you by your friends at The Keating Law Firm.
This Boy Scout has a big question.
So he heads straight to the source.
That’s the courthouse in Covington, Louisiana.
The Boy Scout is Jack Cantrell. And he’s headed to the courthouse because it’s the location for the St. Tammany Parish archives.
The Boy Scout wants to search for himself.
Jack Cantrell wants to research and read and know these names belong to real people.
Jack Cantrell says, “the first thing you’re given when you’re born is your name and it gives you a sense of freedom really.”
Wild Bill says, “even though these people had no freedom.”
The names belong to 153 people.
The were 153 names of slaves.
They lived and worked on a Louisiana sugar plantation back in the early 1800’s.
It’s the same location as what is now Fontainebleau State Park.
Jack Cantrell notices, “this is all that’s left of the old sugar mill.”
It’s part of the building that’s still standing 200 years later and it’s a story Jack Cantrell believes needs to be told.
He says, “history is treasure in and of itself and if we don’t learn from what happened, we’ll never know how to improve our future.”
Jack Cantrell collected a milk crate full of history.
It’s his research.
And it’s this Boy Scout’s service project to become an Eagle Scout, the highest honor.
Working weekends to finally make his mark.
With an actual marker at Fontainebleau State Park.
It’s a metal memorial to the people who had no choice about being here.
Jack Cantrell says, “I don’t want people to think this is all about me, it’s about those who have come before us and what we can learn from what happened here.”
The teenager who knows history by name, just added his own.