SHREVEPORT, La. – The space that once echoed with the screams of children plunging down a wooden log flume is now filled with the sound of Sunday morning worship.
What began as a simple family dairy farm evolved into a local phenomenon when its founder, Mr. Hamel, noticed a trend among visiting schoolchildren. The children on field trips were far less interested in the mechanics of how milk was processed than they were in the farm’s animals.
In response, Hamel transformed the property into a whimsical roadside attraction, famously importing an elephant named Lady Lima from Thailand. The elephant became a fixture of the Hamel household, occasionally walking around the yard with her owner, lounging with him in the grass, and once famously using her trunk to unlatch a doorknob and wander directly into the family home…