Chauvin Sculpture Garden

The story

In 1990, a former bricklayer named Kenny Hill set up on a plot along Bayou Petit Caillou and started pouring concrete. For ten years, working completely alone without blueprints or public fanfare, he populated the bank with roughly 100 life-sized statues: towering angels, cowboys, maidens, and numerous self-portraits bearing his own face. At the center of the yard, he laid brick for a 45-foot lighthouse, plastering its outer walls with sculpted figures of men clinging to the sides as if escaping rising waters.

The property became an intense, unfiltered document of Hill's private spiritual vision—a crowded tapestry of faith, fear, and apocalyptic symbolism. Then, in 2000, Hill simply walked away from the site and never returned. Recognizing the rare scale of the environment, the Kohler Foundation stepped in to preserve the concrete works, eventually transferring the site to Nicholls State University to keep it preserved and open to anyone willing to make the drive. Even after suffering severe storm damage from Hurricane Ida, ongoing restoration efforts—including painted repairs and rebuilt wooden elements—have kept Hill's bayou sanctuary standing.