The gate off Cotten Road still runs on one dollar per car, paid by hand, the way it has for years. That price hasn't kept pace with what's behind it. Somewhere between the tennis courts and the ninth green, most people who live in Patterson have decided which single thing Kemper Williams Park is for them, golf, the museum, a camping weekend, a place to walk a dog after work, and then stopped noticing the rest of it. The park doesn't work that way. It was never built as four separate amenities that happen to share a parking lot. It was one piece of land, given away once, and everything on it still answers to that single gift.
The Plantation Under the Ninth Hole
General and Mrs. Kemper Williams left the old Idlewild Plantation in trust, and in 1979 the Kemper and Leila Williams Foundation donated the property to St. Mary Parish for use and enjoyment by the public. That single transfer is why the golf course carries the plantation's name in its own title, The Atchafalaya at Idlewild, rather than something invented for marketing. It's why the clubhouse is built low and raised on piers in an Acadian style instead of looking like it was shipped in from a suburban muni course. And it's why a state aviation museum, a sawmill museum, a full campground, and a championship golf course all sit inside one gate instead of being scattered across three different addresses the way they would be in a town where each got built separately by whoever needed the land that year.
The park itself covers 292 acres, developed with grants and financial assistance from the parish, state, and federal governments along with private donations, and it's managed today by a local advisory committee rather than a state agency. That distinction matters for anyone deciding when to go. This isn't a park with a distant bureaucracy setting hours from an office in Baton Rouge. It's run by people who live in St. Mary Parish, which is part of why the gate fee has stayed at a dollar while everything around it kept growing.
Four Things Under One Gate
Most first-time visitors treat Kemper Williams Park as a single-purpose stop. Longtime residents tend to know it's really four.
- The golf course. The Atchafalaya at Idlewild runs 7,533 yards with five lakes and ten native wetland areas across a 175-acre layout, designed by Robert von Hagge, whose other credits include Doral and TPC at The Woodlands. Recent player feedback through the spring of 2026 has focused on green conditions, several regulars noted the greens were rough in early spring but improving with each round played since. That's the kind of detail that only shows up if you're actually playing the course this season, not reading a five-year-old brochure.
- The clubhouse restaurant. Locals don't call it by its formal name. One longtime visitor summed up the local shorthand simply: "locals call it 'the clubhouse.'" The building is cypress construction with a wall of windows over the course and a wraparound porch, and the Catfish Atchafalaya, rice under etouffee, topped with catfish fried or grilled, shows up on nearly every recommendation from people who've eaten there more than once.
- The Wedell-Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum. A branch of the Louisiana State Museum system, it sits inside the park grounds and covers the two industries that actually built Patterson: the aviation careers of Jimmie Wedell and Harry Williams, and the cypress lumber trade that gave the town its start.
- Camping, tennis, and the nature trail. The campground includes both wooded and open sites, tennis courts, horseshoe pits, a playground, and a walking trail through live oaks and pine, with wetlands and water features along the edges that make it a listed birding location in its own right.
None of these four is a secondary feature of the others. A golfer who never walks past the clubhouse to the museum, or a camper who never plays a round, is only using a quarter of what the 1979 gift actually paid for.
Where the Loop Extends Past the Gate
For residents who want to turn a park visit into a longer Saturday, Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge sits a short drive west, spread across seven non-contiguous units between Patterson, Franklin, Garden City, and Centerville. Established in 2001, the refuge sits along Bayou Teche, an ancient channel of the Mississippi River, consisting mostly of swamp behind the natural levees between Franklin, Centerville, and Garden City. Its main job is protecting habitat for the Louisiana black bear, but the trails themselves are open to anyone who wants a walk that isn't a golf course.
The trick is knowing which trail matches the day you actually have, because the refuge's hiking rules aren't uniform across the property:
| Trail | Length | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Franklin Trail (Franklin Unit) | About 1.5 miles one way along the Franklin Canal | Open all year, including hunting season |
| Garden City Interpretive Boardwalk | Roughly 300 feet into a cypress-tupelo swamp | Open all year |
| Garden City Levee Trail (past the boardwalk) | About 3 miles one way atop the levee | Open February 1 through September 30 only |
Right now, in August, every trail on that list is open. That window closes for most of them once hunting season starts in the fall, which is worth knowing before you plan a November walk around a trail that's only accessible half the year. The Franklin Trail is an easy walk that's mostly high and dry, and waterbirds, alligators, and other reptiles and amphibians live in abundance along the canal, swamps, and marshes it follows. The Garden City boardwalk is the shortest option and the one place on this whole loop where a stroller or a pair of dress shoes won't be a problem.
Timing a Visit Around the Rest of the Year
Kemper Williams Park's Christmas light displays draw families from well outside St. Mary Parish every December, which is worth flagging even in August if you're the kind of person who plans a year of weekends in advance. Outside the holidays, the park gate runs 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., admission is still the same dollar per car it's been for years, and the golf course and clubhouse keep their own separate hours built around tee times rather than gate hours.
None of this requires a membership, a reservation months out, or a drive to another parish. It's one gate off Highway 90, a golf course with a plantation's name still attached to it, a state museum built into the same grounds, a campground and a set of tennis courts, and a wildlife refuge close enough to add on without changing your afternoon plans. The dollar at the gate hasn't changed. Almost everything on the other side of it has.
If you're already living the Patterson version of a Saturday and thinking ahead to what comes next, whether that's more space, a different part of St. Mary Parish, or just understanding what a property near a place like this is actually worth, Lori Broussard has spent her career working this exact stretch of the Cajun Coast. Schedule a free consultation whenever that conversation makes sense for you.
