Louisiana State Arboretum is a 600-acre protected garden and forest within Chicot State Park in central Louisiana, near Ville Platte and Lake Chicot. Established in 1961 after a 1950s campaign led by Caroline Dormon, A. G. Lawton, and J. D. Lafleur Sr. with support from local civic groups, it became the oldest state-supported arboretum in the United States. Its mature Beech-Magnolia forest preserves more than 150 native Louisiana plant species and represents nearly all of the state’s vegetation types except prairie and coastal marsh. It also provides habitat for deer, fox, raccoon, wild turkey, and many other wildlife species.