Timeline

Origin and history

The workshop-museum of Argelouse, now managed by the Regional Natural Park of the Landes de Gascogne, is located in an old plant for the distillation of resinous products. Founded in 1859, this pre-industrial site illustrates the golden age of gemage, a major economic activity of the region for nearly a century. The buildings retain stills, colophan and turpentine barrels, as well as resiner tools, offering a material testimony of this industry that is now gone.

The decline of the workshop began in the mid-20th century, faced with foreign competition and the emergence of synthetic products. Its closure in 1954 marked the end of an era in which the Landes forest, nicknamed "the golden tree", structured the local economy. Ranked as the last known example of a pre-industrial site in the Landes de Gascogne, it now houses ethnological and technical collections attached to the Great Land.

The museum highlights an unknown industrial heritage, through elements such as cooperage or gemage tools. Its label "Musée de France" and its integration into a regional nature park underline its importance for the preservation of collective memory. The location at Luxey (code Insee 40008), near Mont-de-Marsan, makes it a key place to understand the socio-economic history of New Aquitaine.

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