Winding through Time: The Forgotten History and Present-Day Peril of Bayou Manchac

Contents

vii Contents Introduction   What Is Manchac? 5 2 Exploring the Bayou  3 Community Development, Then and Now 5 4 Iberville Discovers the Bayou 23 5 The Bayou Has a Split Personality 29 6 Colonial Development Begins with the French 35 7 An International Boundary 39 8 The British Settle the Manchac . . . 4 The Back Route and Fort Bute British Development—and a Canal? John Fitzpatrick, Merchant of Manchac Bartram’s Expedition Years of the American Revolution and Its Aftermath 9 And the Spanish Settle the Manchac 55 San Gabriel, the First Spanish Settlement viii Galveztown The Voyage of the Nonpareil 0 What the Louisiana Purchase Meant 7  When Andrew Jackson Dammed the Bayou 77 Is a Back Route Possible? The Attempted Voyage of Nathaniel Bishop The Dream Lives On 2 The Bayou in the Nineteenth Century 93 Along the Bayou The Civil War 3 The Biggest Little Village on the Bayou 03 4 When the Woodmen Came 3 5 Prehistory Redux 2 6 A Quiet Stream and Modern Development 23 7 Spirit of Place 27 8 Contemporary Struggles . . . and Possibilities 3 9 Where Are the Rose-Colored Glasses? 45 NOTES 49 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 57 Contents ix Maps Bayou Manchac and vicinity 2 Contemporary Bayou Manchac 5 Three segments of Bayou Manchac 3 Isle of Orleans 32 An international boundary 39 Detail from Elias Durnford’s 77 map 46 Detail of George Gauld’s 779 map of West Florida 6 Detail of Juan Perchet’s 779 map of Galveztown 64 St. Maxent’s Galveztown property, 804 66 Detail of Lieutenant J. K. Hezlep’s 868 map 84 Bayou Manchac in the nineteenth century 94 Nineteenth-century trails near Bayou Manchac 97 Spanish Lake basin 7 Drainage into Bayou Manchac and the basin 34 This page intentionally left blank xi Illustrations following p. 34 Bayou Manchac today Diagram of the Kleinpeter archaeological site Mound D of the Kleinpeter site Pierre Le Moyen, Sieur d’Iberville Glenn Cambre and“the leaning oak” near the site of Galveztown David Broussard’s sketch of the original St. Gabriel Catholic Church St. Gabriel Catholic Church today Manchac Plantation ca. 85, by Marie Adrien Persac Woodstock Plantation Dry segment of the bayou The steamer Alice Receipt from the Alice, 882 Baptism in Bayou Manchac at Hope Villa bridge xii Hand-drawn ferry on Bayou Manchac at Hope Villa Old Hickory Lodge at Hope Villa Old-growth cypress tree, late nineteenth century Caillouets’ house during Tropical Storm Allison Winding through time Illustrations WINDING THROUGH TIME  ...