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Bayou Lafourche, originally called Chetimachas River[1] or La Fourche des Chetimaches,[2] (the fork of the Chitimacha), is a 106-mile-long (171 km)[3] bayou in southeastern Louisiana, United States, that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The bayou is flanked by Louisiana Highway 1 on the west and Louisiana Highway 308 on the east, and is known as "the longest Main Street in the world."[4] It flows through parts of Ascension, Assumption, and Lafourche parishes. Today, approximately 300,000 Louisiana residents drink water drawn from the bayou.[5]

Bayou Lafourche
The intersection of Bayou Lafourche and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at Larose, Louisiana. View is to the east-southeast. The bayou runs off towards the Gulf at the top. The waterway crosses the picture left–right. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has installed a floodgate on the bayou, visible at center.
Location
CountryUnited States
StateLouisiana

History


The name Lafourche is from the French for "the fork",[6] and alludes to the bayou's large outflow of Mississippi River water. The first settlements of Acadians in southern Louisiana were near Bayou Lafourche and Bayou des Écores, which led to a close association of the bayou with Cajun culture.

It was formerly a Mississippi River outlet (distributary), but was dammed at Donaldsonville in 1905.[7] The dam cut off nourishment and replenishment of a huge wetland area of central Louisiana. It changed the formerly flowing bayou into a stagnant ditch.[8]

The Bollinger Shipyards, founded by Donald G. Bollinger, was launched on Bayou Lafourche in 1946.

On August 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall in Lafourche parish. Dam walls at the end of the bayou were closed to prevent a storm surge of salt water from entering.[9]


Mississippi River reintroduction


Riverboat on Bayou Lafourche.
Riverboat on Bayou Lafourche.

A long-term project to revitalize Bayou Lafourche with an increased flow of fresh water from the Mississippi River and halt the accelerated loss of land down the bayou is currently in progress.[10][11]

In 2016, Bayou Lafourche was dredged from Donaldsonville to Napoleonville of vegetation and sediment that constricted the surface area of the water. In Lockport, a water gate was constructed on Bayou Lafourche to mitigate the amount of salt water invading the bayou during periods of low tide. In 2021, a weir was removed in Thibodaux, allowing recreational boating passage through the entire bayou.

By 2025, a $96 million[12] pumping station is set to be completed in Donaldsonville, next to the original that was constructed in 1950. The new station will be able to pump three times the amount of fresh water from the Mississippi River than the original and, in turn, return the flow of water throughout the bayou during low tides.[13]


Crossings


From north to south, the following roads and railroads cross the bayou (almost all connecting LA 1 to LA 308):



The film Southern Comfort is set on Bayou Lafourche.

At the end of the novel Post Office by Charles Bukowski, protagonist Henry Chinaski quits his job at the Los Angeles post office to "pick up 10 or 20 grand for 3 months trapping at Bayou La Fourche. [...] Muskrats, nutria, mink, otter... coon. All I need is a pirogue."[14]

In The CW Network's supernatural-fantasy series, The Originals, the Bayou Lafourche is a major setting and has acted as the home of the Werewolf encampments for decades after the Vampires exiled them from the city of New Orleans.

In the film Hard Target, the lead character Chance Boudreaux, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Cajun from Bayou Lafourche in Southern Louisiana.


See also



References


  1. "Course Of The River Mississipi, from the Balise to Fort Chartres. Ross, Lieut. 1775" rumsey.geogarage.com
  2. Christopher G. Peña (2004). Scarred by War: Civil War in Southeast Louisiana. AuthorHouse. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-1-4184-5544-6.
  3. U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed June 20, 2011
  4. Carl A. Brasseaux (2011). Acadiana: Louisiana's Historic Cajun Country. Louisiana State University Press. pp. 105–. ISBN 978-0-8071-3723-9.
  5. "Bayou Lafourche Fresh Water District". Retrieved 2014-07-18. Serving the citizens of Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes for over 50 years
  6. Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Government Printing Office. pp. 179.
  7. Martin Reuss (2 June 2004). Designing the Bayous: The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya Basin, 1800-1995. Texas A&M University Press. pp. 90–. ISBN 978-1-60344-632-7.
  8. Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. "Bayou Lafourche Historical Marker".
  9. "Hurricane Ida Makes Landfall as an 'Extremely Dangerous Major' Storm". The New York Times. August 30, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
  10. "Mississippi River Reintroduction Into Bayou Lafourche (Deauthorized) (BA-25b)". Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act Program. Retrieved 2014-07-18.
  11. W.J. Mitsch (23 December 2005). Wetland Creation, Restoration, and Conservation: The State of Science. Newnes. pp. 256–. ISBN 978-0-08-093126-5.
  12. AP staff. (23 October 2022). "Work Begins on New Pump Station on Bayou Lafourche". US New & World Report website Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  13. Baurick, Tristian (November 8, 2021). "The restoration of Bayou Lafourche marks two milestones: a new pump and a busted dam". NOLA.com.
  14. Bukowski, Charles (2009). Post Office. London: Virgin Books. p. 155. ISBN 9780753518168. OCLC 767984111.



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