St. John’s Port at Bayou St. John
Research by Emily Antoine and Erin Leiva :

Centuries ago, when Native Americans first
entered Southern Louisiana, they saw vast
marshes and swamps. While looking for
places to settle, they found a body of water
which they named Bayouk Choupic after the
mudfish. They started building their villages
there. On Bayouk Choupic palmetto leaves
and tree branches were use to build houses.
Others built their homes on top of mounds
or hills of dirt and clamshells.

The natives used the bayou for transportation
and food. Using the bayou, along with a path
now called Bayou Road, they were able to
travel to the Mississippi River. A trading
community developed on the convergence of
Bayouk Choupic and Bayou Road.

One such tribe was the Tangipahoa, which
means Corn Gatherers or Corn Cob People.
They are thought to be a part of the Acolapissa
from Pearl River. They moved closer to Lake
Pontchartrain and stopped on the north and
south shores. One day, the Houma, from the
Choctaw Tribe, and their allies entered a
Tangipahoa village and destroyed it. After
returning to Pearl River, they moved to
another river. That river now bears their
name. It is called the Tangipahoa River.

Some Acolapissa lived here. The Houma and
the Bayougoula lived on Bayou St. John also.
All three are related, says Grayhawk of the
Cannes Brulee Native American Center.
He also tells us that the Houma see the
crawfish as a sign of bravery.

Later, the French came looking to control
the Mighty Mississippi. They wanted control
over trade to their Canadian colonies. What
they needed was a shorter route to the river
from the gulf. That is when French explorers
met natives from Biloxi. They showed the
French their route to the bayou. They
traveled from Biloxi, on the Gulf of Mexico,
to Lake Borgne. Then into Lake Catherine
and into Rigolets Pass.

From there they went into Lake Pontchartrain
to Bayouk Choupic and stopped at the bend.
They walked down Bayou Road to the
Mississippi. The French decided to build a city
there. They built the city of New Orleans on
the crescent of the river - their New Orleans,
the part of the city we call the French Quarter.

The city was surrounded by a wall, which is
now Rampart, St. Peter, Esplanade, and
Canal Streets. They renamed Bayouk Choupic,
calling it Bayou St. Jean, and used it for
importing and exporting goods with New
Orleans as their port city.

Other people, including the Spanish,
wanted New Orleans because they wanted
to control trade. To protect the city, the
French built a fort at the mouth of the bayou
called Fort St. Jean. When the Spanish
owned Louisiana, they called the fort
Spanish Fort.

Source:
http://www.geology.uno.edu/~gfrierso/history.htm

Bayou St. John is a small, sluggish channel
that was once a major shipping route between
Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
Because of the river’s constant geographical
evolution, the stream is no longer directly
connected to the river, the lake or any of the
other bayous. But when the French arrived in
the area, they used it as a trade route for
trappers and merchants.

The French established a landing at the
headwaters of the bayou and named it
Port St. John when the City of New Orleans
was established at the beginning of the 18th
century. In 1701, the French constructed a
fortress near the mouth of the Bayou.

Under Spanish rule in 1779, the fort was
rebuilt and became known as Spanish Fort.
Remnants of the structure still exist. Local
folklore says that the voodoo queen, Marie
Laveau, performed voodoo at the mouth of
Bayou St. John on Lake Pontchartrain.

Bayou St. John was fundamental to the
early life of New Orleans. In 1803 a canal
was dredged from the Bayou toward the
City’s heart. It was a commercially valuable
route until 1838, when Americans built a
new canal from Lake Pontchartrain into the
city. Bayou St. John has not been navigable
for boats larger than canoes and skiffs for
the better part of this century, because of
construction of bridges and changes in
commerce.

Source:
http://tinyurl.com/yk2vz2z

As early as 1703 (15 years before the
founding of New Orleans), the Bayou
was used as a shipping channel for
French trappers and traders who lived
on the Bayou.

Prior to the arrival of the French, a
Choctaw Indian village of the Houmas
tribe existed at the headwaters of the
Bayou. They had probably already relocated
to what is now called Houma, Louisiana
by the time the French arrived.

The French established a landing at the
headwaters and named it Port St. John
when the City of New Orleans was established.
A route to the new City on the river was cleared
and named Grand Route St. John. A street bearing
this name still exists to memorialize this route.

In 1701, the French constructed a fortress near
the mouth of the Bayou. Under Spanish rule in
1779, the fort was rebuilt and became known
as Spanish Fort. Remnants of the structure still
exist. Local folklore says that the voodoo queen,
Marie Laveau, performed voodoo at the mouth of
Bayou St. John on Lake Pontchartrain.

Bayou St. John was fundamental to the early life
of New Orleans. In 1803 a canal was dredged
from the Bayou toward the City’s heart. This
new canal terminated at current day Basin Street
named for the ship turning basin at the terminus
of the canal. This canal was originally called the
Carondelet Canal in honor of the Spanish governor
of that name.

In 1838, a new canal under American control
was dredged from Lake Pontchartrain into the City.
The new canal was known as the New Basin Canal.
The Carondelet Canal became known as the Old
Basin Canal and remained primarily under the
control of the Creoles.

Bayou St. John and the Old Basin Canal became
commercially less important. The Bayou has not
been navigable for the better part of this century.

Construction of vehicular bridges and changes in
commerce during this century have rendered the
Bayou unsuitable for water traffic except for very
small canoes and skiffs.

Source: http://wbhjr.home.gs.net/page4.html

The high ground along Bayou St. John offered
some of the earliest settlement opportunities
in the city. In 1708 European arrivals settled
along the Bayou. As a major route from Lake
Pontchartrain, the Bayou became even more
important with completion of the Carondelet
Canal in 1795. The Old Spanish Custom House,
built in 1784, at the corner of Moss and Grand
Route St. John, is the oldest structure still
standing in the neighborhood.

For many, Bayou St. John offered the possibility
of living in houseboats. However, with the ‘ragtag’
nature of the houseboats, the decline of the corridor
as a critical part of the trade route, and the Bayou’s
increased use as a holding basin for city drainage,
the area experienced a general deterioration in its
condition. By 1936 it was declared a non-navigable
stream. Today the Bayou is a pleasing green space
connecting residential areas surrounding City Park
both to one another and to the park.

Source: http://www.new-orleans.la.us/cnoweb/cpc/1999_dist_four.htm

An Act for Laying And Collecting Duties or Imports
and Tonnage within the Territories Ceded to the
United States, by the Treaty of the Thirtieth of April,
One Thousand Eight Hundred and Three, Between
the United States and the French Republic, and for
Other Purposes:

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, to the end
that the laws providing for the collection of the
duties imposed, by law, on goods, wares and
merchandise, imported into the United States,
and on the tonnage of ships and vessels, and
the laws respecting the revenue and navigation
of the United States, may be carried into effect
within the said territories, the territories ceded
to the United States by the treaty above mentioned,
and also all the navigable waters, rivers, creeks,
bays, and inlets, lying within the United States,
which empty into the Gulf of Mexico, east of the
river Mississippi, shall be annexed to the Mississippi
district, and shall, together with the same, constitute
one district, to be called the ‘District of Mississippi.’

The city of New Orleans shall be the sole port of entry
in the said district, and the town of Bayou St. John
shall be a port of delivery, a collector, naval officer,
and surveyor shall be appointed to reside at New
Orleans, and a surveyor shall e be appointed to
reside at the port of Bayou St. John; and the
President of the United States is hereby authorized
to appoint, not exceeding three surveyors, to reside
at such other places, within the said district, as he
shall deem expedient, and to constitute each, or
either of such places ports of delivery only.

And so much of any law or laws, as establishes a
district on the river Mississippi, south of the river
Tennessee, is hereby repealed, except as to the
recovery and receipt of such of duties on goods,
wares and merchandise, and on the tonnage of
ships or vessels, as shall have accrued, and as
to the recovery and distribution of fines, penalties,
and forfeitures, which shall have been incurred
before the commencement of the operation of this act.

Source: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/statutes/1803-01.htm

By the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803,
Chiconcte (Madisonville) and Barrio of Buck Falia
(Covington) had begun to develop as trade and
transportation centers.

The Port of Bayou St. John in New Orleans
began trade excursions across Pontchartrain
to the settlements, and vessels began to be
built on the Northshore. So began an industry
in Madisonville which continues today.
Source: http://www.crt.state.la.us/folklife/book_florida_northshore.html

Recent History as of 2009

Over twenty-five years ago, it took a lawsuit, public outrage and legislation to force the Orleans Levee Board and the Corps of Engineers to construct the existing sector gate at the mouth of the bayou instead of a levee that would have created a lagoon.

This gate, completed in 1992 with over $11 million of taxpayer funds under a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries permit, includes binding conditions that the gate remain open except for storm events and removal of the “waterfall dam” at Robert E. Lee Blvd., an obsolete flood protection structure that impedes the entry of water from Lake Pontchartrain. Both conditions have been ignored. The state’s Scenic Rivers Coordinator has indicated that these permit conditions are still binding and enforceable.

Recently, our new levee authority, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East has issued a resolution of support for our objectives.

The Corps of Engineers intends to dewater and inspect the sector gate but stop short of a full mechanical inspection, leaving that task to the local levee authority.

The gate was designed with a system to prevent corrosion that requires regular maintenence, a critical function that also appears to have been ignored. The engineering firm that designed the gate has recommended a complete inspection and dewatering of the structure before proceeding with any modifications. This inspection must be accomplished, if solely for flood protection reasons alone.

The Alliance intends to push for an independent and transparent overview of the sector gate inspection process.

The SLFPAE wants to secure expensive hydrology and perimeter elevation surveys before opening either sector or sluice gates that would allow lake water to enter the bayou. The Alliance is exploring the possibility that conversion of drains into weirs will permit concurrent drainage and allow one or more sluice gates (tubes within the sector gate structure) to remain open most of the time. This interim step should require a less expensive and smaller scope of study than that to consider opening the larger sector gate. Scientists tell us that a free flow of lake water though the bayou is preferable to the current situation.

Again, flood protection is our first priority.

Who is responsible?

Orleans Levee District - no longer enjoys revenues from casinos, marinas and airports. Responsible for operation of the sector gate. Now takes direction and receives funding from our new levee authority, SLFPAE.

The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East - our new levee authority. Lacks funding and takes direction from CPRA. Issued a resolution supporting the Alliance and our objectives.

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority - provides direction to SLFPAE and can provide funding to SLFPAE beyond dedicated tax millages. Members are appointed by the Governor.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - responsible for flood protection including the lakefront and the sector gate at Bayou St. John. Denies responsibility to restore the gate to good operating condition.

New Orleans City Park - “owns” the bed, banks and waters of Bayou St. John between the mouth and City Park Ave. according to 1934 legislation and various legal opinions. Ownership south of that point is unclear. Dependent on the bayou for maintenance of water levels in their lagoons.

The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans - responsible for drainage of the bayou . Opens the Lafitte St. and/or Florida Ave. drains at the request of the Orleans Levee District.

Pictures taken December 15, 2009 after record rainfall.

Click here to monitor information produced by the water monitoring device in Bayou St. John.

To navigate the site, left-mouse click on the small box with an “+” in it to open the stations groups. Click the box next to the station group to see the individual stations. When you see the Stations such as “Lafitte Street” click the name to see the parameters. For water level, select depth. You can modify the graph by entering the dates you would like to displayed.

The data backs up your observation of another slight rise in water level this morning. Attached is a graph of the 12/10/09 through 12/15/09 data set. As you can see, the level started dropping when the drain valve @ Lafitte Street was opened yesterday morning, but the level rose approximately 0.5 feet from about 10 oclock last night until roughly noon. The New Orleans S&WB and Orleans Levee Board crews were on the bayou this morning sand bagging the Lafitte street and opening the remaining valves @ Orleans Ave. and Moss St. and the one near the LSU Dental School.

Click on the map above to access a PDF file where you can zoom in on the various neighborhoods.

A wide, unimproved stretch of Bayou St. John. During the 1930s, WPA workers cleaned and dredged the bayou, cleared the silted channel at the Lake, and began a program of beautification. This wild stretch of the waterway reminds us of what the bayou may have been like when Bienville first made his way up the old “portage” in 1718 to establish a settlement in the crescent of the Mississippi River. [Louisiana Photograph Collection. WPA Collection]

By the mid-1950s, Bayou St. John again needed sprucing up. This unusual shot of a waterless waterway shows the bayou in July of 1955. That summer the Sewerage and Water Board drained the bayou to clean out trash and aquatic growth that were causing, literally, a big stink. [Louisiana Photograph Collection. Municipal Government Collection; Sewerage and Water Board Series]

Origins_of_Bayou_St_John.pdf
Click above to read the 1982 Louisiana Landmarks meeting about the origins of Bayou St. John and more…

Audrey Evans offers these comments about the article below:
Ray J. Boudreaux (1218 Moss St.) is the author of the history of Bayou St. John that was presented to the La. Landmarks Society as cited in Charlie London’s recent post. Ray worked closely with the late Ben Erlanger, who found the map setting the record straight as to the true location of the Indian Portage. An iron sign was approved by the State and then privately erected. Then Ray physically had to lift the heavy sign out of the Bayou after a neighbor knocked it in, angry that the Portage was no longer understood to be at Grand Route St. John.
Audrey Evans

BAYOU ST. JOHN Geological Origin

180 million years ago a shifting earth’s crust created a split, and gradual subsidencecreated the Mississippi River basin. About 80 million years ago the Gulf of Mexicoreached Illinois.About 50 million years ago, glaciers began to form, seas subsided, and about 10,000years B.C. the Gulf had receded below New Orleans.

Shortly after that the last ice age ended, glaciers began to melt and the seas began to rise again. About 4,000 B.C. the shoreline stabilized along the Gulf much as it is today except for Louisiana. Its shoreline is believed to have been at about the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain today.

The Mississippi River continued to build deltas in the area, creating an enbayment about2,000 years ago that we now know as Lake Pontchartrain. The lower Mississippi has changed its course several times and continues to try to do so. Until man built levees it overflowed its banks annually, and this water seeking the Gulf routed out bayou tributaries.

This process is believed to have created Bayous Métairie and Gentilly - a continuous stream from the Mississippi River at Kenner to Lake Pontchartrain. Bayou St.John is believed to be a tributary of that stream created about 400 - 600 years ago.

Earliest Recorded Exploration and Settlement

Spanish explorers discovered the mouth of the Mississippi in 1513 and Luis de Moscoso traveled down the Mississippi in 1543. De la Salle descended the Mississippi to its mouth in April 1682.Iberville and Bienville explored the lower Mississippi in February 1699. During this trip they were shown the river terminus of a portage that led to Bayou Chupic (St. John).

In May 1699, Bienville found the mouth of the bayou. He did not enter but explored the entire shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Iberville returned to France in May 1699 but left 80 men with Bienville at Biloxi. Between May and December 1699 Bienville explored the length of the bayou and named it Bayou St. Jean. He found a mound of high ground on the right as he entered, which later became the site of Fort St. Jean. Bienville found abandoned Indian huts at what is now the site of Kennedy High School. He found the mouth of a small bayou on the east bank at the location of today’s Park Island. He named it Bayou Bienville.

He found more abandoned huts, formerly occupied by Acolapissa Indians, at a sharp bend at the intersection with another bayou of equal width (Bayou Chapitoulas - Métairie), present location of intersection of City Park and Carrollton Avenues. Bienville followed an Indian trail along the west bank from this Indian village around another sharp bend inthe bayou to a log bridge that connected to the portage to the river, located at present BellStreet (Bayou Road).

A short distance north of the portage he found another bayou on the east bank near today’s Grand Route St. John. It was called Bayou Sauvage, later Bayou Gentilly. Iberville on his return from France in December, 1699 inspected Bayou St. Jean and its immediate vicinity.

The first fort was built at the mouth of the bayou in 1701. By 1722 it was recorded to have six guns. The importance of Bayou St. John to the early settlers was that it shortened the distance between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico by 75 miles. Sailing ships required as much as 30 days to travel up the Mississippi to New Orleans. Tacking was treacherous in the narrow channel, and often a ship had to wait for a change in wind direction.

The Biloxi garrison was short of food. The soil there was not suited for agriculture, and the ships from France were few. France was having problems at home at that time. Six colonists were persuaded to settle on the banks of Bayou St. John in 1708 on acreage granted by the Colonial Government at Mobile. These concessions had 2 1/2 to 3-arpent bayou frontage by 40 arpents deep. 1 arpent =191.835 feet.

These settlers were: Antoine Rivard de la Vigne, Nicholas Delon, Baptiste Portier, Louis Juchereau de St. Denis. Two not recorded

St. Denis blazed the Old Spanish Trail to San Antonio. Failing to develop trade with the Spanish in Mexico, he founded Natchitoches in 1714.

Some other settlers on Bayou St. John: Antoine Le Page DuPratz -1718 - author of the first History of Louisiana published in1758. He wrote of plantation life along both shores of Bayou St. John and Bayou Gentilly. Francois Hery -1741 - was Councilor Assessor to the Superior Council in 1748, and was active in the 1768 revolution. Alexander Milne -1776 - was in the hardware and brick business, and purchased large tracts on both sides of the bayou. Probably the first millionaire in the area. Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent -1722 - owned property on west bank in present City Park and played a prominent role in the American Revolution. Don Andres Almonester y Roxas -1781 - purchased land on east bank between presentday Bell Street a d Orleans Avenue.

Between December 15,1720 and December 31,1721, 330 German settlers arrived at Fort St. Jean and traveled Bayou Road to the Mississippi River, then to what is now the city of Des Allemands.

In 1721, the Company of the Indies which administered the colony of Louisiana named New Orleans as capital of the Louisiana Territory, a territory far more extensive than present Louisiana.

Suggestions for the location of New Orleans were: Mouth of Bayou St. John, English Turn on the Mississippi, Bayou Manchac between the River and Lake Maurepas, Natchez.

A 1730 map shows a brick plant on the north side of Bayou Road (Portage) at Bayou St.John and 18 cabins across the road for workmen; the earliest recorded industry. In 1731, the Company of the Indies gave up its charter and returned administration of the colony to France.

The major agricultural products produced along the bayou - corn, indigo, some sugar cane (brown sugar and rum), myrtle wax, timber.

As incentive to remain in the colony, soldiers with honorable discharges were given first choice of wives from girls sent from France, a tract of land, a cow, a gun, 5 hens, an ax, hoe and rations for 3 years.

Grand Route St. John was constructed in 1810 when a new bridge was built at that location across the bayou 200 yards north of the old bridge built in 1750 at the site of Bayou Road (old portage).

Bayou St. John was the major port of New Orleans until the 1820’s when steam engines became popular for maritime use. Its reach was extended to Rampart Street by a canal authorized by Governor Carondelet in 1796. This canal was filled in 1927.

The Bayou remained a traffic artery until the early 1930’s. Congress declared it non-navigable in1936. Land along the Bayou has evolved into a tranquil and scenic area for residential andrecreational use in the heart of our city, yet retains a feeling of remoteness from frenetic urban activity. This area has the largest collection of early plantation houses that are not copies or adaptations of historic European styles.

The French and Spanish colonials developed an indigenous plantation house, characteristic of the Caribbean-Gulf region. Their design is a direct expression of a sensitivity to the natural setting - a graceful response to Nature’s gifts and threats.

The Bayou St. John area and the Vieux Carre are the most unique settlements in our City and perhaps the Country.

Raymond J. Boudreaux
10/4/82 Meeting
Louisiana Landmarks Society

1828 Plan of New Orleans and Environs