Bayou des Cannes (pronounced "DAI KAIN", translated to ''"bayou of the reeds"'' or ''"bayou of the stalks"'' ) is a waterway in the

Mermentau River The Mermentau River (french: Rivière Mermentau) is a river in southern Louisiana in the United States. It enters the Gulf of Mexico between Calcasieu Lake and Vermilion Bay on the Chenier Coastal Plain. The Mermentau River supplies freshwater ...

basin of southern

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. The bayou is longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed June 20, 2011 and is navigable near the shallow-draft port at the mouth. Mermentaurivermap

One of the first settlers of the area was Fabien and Louis Richard. The scenery of the area contained slow moving water, draped with moss-covered cypress trees and

tupelo Tupelo , genus ''Nyssa'' , is a small genus of deciduous trees with alternate, simple leaves. It is sometimes included in the subfamily Nyssoideae of the dogwood family, Cornaceae, but is placed by other authorities in the family Nyssaceae. In ...

. The banks were veritable cascades of

cypress knee A cypress knee is a distinctive structure forming above the roots of a cypress tree of any of various species of the subfamily Taxodioideae, such as the bald cypress. Their function is unknown, but they are generally seen on trees growing in s ...

s. It was only navigable by

pirogue A pirogue ( or ), also called a piragua or piraga, is any of various small boats, particularly dugouts and native canoes. The word is French and is derived from Spanish , which comes from the Carib '. Description The term 'pirogue' does n ...

or canoe. During the 18th century, few

Acadians The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the de ...

settled the rougher northwestern prairies. Four families (29 people) made their home between Bayou Des Cannes and Bayou Blaize LeJeune. This was the farthest west that Acadians would settle until in 1803, seven

Opelousas :''Opelousas is also a common name of the flathead catfish.'' Opelousas (french: Les Opélousas; Spanish: ''Los Opeluzás'') is a small city and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190 were ...

Acadian families moved to Bayou Mallet, Bayou Jonas,

Bayou Nezpique Nezpique River (locally pronounced , translated to ''"tattooed nose bayou"'') is a small river located in the Mermentau River basin of south Louisiana, USA. The river is long and is navigable by small shallow-draft boats for of lower course. ...

and Bayou des Cannes. During the 1930s, the Point-Aux-Loups (point-ah-loo) (French for "Wolves Point") Springs Ballroom was originally built by the Louisiana Irrigation & Mills Company. This brick structure served as the main pumping plant which serviced southwest Louisiana farmers with

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

to their rice crops. The building housed two large

Fairbanks-Morse Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Originally a weighing scale manufacturer, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinders, radios, farm tractors, fee ...

engines that pumped water at out of Bayou des Cannes and into the flumes that carried water above ground into man-made canals throughout

Acadia Parish Acadia Parish (french: link=no, Paroisse de l'Acadie) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 57,576. The parish seat is Crowley. The parish was founded from parts of St. Landry Parish in ...

.www.springsballroom.com "The History of Point-Aux-Loups Springs Ballroom"
/ref>

References

External links

Map of the southwestern Bayou region
Rivers of Louisiana Rivers of Acadia Parish, Louisiana {{Louisiana-river-stub

See also

References

External links