Bayou Manchac is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed June 20, 2011

bayou In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...

in southeast Louisiana, USA. First called the Iberville River ("rivière d'Iberville") by its French discoverers,''A Map of part of West Florida : from Pensacola to the mouth of the Iberville River, with a view to shew the proper spot for a settlement on the Mississippi'', ondon: ublisher not identified 772 https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3860.ar165000/?r=-0.063,0.075,0.335,0.151,0, last accessed 10 Feb 2019.''Suite du cours du fleuve St. Louis depuis la rivière d'Iberville jusq'à celle des Yasous, et les parties connues de la Rivière Rouge et la Rivière Noire'', https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4042m.ar077900/?r=0.549,0.465,0.411,0.185,0, last accessed 10 Feb 2019. the bayou was once a very important waterway linking the Mississippi River (west end) to the Amite River (east end).https://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/mybayou2/index.html&date=2009-10-26+02:28:12 East Baton Rouge Parish lies on its northern side, while its southern side is divided between Ascension Parish (to the east) and Iberville Parish (to the west). The large unincorporated community of Prairieville and the city of

St. Gabriel In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek language, Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin language, Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic language, Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, transli ...

both lie on its southern side.

Etymology

Dr John R. Swanton, a linguist who worked with Native American languages, suggested that the name Manchac is derived from ''Imashaka'', which is a Choctaw word meaning "the rear entrance." An early Choctaw language dictionary written by Cyrus Byington defines the word ''im'' as a preposition meaning "place" and ''ashaka'' meaning "the back side or rear"

Exploration

In March 1699, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville made his way up the Mississippi and came to the area that is now the city of

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of 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-sma ...

. He wished to find a quick way back to the Gulf of Mexico, where his ships were moored at Ship Island. On March 26, 1699, the

chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

of the Bayogoula tribe, who had accompanied him to the future site of

, showed him the bayou that the Bayogoula used to travel between the present-day Mississippi Gulf Coast and their village. Though it once formed an international boundary, attempts to navigate the bayou as a shortcut between the Mississippi and Amite rivers, or to make it navigable, were generally unsuccessful.

Fort Bute

In 1764 the British established a trading post on the Iberville River and called it Fort Bute at Manchac. The British traded with boats traveling down the Mississippi and encouraged trading at Manchac rather than with the Spanish farther down at New Orleans. The fort at Bayou Manchac was a strategic position for the British and was positioned to compete with Spain for the fur trade, valued at that time at 100,000 pounds sterling annually.

San Gabriel de Manchac

Soon after the British built Fort Bute, the Spanish responded by building a trading post on the opposite side of the river. On September 28, 1766, an English ship arrived in New Orleans from Maryland carrying 224 exiled Acadians. The Spanish Governor Antonio de Ulloa at the Isle of Orleans gave them supplies, and they settled around San Gabriel de Manchac. For about three months, from April 30 to August 4, 1812, Bayou Manchac was the northern border of eastern Louisiana, until the addition of the Florida Parishes was approved by the state legislature.

Industrial use and today

Bayou Manchac became one of the most important waterways of southeastern Louisiana. It served the vital role of linking

to Lake Pontchartrain via the Amite River and Lake Maurepas. Through time, as ships became larger and faster, Bayou Manchac was too small to support modern traffic. In the 20th century, when the Mississippi River

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...

s were built, Bayou Manchac was cut off from the river, and later the upper sections dried out or were cut off by roads. Now the bayou is only useful for drainage and recreation, but the area is still regarded by those who live in the vicinity as one of Louisiana's most beautiful examples of nature.

References