New River is a
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
accessed June 20, 2011 waterway located in south
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 ...
in
Ascension Parish
Ascension Parish (french: Paroisse de l'Ascension, es, Parroquia de Ascensión) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 126,500. Its parish seat is Donaldsonville. The parish was created ...
. Its source is near the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
in
Geismar where the two rivers were once connected before the levees were built to contain the Mississippi River during the spring rise. New River was a distributary of the Mississippi River and a much larger river than it is today. Lack of river current has caused sediment to reduce both its depth and width.
New River originally meandered from Geismar passing through the city of
Gonzales and the communities of St. Amant and
Acy on its way to its mouth at
Blind River. During the early part of the twentieth century a canal, called the New River Canal, was constructed to
Petite Amite River, to increase its velocity and distance to Lake Maurepas. The portion of the original path of New River that continues to flow to Blind River is now a distributary of New River and is called Old New River. New River is a major drainage artery for east Ascension Parish, and it is part of the
Lake Maurepas
Lake Maurepas ( ; french: Lac Maurepas) is located in southeastern Louisiana, approximately halfway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, directly west of Lake Pontchartrain.
Toponymy
Lake Maurepas was named for Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, com ...
drainage basin.
References
Rivers of Louisiana
Rivers of Ascension Parish, Louisiana
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