Butte La Rose (also known as Butte-à-la-Rose) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

St. Martin Parish, Louisiana St. Martin Parish () is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana, founded in 1811. Its parish seat is St. Martinville, and the largest city is Breaux Bridge. At the 2020 census, the population was 51,767. St. Martin Parish is part of ...

, United States. In the 21st century, the area is known for its wilderness campgrounds, and the Atchafalaya Welcome Center. In 2011, Ed Lavandera of ''

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

'' said that Butte La Rose was "home to an eclectic collection of

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Whi ...

s who've come to this hideaway for generations to drift through the hidden waters catching crawfish." As of 2011 about 800 houses were located in the community. Many members of the community referred to their houses as "camps".

History

Early history

The community is located on a high point where the

Atchafalaya River The Atchafalaya River () is a distributary of the Mississippi River and Red River of the South, Red River in south central Louisiana in the United States. It flows south, just west of the Mississippi River, and is the fifth largest river in N ...

makes a sharp bend and divides into the Little Atchafalaya River to the south and the Upper Grand River to the north. Some claim an old Indian, Celestin Rose, who resided at one time in Grand Bois said that the butte was named after one of his ancestors, "a famous

Chitimacha The Chitimacha ( ; or ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands in Louisiana. They are a federally recognized tribe, the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana. The Chitimacha have an Indian reservation in St. Mary Parish near Charento ...

Indian". Another version is that following the French Revolution, some royalists made the butte their home and named it Rose in memory of the flower which was the symbol of their fallen society.

U.S. Civil War

During the U.S. Civil War, the Union Army capture of Fort Burton at Butte a la Rose took place on April 20, 1863.

2011 flooding

In May 2011, the area was threatened by flood due to the Army Corps of Engineers opening the

Morganza Spillway The Morganza Spillway or Morganza Control Structure is a flood-control structure in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located along the western bank of the Lower Mississippi River at river mile 280, near Morganza in Pointe Coupee Parish. The sp ...

, in order to divert flood water from more populous areas such as

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

and

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

.Lavandera, Ed.
For Louisiana town, a collective gasp as it braces for floodwaters
" ''

''. May 13, 2011; retrieved May 13, 2011

Education

Residents are zoned to the St. Martin Parish School Board.

References

External links

* Kunzelman, Michael.
As water inches closer, La. town waits in agony
" ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

'' at the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

''. May 21, 2011. {{authority control Unincorporated communities in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana Unincorporated communities in Louisiana Acadiana Lafayette metropolitan area, Louisiana