New Roads and False River
After walking about 242 miles from Venice, Louisiana, I’m now northwest of Baton Rouge and heading towards the Mississippi / Louisiana state border. Just ahead of me is a small town called New Roads. For a town with such a simpe name, New Roads has a very interesting history.
In 1699 the French explorer Iberville discovered a point on the Mississippi River where the river doubled back on itself. Time and high waters eventually allowed the river to change its course, taking the short cut and avoiding the 22-mile curve. The resulting oxbow lake was called "Fausse Riviere" in French, now, False River.
In 1822 a free woman of color named Catherine Depau, nicknamed "la fille Gougis," developed the original six-block area of town, now bounded False River, New Roads, St. Mary and Second Streets. Street signs in this area bear original names in French, as well as their current names. Eventually taking the name of New Roads, the town became the seat of parish government in 1847, and began to thrive.
This area was one of the earliest settlements in the entire Louisiana Purchase, where it attracted planters to farm its rich fertile delta soil. Some of the nation’s largest sugar plantations are still thriving on land surrounding the City of New Roads.
Settlers built homes ranging from stately plantation “great houses” to modest cottages. Fortunately the majority of these homes are still standing today making Pointe Coupee Parish and New Roads the largest surviving pocket of Creole architecture in Louisiana today. Many structures dotting False River date from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
I’ll be staying a short while in this little slice of history. It's truly a beautiful town. How could I possibly miss the Main Street Scarecrow Contest starting today. I met a very nice young couple who are letting me stay at their place. I’m excited because I have never made a scarecrow before. I’m looking forward to working on it tomorrow. I did see a scarecrow in a field earlier yesterday, but, well, this scarecrow wasn’t scary (check out the photo at my site). Afterwards, I think I’ll walk along the False River and try my hand at fishing and if time and weather allow, a little water skiing.
Pictures below: False River Boating, Cementary, Not Too Scary Scarecrow (click on pictures below for bigger image)
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False River, an Oxbow Lake
False River is a classic example of an oxbow lake. An oxbow lake is a lake formed by the past channel of a river. These features come in all sizes. The size (length, amplitude and radius of curvature) is related to the discharge of the river, stream or bayou. The meander size of False River leaves no doubt that a river with a discharge similar to the Mississippi River formed it. The presence of abandoned stream channels that connect False River to the Mississippi River is proof that, at some point in past history, this oxbow lake was indeed the active channel of the Mississippi River.
3 comments:
I am a native of New Roads and was born on the banks of False River. You are correct about the history of the area, records go back to 1771 in the Court House.
Fort DePointe Coupee once stood on the banks of the Mississippi somewhere close to where the new John J Audubon Bridge crosses the mighty river today. The settlers in the region are French not Acadians as found in the Bayou Teche area.
Visit St Francis Chapel out on Pointe Coupee Road, the founding church in the Diocese of Baton Rouge. Just a simple wooden structure as the church has been move back from the reaches of the Mississippi River over the centuries. One daughter church is St. Mary's of False River promonently located in the center New Roads.
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- Murk
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