Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Lafourche is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 29.70°, -90.56°
About Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Lafourche ( lə-FOOSH), originally called Chetimachas River or La Fourche des Chetimaches (the fork of the Chitimacha), is a 106-mile-long (171 km) bayou in southeastern Louisiana, United States, that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. It was formerly a natural distributary of the Mississippi River; its source was sealed from the Mississippi by a dam in 1904, but since 1950 a water pump station has provided flow to the bayou.
The bayou is flanked by Louisiana Highway 1 on the west and Louisiana Highway 308 on the east, and is known as "the longest Main Street in the world." It flows through parts of Ascension, Assumption, and Lafourche parishes. Today, approximately 300,000 Louisiana residents drink water drawn from the bayou.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Bayou Lafourche (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Bayou Lafourche in Depth
History
The name Lafourche is from the French for "the fork", and alludes to the bayou's large outflow of Mississippi River water. The first settlements of Acadians in southern Louisiana were near Bayou Lafourche and Bayou des Écores, which led to a close association of the bayou with Cajun culture.
It was formerly a Mississippi River outlet (distributary), but was dammed at Donaldsonville in 1904. The dam cut off nourishment and replenishment of a huge wetland area of central Louisiana. It changed the formerly flowing bayou into a stagnant ditch.
The Bollinger Shipyards, founded by Donald G. Bollinger, was launched on Bayou Lafourche in 1946.
On August 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall in Lafourche parish.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Bayou Lafourche (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Bayou Lafourche: Key Facts
| Length | 117 km |
|---|---|
| Source | Mississippi River |
| Mouth | Gulf of Mexico |
Facts from Wikidata Q2892300 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Bayou Lafourche: Quick Answers
- Where is Bayou Lafourche?
- Bayou Lafourche is located in United States, at 29.7028° N, 90.5602° W.
- Are there dams on the Bayou Lafourche?
- No dam on the Bayou Lafourche is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.