La Redneck Yacht Club

The Bonnie Blue Flag, a single white star on a blue field, was the flag of the short-lived Republic of West Florida. In September 1810, settlers in the Spanish territory of West Florida revolted against the Spanish government and proclaimed an independent republic. The Bonnie Blue Flag was raised at the Spanish fort in Baton Rouge on September 10, 1810. This is where the term "Florida Parish" comes from.

Gunboat Circle and the BARATARIA (gunboat)

A confederate ironclad, the BARATARIA completely covered with iron one inch thick patrolled the southern Amite River and Lake Maurepas during the civil war. She was captured by the U.S. Army at New Orleans in April 1862. The little sternwheel ironclad was transferred by Lt. Col. A. N. Shipley, USA, to union command as of New Year's 1863. On 7 April next, she met disaster at 6 a.m. on a snag in Lake Maurepas at the mouth of the Amite River. Alternately lightening ship and fighting off guerrillas all day with her two guns and rifle fire by Col. Thomas S. Clark and a company of the 6th Michigan Volunteers, Acting Ensign James F. Perkins, USN, and his command were unable to free BARRATARIA, even after throwing overboard the bow gun and emptying her boiler. The ship was set on fire at sunset, and her magazine blew up soon after. Capt. Gadi Herren, CSA, of the Mississippi Cavalry, inspected her the next day and reported her "a complete wreck" but still exhibiting the numerals "291" and the remaining brass rifled gun, reporting to Colonel J. M. Simonton CSA, at Ponchatoula, he called BARATARIA (291) "one of the enemy's most formidable boats on the lake"
but seemed unaware that she had been Confederate only a year before.                

                      The 1940 Louisiana legislature had changed the method of execution, making execution by electrocution effective from June 1, 1941. Louisiana's electric chair did not have a permanent home at first, and was taken from parish to parish to perform the executions. The electrocution would usually be carried out in the courthouse or jail of the parish where the condemned inmate had been convicted. Eugene Johnson, convicted of robbing and murdering Steven Bench, who lived near Albany, was the first man  electrocuted in Louisiana. The execution took place at the Livingston Parish Jail in Springfield,  on September 11, 1941.

BAYOU CHENE BLANC has a French name which means "white oak," and no doubt there were many white oaks nearby when this bayou was named. In later years many of the trees were cut for staves and barrel making. Lumber shipped to New Orleans by the schooners and steamboats went overseas to the wine-making countries of Europe to make storage barrels.

UNION LANDING Bounded on the east by Bayou Barbary and on the south by the Amite River in Section 26, T8S-R5E, Union Landing was named for the Union patrols that came up the Amite River to confiscate food, feed for the horses, and cotton from the Loflin Plantation.
Destitute as a result of the war, the residents were forced to hide their food in a treehouse in the swamps in order to have any for their own needs.

          
Amite River had a Lighthouse from 1880 to 1934

                                                           What is French Settlement Disease?
French Settlement Disease (FSD) is a rare, inherited disease named after the small community where it was first discovered. French Settlement, Louisiana, is located on the Amite River. For generations, residents of French Settlement have been aware of a rare genetic disease. It was first reported in the medical literature in 1979. FSD is inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion which means that the affected child must inherit the gene from both parents.

                                    In 1951 the Louisiana Department of Highways "Traffic and Planning Maps" show only 7 camps along the Amite River

By 1954 there were seventy-two camps along the Amite River

By 1972 the number of camps along the Amite River - corridor had exploded to over 600 and was climbing at a rate of 50 to 60 per year.

                                                                                           The Amite River Diversion Canal project was initiated in 1957 and completed in 1964.

                           On October 13, 1990 a manatee was spotted in the Amite River upstream from the Port Vincent Bridge.

If you know of a little know fact and would like to share it, e-mail me at   

jimmy@laredneckyachtclub.com