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Submitted by Annette (Carpenter) Womack of Winnfield, Winn
Parish, LA

Copied from the vertical files of the Natchitoches Parish 
Library in 1978

Published by Lake Charles Association of Commerce
Revised, March 1, 1963


LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA
Treasure City of the Gulf Coast

When the people of Lake Charles opened their area's treasure
chest of natural resources by dredging a seaway to the Gulf of
Mexico, they performed a feat without precedent and brought to
their community an ever-increasing measure of industrial growth
and prosperity.

In the year 1771, Martin Carmasac LeBleu and his bride, the
former Mlle. de la Marion,, both natives of Bordeaux, France,
discovered the lake which was destined to become a geographical
landmark familiar to a lengthy roster of the captains of
industry and commerce throughout the world.

They found it edged in snowy dogwood, redbud and wild azaleas. 
Its cool depths of emerald tone in a setting of ancient cypress,
graceful willows and stately oaks.

They lived in company with peaceful tribes of Choctaws,
Coushattas and Cherokees until the coming of other pioneers. 
Amongst the first to come was Carlos Salia, a Spaniard
formerly of New Orleans residence, who later changed his name to
Charles Sallier then gave this name to the only daughter of the
LeBleus, Catherine, and to the lake and the community ...
originally called Charley's Lake.

Glimpses into Lake Charles' past reveal the many things she has
been to many people.

The settlers who came between 1780 and 1819 acquired their
property from the Indians or homesteaded what was then known as
the Rio Hondo lands.  The original titles were based on Spanish
grants to settlers in return for some stipulated service.

Rio Hondo was the name given by the Spaniards to the river which
flowed through Lake Charles.  It was later called Quelqueshue, an
Indian term meaning Crying Eagle. and, still later, it became
Calcasieu.

History touches lightly on these earliest residents but their
conglomeration of English, French, Spanish, Dutch and American
names indicate that even in the beginning Lake Charles held great
attraction for pioneers seeking security and well being. It
attracted less desirable visitors, too.  The wilderness route to
the sea, the Calcasieu River, served the ships of slave traders
and corsairs, Amongst the latter was Jean Lafitte, the legendary
buccaneer, who headquartered In Lake Charles before lapsing
into a career of piracy out of Campeche.

During the year 1840 the parish of Calcasieu was created out of
the western part of St. Landry.  It was a princely domain with
but few inhabitants.  Two thousand people lived within the 6000
square miles of the original parish precincts.  This sprawling
area -- Including what is now Allen, Beauregard, Jeff Davis and
part of Cameron Parishes - was long referred to as Imperial
Calcasieu.   In 1852, Lake Charles became the seat of
Calcasieu Parish.  With this position of political importance,
growth was assured.  The town was incorporated in 1867 with a
total citizenry of about 400.  The first mayor was J. W. Bryan.

Jacob Ryan, often called "the father of Lake Charles". was the
town's first real estate man.  He sold by the rope length along
the street which bears his name.  Ryan Street is the main street
of the city.

It was still primitive territory.  Transportation was largely
dependent on round-about water routes and without the facilities
for development of timber and other natural resources, growth was
slow during the next few years.

Captain Daniel Goos first came to Lake Charles in 1855. Ho
established a lumber mill and a schooner dock In what is now
called Goosport, a suburb of the city.  He was the first to
point the way to progress for future generations when he
established a profitable trade with coastal Texas and Mexican
ports by sending his schooners down the winding reaches
of the river out into the Gulf .

The coming of the railroad In 1880 - Morgan's Louisiana Western
which later became the Southern Pacific - spelled the doom of the
schooner trade and distracted transporter's attentions from the
river route to the Gulf.  Thus bagan the new era. J. B. Watkins,
in his capacity as agent for a group of English investors,
operating as the North American Land and Timber Company,
purchased 960,000 acres in the area and then promoted the
migration of farmers and mechanics from the mid-West.  He
founded the "American", a newspaper first published in New York
and later in Lake Charles. 

In 1886 Mr. Watkins became the forerunner of the active citizens
who comprise Lake Charles' Association of Commerce.  He spent
$2000 for one-cent stamps to send community promotional
literature through the mails.

J. B. Watkins was instrumental in building the first railroad
running north and south through this section.  It became the
Missouri Pacific.  He built the town's first bank in 1885 and
used it to promote his scheme to attract residents to this
community. 

Dr. Seaman A. Knapp of Ames, Iowa, made the development of a new
industry possible.  In 1891, with capital raised in New York, he
built a rice mill.  This mill, still the largest in North
America, was the first in Louisiana outside of New Orleans to
establish the cash system of selling rice.

Dr. Knapp originated the "Boys Corn Crib".  This organization
developed into the present nation-wide system of 4-H Clubs.

He built and became the first president of the Calcasieu National
Bank, which later became the Calcasieu-Marine National Bank.

John McNeese was the first parish school superintenndent.  'The
first public school in Lake Charles opened in 1882 with 203
students.  John McNeese is the namesake of McNeese State College
in Lake Charles with an enrollment of 3,000 students.

The years passed.  The forests of timber were thinning out.  The
lumber industry was failing.  True, agricultural pursuits the
only other commercial attributes possessed by Lake Charles at the
time, were of a profitable nature but the degree of profit was
governed by the vargaries of nature and were not consistent.

Then, in the mid-1920's the people of the town, descendents of
hardy, independent pioneer stock who had carved this community
out of prairie and forest, displayed a courage, foresight and
business acumen that is without historical equal.  After being
refused federal aid to dredge a channal to the Gulf of  Mexico
they pledged themselves to a community project that had no
precedent and has yet to be duplicated.  They voted local.
bond, dredged their own deep water channel to the Gulf, built
their own dock facilities and proceed to tell the world that Lake
Charles was open for business as a deep water port.

The world of commerce responded and the huge-success of the
venture finally commanded consideration from the Federal
Government.  Aid was forthcoming for shortening.tbe route by the
construction of a direct channel to the gulf. The present
seaway stretches just 34 miles due south to the sea.  Louisiana
has two other deep water Ports: New Orleans is 107 miles and
Baton Rouge is 237 miles up the Mississippi from the Gulf .

The linking of Lake Charles to the world's sealanes proved a
tremendous industrial attraction.  During past decades the
smokestacks have moved South. 

Adjacent to the Ship Channel and the City there are now more than
40 manufacturing firms with a plant value in excess of $800
million and more are under construction.

Since 1926, the year of the Port opening, more than 300 million
tons of general cargo, petroleum and chemical products have moved
through the channel. 

During 1962 the Port handled 1,077,427 tons of general cargo
across its wharves ... a portion of the approximately 18 million
tons which traversed the channel during that same year.

The ships, like their bustling port of call, have become almost
unbelievably larger than they were back in the days when
schooners sailed almost the same route from the.lakeside
village under the flag of Captain Daniel Goos.  Lake Charles is
making the necessary adjustments.  The residents and the
industries in the Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal District on
April 49 1961 approved a bond issue in the amount of
$13,000,000.00 for the expansion of the Calcasieu River Ship
Channel and Pass and improvements to the Port of Lake Charles. 
Work to deepen the channel to 40 feet and to widen it to 400
feet is in progress.  When finished, the channel will accommodate
the largest tankers afloat without interference with freighter
sailings.

Another instrument of progress in this expansion is the
construction of a new industrial ship channel on undeveloped land
for the location of new industries.  This will create adĒ
ditional industrial sites on deep water as prospective locations
for plants needing the areals petroleum, natural gas, sulphur,
sea shell, clay and the feedstocks available for present,
large oil refineries, petrochemical and chemical plants.


Published by Lake Charles Association of Commerce
Revised, March 1, 1963