Terrebonne County Louisiana Archives News.....Down Among the Islands of the Sea! July 3, 1880
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The Thibodaux Sentinel July 3, 1880

The benefit to the people of Lafourche to be derived from the cutting of the 
Terrebonne Canal across Bayou Lafourche will be experienced in other ways 
besides the increase of the facilities for navigation that it gives.

An outlet to tide water on either side of Bayou Lafourche will be open through 
this canal which will afford egress to all the water above the level of the 
bottom of the canal, and shorten the distance it has to make to enter the gulf, 
some twenty miles. A strong current from the Lafourche will pass out each way 
which will naturally increase the current above and cause that stream to wash 
out and free itself from obstructions that now interpose and check the easy flow 
of the current.

At the outlet of the canal into Bayou Lafourche are the ruins of Fort Guion, 
built at the commencement of the war of secession, but for what purpose, other 
than to prevent the passage of porpoises up the Bayou it would be difficult to 
imagine.

There also stands the cabin of Lewis R. Sanders, covered partly with palmettos 
and shaded by the surrounding trees.

Mr. Sanders once was a resident of Thibodaux, but has been living at Fort Guion 
for ten or fifteen years. Mr. Sanders undertook the job of cutting a canal with 
the spade, large enough for luggers, through the same ground that the one cut by 
the Terrebonne Co. passes, and actually made it about one mile into the Lake in 
the rear. The Company as a reward for his pluck and energy, have purchased his 
canal, widening it for their purpose and employed him to superintend the 
collection of tolls from the vessels passing through. The Company had a load of 
stonecoal lying at their landing for the use of the Dredges, that had floated to 
their front from Pittsburgh, which indicates that boats of stonecoal, lime, 
sand, hoop poles, &c. drawing less than seven feet of water will hereafter be 
passed through this new outlet to Lower Terrebonne, which will be of great 
service to the people there residing. 

After watching the dredges at work for some time, the Webre backed out through 
the Canal into lake Jessie, named after a niece of Mr. Sanders, where she was 
enabled to turn, and then left for Grand Isle. As we steamed out of the Canal by 
Bayou Coquille, the Southern breezes were deliciously cool and comfortable. West 
of us a narrow strip of woods extending down into the Gulf, indicated the mouth 
of the Bayou Lafourche, whilst South of us lay the Island Cheniere Caminada. 

On this Island are some 300 families who dwell there in a sort of a world of 
their own.

The inhabitants are a mixture of almost every nation of men on the earth. The 
Island is nominally a part of the Parish of Jefferson, but it has a Justice of 
the Peace of its own whose decisions are generally final, on every disputed 
point that comes before him for solution. The people depend almost entirely upon 
the sea for their support. The little strip of land upon which their dominion is 
placed, furnishes a few vegetables, melons, &c. Nearly every family owns a 
lugger, and by this a support for the family is made. Simple in their dress and 
habits, their material wants are few. Their children grow up in the water, and 
from the time they begin to walk, they become accustomed to boats and the waves.

On one side of their isle is a beautiful bay, on the other the waves of the Gulf 
eternally roll and dash upon the shallow beach. These people have no trouble 
about roads and levees, and do not wrestle with the Rice flumes.

They experience some difficulty in obtaining firewood, but this new canal will 
furnish easy egress into Bayou Lafourche, from whose banks that article will be 
in future obtained to considerable extent.

This Canal also brings the Cheniere Caminada practically nearer Thibodaux than 
they are to the county seat of Jefferson. The Island should be made a part of 
the Parish of Lafourche, not only because it would be more convenient for the 
inhabitants, but because a great many of the citizens are former residents of 
this Parish. They have a church and a well educated skillful physician among 
them.

Noted for their hospitality and kindness, a stranger will always find a general 
welcome into any cabin before whose door he may present himself.

About 3 o’clock P.M. the Webre anchored at Grand Isle landing. The excursionists 
took the car and rode across the Island to the Beach where a stroll was made 
along the solid beach as the sun was gradually sinking into the Gulf, West of 
us. At dusk another bath was indulged in when all retired to obtain a night’s 
rest, some at the Hotel, others on board, special care being taken to warn the 
Hotel watchman to wake the sleepers at three o’clock the next morning.

Grand Isle is a magnificent Island, some nine miles long and about one mile 
wide. The Grand Isle Hotel property is near the centre of the Island, and has 
accommodation for several hundred people. Cabins are erected containing four 
rooms or less as families may desire. 

Abundance of cistern water can be had, and everything appears comfortable and 
neat.

A mile farther east is another Hotel in which are accommodations for a limited 
number of boarders. Two rows of trees here extend across the Island, which have 
the appearance of being a century old, and once furnished a drive from the 
dwelling on the Bay to the Beach on the Gulf.

Grand Isle was in antebellum times cultivated in sugarcane. Wood for the 
manufacture of sugar was picked up on the beach, where it floated from other 
lands and found a resting place. There is now a great quantity of timber lying 
along the beach, but is apparently of but little account.

Some years before the war the proprietor, thinking that he could improve upon 
nature, cut large ditches across the Island from bay to Gulf, to facilitate 
drainage and thus admitted saltwater that so impregnated the land with saline 
matter that the sugar made subsequently was too salty for use. Tradition says 
that the great profit of this Island plantation was found in the cheapness of 
the labor with which it was cultivated. Vessels from off the coast of Africa, 
landed their cargoes of negroes, on this island and found ready purchasers at 
what would have been considered low figures a couple of hundred miles in the 
rear. 

These new emigrants were made to work on the Island until they obtained a little 
knowledge of the languages of the country when they were carried off gradually 
into the rear districts and sold for much more than the original cost.

As a watering place, it is doubtful that Grand Isle can be exceeded.

We have visited Coney Island and Rockaway beach near New York which are often 
visited by 100000 people in one day, and have no hesitation in asserting that 
neither of those famous places can compare with Grand Isle in natural advantages 
for a summer watering resort.

It has the disadvantage however of being too far from New Orleans to be visited 
in one day, and a railroad to the island is impossible.

But with its natural advantages it can be made one of the most pleasant and 
agreeable resorts in the American continent.

The Watchman of the Hotel, in his anxiety to be punctual in arousing us at 3 
o’clock had us out at 1:45 for which the excursionists, each, individually and 
collectively felt an impulse of generosity sufficiently powerful to reward him 
with an impress of his boot, but after partaking of a cup of good coffee, good 
nature got the better of them, and admiring his punctuality embarked on the Joe 
Webre and waved him a long farewell.

At daybreak the ropes were loosened and the steamer steered for Fort Livingston.

This Fort stands on a point of Grand Terre, between which and Grand Isle is the 
Grand Pass, through which the waters of the Bays find an outlet in the Gulf, 
with a depth of 35 or 40 feet.

The lighthouse stands near the water, and as we were passing the aged keeper 
came down to the waters edge to bid us good morning, the long white hairs 
floating about his head indicating him to have arrived at the age of the 
Patriarchs. 

Nearby is the ruins of an old Fort built by the famous Lafitte, who from being a 
notorious smuggler in the earlier days of this century has gained the reputation 
of a bloody pirate.

Lafitte once ran his boats and luggers through the bays to the Mississippi river 
loaded with smuggled goods. Many has been the load that his bold sailors have 
brought up Bayou Lafourche, and by way of Berwick’s Bay, Lake Palourde, Lake 
Verret, and the Attakapas Canal others have found egress into the Lafourche at 
Napoleonville, where the merchandise they carried has been sold to the citizens 
whilst they snapped their fingers at the Custom House officers. 

Fabulous sums of monies are reported by tradition to have been buried, in 
various places on these islands by Lafitte, who probably never had a well filled 
purse in his entire checkered life. For 50 years men have been digging for these 
treasures, the finding of any of which has been kept a secret as profound as the 
hiding places themselves. Lately an old gentleman, by means of dreams, 
spiritualism or something of the kind, has discovered three iron cases full of 
Lafitte’s gold, held together by a chain. Unfortunately they are fifteen feet 
underwater, embedded in the sand. The Canal Company proposed to him to take the 
big dredge Samson and dig it up for one half the contents but the old man 
refused to entertain the proposition. Consequently the old gentleman will have 
to be buried in some potters’ field whilst the Terrebonne Company will have to 
obtain money by legitimate means to continue their excavation. A pleasant ride 
through the Bays followed. Off to the West a long line of timber marked out the 
course of Bayou Lafourche from the Gulf Coast to Lockport. Our journey so far 
had been most agreeable and pleasant. Not a drop of rain had fallen to annoy us, 
nor had the bill of a single mosquito been presented for payment. The Webre had 
a contract to land us at Bayou Des Allemands station in time for the train going 
East, and nobly she was striving to fulfill her agreement. To while away time a 
pool was sold on the Republican nominations at Chicago. 

As the Webre approached the station 20 minutes ahead of time a mass meeting was 
called with Judge F.S. Goode as Chairman and S.T. Grisamore as Secretary. A vote 
of thanks was unanimously voted Captain Hotard for his urbanity, kindness and 
watchfulness, during the journey and the hopes that he might always live long 
and prosper was shown in the prompt emptying of a dozen or more beer glasses to 
his health and prosperity.

The Whistle of the Locomotive announced the approach of the Morgan cars, when a 
general shaking of Captain Hotard’s hands was made, the excursionists took the 
train and were soon lost in the columns of the daily papers. Thus ended one of 
the most agreeable excursions of our life, for which we will ever be thankful to 
the Directors of the South Louisiana Canal Company.



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