Mapping the Basin

A Digital History of Culture and Places in the Atchafalaya Swamp

Introduction

The ‘old-timers’ have much to share. Their collective memories and stories serve as critical links to the past, connecting us to landscapes like the Atchafalaya River Swamp—affectionately known as ‘the Basin’ by locals and visitors alike. The purpose of the “Mapping the Basin” project is to document historically significant places, names, and stories from the Basin by interviewing a select group of local Basin dwellers and enthusiasts. These “subject matter experts,” now in their late 70s and 80s, bring with them a few hundred years of combined experience living, working, and exploring the Atchafalaya Swamp. They are fishermen, boatmen, naturalists, and explorers who have spent a lifetime immersed in the Basin’s unique culture and environment. Acting as conduits for folktales and custodians of traditions, they preserve stories passed down from the last of the original swamp dwellers who called the Basin home. These "water people" lived and raised families inside the Basin for at least three generations before the major man-made environmental changes of the mid-20th century altered their world. As the federal government converted the Atchafalaya Swamp into a well-engineered floodway, rising water and overflow of silt changed the ecosystem, eventually displacing these families. Many abandoned their homesteads in the swamp for higher ground, leaving behind a way of life shaped by the Basin’s natural rhythms.

Through oral history interviews, the project aims to capture stories and map notable locations, including commerce routes, settlements, and unique natural resources found only in this iconic Louisiana swamp. Using primary source storytelling, it documents how the people of the Basin lived, traveled, and communicated with one another—and with the outside world—during this transition period from the 1940s to the 1970s. The goal is to preserve these stories and historical place names before the storytellers are gone.

The Storytellers

Jim Delahoussaye

Jim Delahoussaye, a biologist, naturalist, former commercial fisherman, and winner of the 2022 Caroline Dorman Outstanding Louisiana Naturalist Award was a major source of inspiration for this project, contributing both through his personal experiences and his archival records of life in the Basin. During the 1970s, as he integrated into the commercial fishing community in the Basin, he carried a tape recorder to document the stories of people who had once lived there with their families. Many of these individuals were direct descendants of Hog Island Pass, a once thriving houseboat community north of Grand Lake. As the tranquil Basin swamp transformed into a fast-flowing floodway, these families relocated further south to Myette Point on the levee. With one foot in the modern world, they traded in their transient lifestyle on the water for higher ground and better educational opportunities for their children. But the swamp life remained ingrained in their culture and community, and still does today.

Harold Schoeffler

Harold Schoeffler, a long-time Basin enthusiast, began recreating in Lake Dauterive and Lake Fausse Pointe as a young man in the 1950s. After serving in the military, he returned to the Basin in the 1960s, only to find that the once-abundant wildlife haven had dramatically declined due to channelization, levees, rising water levels, and siltation. Over the last half-century, Harold has spent countless hours boating and fishing in the Basin while advocating for the conservation and protection of its wilderness areas.

Cliff LeGrange

Cliff LeGrange, who has hunted alligators and crawfished in the Basin for decades, provided crucial logistical support, local knowledge, and historical insights into the lives of Basin dwellers. As a founder of the Bayou Pigeon Heritage Association and the author of  two books on the history of the Atchafalaya Swamp , his extensive experience navigating the maze of waterways proved invaluable in locating and documenting several historical sites.

Lastly, Harry Lange, a retired workboat captain and commercial fisherman, grew up in Hog Island Pass and other houseboat communities. He is among the last surviving elders who actually lived inside the Basin before the mid-20th-century migration to higher ground. Harry serves as a living witness to a unique way of life that was largely abandoned during that era.

Harry Lange: Introduction to the Basin

        

The modern Atchafalaya Floodway with notable "Way Points". Click on the drop pins for more information.

The Setting

The Mississippi River valley drains at least one third of the nation’s watersheds. Over thousands of years the river spewed water and sediment annually overflowing its banks. The flood basin of the Atchafalaya River Swamp was once the natural overflow area of the Mississippi in its current deltaic formation, created when the river abandoned the Atchafalaya valley and moved further eastward. The vast floodwaters washed nutrient dense sediments slowly through the Basin and created vast freshwater and brackish wetland/swamp areas full of natural abundance. Habitation in the flooded cypress and tupelo swamps required intimate knowledge of the annual cycles of flooding and falling water, natural flora and fauna, and high spots to avoid inundation.

Harold Schoeffler: Native American sites in the Basin

Indigenous peoples such as the Chitimacha, who lived in the southern Basin at the time of European contact, inhabited various points of high ground within the swamp. These native tribes, and many before them, left behind archeological sites in the form of shell middens. Some of these sites date back a few thousand years. Most have become inaccessible due to man-made changes to the landscape.

Jim Delahoussaye: Native Americans in the Basin

As European colonists moved into the Basin in the years before the Civil War, they settled in places where natives had previously lived, perhaps only a few decades before. These places were obvious high grounds near waterways where commerce, community, and culture could survive and thrive through the use of man-made boats and nets.

Cliff LeGrange: Chitimacha Tribe in the Basin

Early Arrivals

While small groups of Euro-Americans did inhabit the Basin in the decades following Louisiana statehood in 1812, they lived on subsistence farming and fishing and had very little impact on their surroundings. All that changed following the Civil War with the advent of steam-powered equipment and the arrival of the cypress barons. Within fifty years (1870-1930), the timber industry clear cut most of the Basin’s cypress trees, some of which had been growing for over a thousand years. To identify and record cypress trees that had existed at the time of the Louisiana Purchase (1803), Harold Schoeffler and a team from Sierra Club ventured into the Basin in the early 2000s in search of these natural relics from the past (see Way Points in the larger map above).

The Engineered Floodway

Filling in Grand Lake, cir. 1965

The end of the cypress industry in the Basin coincided with the great flood of 1927. To protect urban and commercial areas in the lower Mississippi Valley from a future disastrous flood, the federal government, through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, transformed the Atchafalaya Swamp into a permanent engineered floodway to be used as a "safety value." America’s largest natural bottomland hardwood swamp would be repurposed to redirect future floodwaters. Beginning with the Flood Control Act of 1936 (the "Overton Act") and the subsequent construction of manmade levees and diversion channels in the years following World War II, the Basin underwent a dramatic transformation. As the water rose higher each year and natural lakes filled in with sediment, the once abundant fishing grounds diminished. The families who called the Basin home saw the writing on the wall. One by one, they made their way to higher ground, often pulling their houseboats up onto the levees. They abandoned the isolated lifestyle of the Basin interior and adapted to the new modern world. They sent their children to public schools, learned to drive cars, and many took up blue collar jobs in the oilfield.

Basin fishermen (turtle hoop net)

However, they still maintained that crucial cultural connection to the Atchafalaya Swamp by continuing traditional folkways and habits that had defined the Basin people for generations. By “Mapping the Basin,” the project intends to preserve the location and stories of these last communities from the Basin's past.

Commerce

A “Swamping” Economy

Prior to the Civil War, a swamping economy developed in the Atchafalaya Basin. This water-dependent economy consisted of hunting, fishing, frogging, trapping, and moss picking. There was plenty to eat, but one had to trade a commodity for money in order to buy things that they couldn’t get in the wilderness. The main commodity was fresh fish until the arrival of the cypress barons in the late 19th century.

Bald cypress in the Basin, cir. 1900

Cypress trees grew in huge ancient stands in the natural Atchafalaya Swamp under the normal ecological regime of an annual wet and dry cycle. Known as the “wood eternal” due to its rot resistant qualities, these immense cypress stands attracted scores of timber companies who harvested the trees and set up lumber mills to feed the booming consumer building markets throughout the United States in the early 20 th  century. By 1930, the lumber companies had clear cut most of the Basin cypress. The mills soon closed, leaving behind several small communities of Basin dwellers—former swampers turned commercial fishermen—along with a sizable imprint on the natural landscape.

"Swampers" cutting cypress, cir. 1900s

"Swamper" in pirogue guiding cypress raft, cir. 1900s

"Swampers" with large cypress, cir. 1900s

Pullboat opeations, cir. 1900s

Pullboat, cir. 1900s

Cypress raft in Bayou Teche, cir. 1890s

Logging canal, cir. 1930s

Logging canal, cir. 1900s

Logging canal, cir. 1958

Cypress stumps in Basin, cir. 1980s


Explore a related ANHA-funded Story Map project titled  "Cypress Logging in the Basin: A Digital History"  by Jason P. Theriot


Fish Boats

Fishboat coming from Morgan City to the Basin, cir. 1940s

The commercial fishing industry was of much greater importance to the Basin people after 1930. The introduction of the floating houseboat made of durable cypress during the timber hay-day allowed individuals to live within the river swamp despite the increasing frequency of floods. And they were transient, moving from one location to another as conditions or lifestyle preferences changed. From the early 1900s to the 1950s, specially designed boats with primitive live well technologies travelled throughout the Basin to purchase fish and other seafood from the commercial fishermen. These gas-powered boats also carried groceries (previously ordered from commercial centers), ice, fuel, and current news. These weekly “fish boat” runs connected the Basin people to the outside world. They had limited access to newspapers and literature, and many were illiterate.

Harry Lange: Father ran fishboats in the Basin

Harry Lange’s mother could not read or write. His father, Dan Lange, had a limited education, but could write a grocery order and determine the value of a fish catch on the spot. He was a leader of the Hog Island Pass community that connected the houseboats to larger urban centers.

Basin houseboat, cir. 1980s

When Jim Delahoussaye first started commercial fishing in the early 1970s, he befriended, and learned from, a number of well-established Basin fishing families, such as Mion and Agnes Bailey, Joe and Neg Sauce, and many others. These people had grown up in the Basin in houseboat communities like Hog Island Pass, Catfish Lake, and Bayou Chene. Their parents had been raised there, and likely worked as swampers for the timber companies in the late 19 th  century.

People of the Basin: Agnes and Myon Bailey interview 1974

As Jim learned his way through the Basin and earned his place among fellow commercial fishermen, he began carrying around a tape recorder to document the stories of these people and their earlier lives inside of the Basin. Most have lived at and around Hog Island Pass in the 1930s and 1940s before relocating to Myette Point on the levee. For several years, he recorded interviews with Basin people. This impressive collection (99 interviews), archived at the Library of Congress, represents a treasure trove of personal testimony about early life in the Basin. The YouTube clip above is a representative sample of a first-hand account of Basin folklife, as it existed before the 1950s. A link to the full oral history collection can be found here:  A. James Delahoussaye collection of Atchafalaya River Basin recordings .

Cultural Settlements

Hog Island and Myette Point

Jim Delahoussaye: People of Hog Island Pass

Houseboat communities concentrated around locations with high ground and easy access to waterways known for commercial exchange. For those families living on the western side of the Basin, Hog Island Pass (which intersected with Keelboat Pass) became prime real-estate. These families lived a somewhat nomadic existence that followed the main commercial harvest: freshwater fish. However, they did not live solely off this commercial catch, but rather participated in a livelihood reminiscent of a swamp economy. This included gathering moss, building and repairing small boats and nets, trapping, frogging, and other means of earning dollars for trade. [1 

  [1]  For the leading works on this subject, see Malcolm Comeaux, Atchafalaya Swamp Life: Settlement and Folk Occupations, (Baton Rouge: Geoscience and Man, LSU, 1972); Greg Guirard, Cajun Families of the Atchafalaya (Guirard, 1989). 

Jim Delahoussaye: Siltation in Keelboat Pass

To supplement their diet, they also farmed on high ground and raised farm animals. The rising flood waters and siltation of the immediate post-war years, inundated these higher areas, making it all but impossible to raise small farms and livestock. Eventually, even the heavily-traveled waterways for trading fish began to fill up with sediment.

Education

Harry Lange: Baptist school on Hog Island Pass, 1940s

While the adults worked the fishing grounds and made repairs and modest improvements to their family’s living conditions, the children and young adults in the isolated houseboat communities often fended for themselves and found creative ways to stay entertained. Many of these Basin families had a houseboat full of children, some with as many as ten or more. They learned about boating, gathering moss, cleaning fish, hunting, and cooking meals based around the natural abundance of wildlife. They developed essential skills to survive in the Basin, but there was no opportunity for any formal education.

Baptist school house , cir. 1940s

That all changed in the late 1930s when a Baptist Mission, led by Ira Marx, first came to the Basin to spread the gospel and teach the young people basic subjects. With the help of the locals, the missionaries built a school on Hog Island Pass. The inaugural class of a few dozen Basin residents started in 1941. Below is a silent film taking of Basin people and their lively hoods in the 1940s by members of a Baptist missionary.

Cliff LeGrange and Jim Delahoussaye at the old Baptist school on Keelboat Pass

Entertainment

For those willing to make the journey across Grand Lake, there were also Saturday afternoon trips to the Charenton Beach dancehall (1930s-1940s), a six-mile paddle or putt-putt boat ride in the lower Basin with only a single navigation light at the mouth of Hog Island Pass to guide one home after a night of dancing and socializing.

The white beaches at Charenton, made from millions of tiny clam shells, served as a sight of entertainment, young adult courtship, and family fun.

For members of the houseboat communities, social life at the Charenton Dance Hall also served as a connection to the larger outside world.

"There was beer. . . and dancing. . . and Fat's Domino."

Environmental Change

Jim Delahoussaye: Levees, high water, and siltation ended Basin life

By the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Basin began to fill up from increased water and siltation. The natural swamp environment changed rapidly as a result of diverting more Mississippi River water and sediment down the leveed and engineered floodway. An unexpected result of further human modification was the deterioration in water quality and freshwater fishing. The Basin water people were forced to adapt to the changes, as they always had.

Formation of a "delta" inside Grand Lake, 1940

US Army Corps dredging Bayou Chene, 1950

US Army Corps dredging Upper Grand River, 1965

US Army Corps dredging West Access Channel, 1967

In 1962, as part of the larger floodway plan, the US Army Corps dredged the "Super Channel" through the heart of the Basin.

Harry Lange: Out Migration from the Basin, 1948

Migration Out

Beginning around the late 1940s, many Basin families migrated out of their homesteads in the Basin, and they took their houseboats with them. Around 20 families from Hog Island Pass gathered at Myette Point on the west-guide levee that jutted out into Grand Lake. They hoisted their houseboats over the levee and set up their own community on dry land. The houseboats were eventually placed on top of piles and adapted for modern plumbing.

Houseboats modified for dry land on the levee at Myette Point, cir. 1970s

Jim Delahoussaye: "Water People" find new home

Over time, modern amenities such as natural gas, electricity, and automobiles enabled these people to live improved lives. Their new location at Myette Point, adjacent to the water courses of the Basin, allowed them to continue fishing and other traditional folkways. However, this new life on the edge of the levee provided them and their children with opportunities, such as formal education, modern conveniences, and access to other employment, particularly in the oil and gas industry.

Early levee community, cir. 1950s

Moss picker, cir. 1980s

Cast netting for bait, cir. 1980s

Drying fishing boots, cir. 1980s

Adaptation

Line fishing, cir. 1980s

Successful techniques in commercial fishing revolved around adapting to changing environmental conditions inside the Basin. During times of flood, when currents in the main section of Grand Lake and the surrounding bayous proved unfishable, fishermen set tight lines or bush lines in the shallow water found on the edges of the waterways. This modified technique was employed in areas of clean water free of obstructions where a line with several hooks was stretched from limb to limb. This same technique was employed in the 1960s and 1970s to fish what the fishermen called the "growing land" in Grand Lake. [2] 

  [2]  Jacob T. Gautreaux, "Sportsman's Paradox: Conservationism and Social Progress in Modern Louisiana," PhD diss., Louisiana State University, 2023), Chapter 5: Trouble in Paradise? The Development of the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway and the Resulting Conflicts and Compromises Over Nature. 

Hoop net, cir. 1990s

But the rapidly changing conditions in natural habitat produced diminishing returns. Hoop nets were not as full as before. The days of catching a hundred fish off a hundred hooks would soon be a thing of the past. They still loved to fish, but they knew it was time for a change.

Jim Delahoussaye: Adaptation of Basin people

Community Resilience

Myette Point, 1975

The Myette Point community continued to live on the levee until the Flood of 1973. After the near failure of the engineered floodway at the Old River Control Structure, the Army Corps of Engineers required the community to vacate the levee to allow for necessary improvements. Some members sought to preserve their community’s cohesiveness by relocating as a group to a site along Bayou Teche, a natural waterway not far from the Basin. Many, however, continued to harvest resources from their normal fishing grounds. Despite adapting to modern life, traditional folkways remained a source of excitement and opportunity, offering experiences that could not be replicated outside of nature.

Harry Lange: Basin fishing is in the blood

"Swamp kids," cir. 1980s

The people of the Basin have a special place in the cultural history of Louisiana. They experienced swamp life in its raw, natural form, living happily in one of the last great wilderness areas in North America. Their descendants have continued that unique way of life, largely from a recreational aspect. Nevertheless, its the natural wonders of the Basin and the freedom and intrigue offered by this immense watery landscape that keeps calling them back to the swamp.

"The Basin is our Yellowstone"

Lake view in the Basin, cir. 1980s

Efforts to preserve the legacy of these people and places in America’s largest swamp are numerous. Books, documentaries, museum exhibits, and public gatherings—both inside and outside the Basin—are all designed to keep the culture and its connections alive. Yet, the western Basin communities of Hog Island Pass, Keelboat Pass, and Myette Point, among others, along with their experiences of surviving and thriving in the Basin, were largely undocumented and unmapped. Thanks to individuals like Jim Delahoussaye, Harold Schoeffler, Cliff LeGrange, and Harry Lange, the memories of these settlements and their cultural remnants have been preserved and can now be explored by curious travelers, scholars, and enthusiast.

Uploaded by None on 2024-11-12.

Harold Schoeffler, who led the Acadiana chapter of the Sierra Club for many years, has been a steadfast advocate for the Atchafalaya Basin. He spearheaded an early initiative to create a mile-post marker program along the edges of the Basin, identifying culturally significant places and names to help tourists and locals alike learn about its history. This program eventually evolved into the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area (ANHA), whose mission is to “enhance the identity of our unique American landscape by preserving and promoting our heritage and by fostering progress for local champions that create authentic, powerful connections between people, culture, and the environment.” The ANHA funds projects like “Mapping the Basin” to capture the culture of the Atchafalaya before it vanishes.

Haunting Basin scene at dusk, cir. 1980s

This project was funded by a grant from the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area in partnership with The TECHE Project. Special thanks to John Sharp at the Center for Louisiana Studies for providing images from the Greg Guirard Collection.

Filling in Grand Lake, cir. 1965

Basin fishermen (turtle hoop net)

Bald cypress in the Basin, cir. 1900

Fishboat coming from Morgan City to the Basin, cir. 1940s

Basin houseboat, cir. 1980s

Baptist school house , cir. 1940s

Formation of a "delta" inside Grand Lake, 1940

Houseboats modified for dry land on the levee at Myette Point, cir. 1970s

Line fishing, cir. 1980s

Hoop net, cir. 1990s

Myette Point, 1975

"Swamp kids," cir. 1980s

Lake view in the Basin, cir. 1980s

Haunting Basin scene at dusk, cir. 1980s

This project was funded by a grant from the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area in partnership with The TECHE Project. Special thanks to John Sharp at the Center for Louisiana Studies for providing images from the Greg Guirard Collection.

"Swampers" cutting cypress, cir. 1900s

"Swamper" in pirogue guiding cypress raft, cir. 1900s

"Swampers" with large cypress, cir. 1900s

Pullboat opeations, cir. 1900s

Pullboat, cir. 1900s

Cypress raft in Bayou Teche, cir. 1890s

Logging canal, cir. 1930s

Logging canal, cir. 1900s

Logging canal, cir. 1958

Cypress stumps in Basin, cir. 1980s