Lake Pontchartrain

By Catherine Campanella

New Orleans's location would likely have been different had Native Americans not shown French explorers a route between Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico. Early in the history of Greater New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain became a hub for transportation, commerce, and industry. Its role expanded, and by the 1960s two amusement parks (Lincoln and Pontchartrain Beach), restaurants, several harbors, a municipal airport, the world's longest bridge, five lighthouses, a state park, and hundreds of fishing camps lined its shores. Citizens of Little Woods, Venetian Isles, Lakeshore Boulevard, and Mandeville had the sublime pleasure of living directly on the lake. Residents of Kenner, Metairie, and most of New Orleans were just a stone's throw away from its shores. Hurricane Katrina may have changed memories of Lake Pontchartrain, but much remains to enjoy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jan 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781439649183

Catherine Campanella

An LSU graduate with a BA in fine arts, Cathy chose a career in teaching (MEd, University of New Orleans), where she became a technology coordinator and early proponent of the educational value of the Internet. New Orleans History: Lake Pontchartrain (www.pontchartrain.net) was her first attempt to compile a cultural overview as a pictorial history of the lake. Lake Pontchartrain (Arcadia Publishing, 2007) culminated this endeavor in a print edition. Now a retired educator, Cathy's interest in writing and research has grown to include the books Metairie (2008), New Orleans City Park (2011), Legendary Locals of Metairie (2013) and Images of Modern America: Lake Pontchartrain (2015), all released by Arcadia Publishing, as well as her more recent Lost Metairie (2017), published by The History Press. Campanella has written for Scholastic Instructor, Read-Write-Think and Every Day with Rachel Ray magazines. Married to Mike Azzarello, the mother of two and grandmother of two adorable grandchildren, Cathy hopes this book will inform, educate and rekindle wonderful memories of life around Lake Pontchartrain.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Memories of Lake Pontchartrain are ingrained in the minds of those who lived on or near it. The communities surrounding the lake were made unique by the people and the abundant natural resources that allowed residents the opportunity to create places like no other. Storms have come and gone, but people have returned to all but a few of these unique communities. Since the great storms of 2005, even more communities have been developed—not only for people but for aquatic creatures and wildlife.

In many ways, the lake is healthier now than it has been since the 1950s, and living on or along Lake Pontchartrain is a much safer prospect due to new building codes. Alas, the days of dozens of Poor Man’s Paradises (communities comprised of simple wood structures perched high atop pilings) are gone for good, which is heartbreaking for thousands who hold memories of those times.

The lake teemed with fish, crabs, shrimp, oysters, and more until shell dredging caused turbidity, which affected the natural balance needed for the flora and fauna to flourish. In 1963, Bucktown’s Ralph Shultz (known for his Fresh Hardware store) alerted the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries that shell dredging allows lime to sweeten the lake water, making it less salty and thus detrimental to life in the brackish lake. After the dredging industry was halted in 1990, the lake began to return to its natural state.

Swimming was first prohibited by the Orleans Levee Board in 1962 and then again in 1965 after heavy rains washed water from drainage canals into the lake. Sewage systems were leaking into the canals and, according to Dr. Rodney C. Jung, when the capacity of the sewerage systems was exceeded, sewage was pumped into the lake. No Swimming signs began to appear, but lovers of Lake Pontchartrain (including this author) paid them no heed and lived to tell about it.

Hurricanes and tropical storms that have struck near Lake Pontchartrain have sometimes spared the larger cities but left destruction on the lake, which is connected to the Gulf of Mexico via the Rigolets Pass, the Chef Menteur Pass, and the Industrial Canal (formally the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal). Storm surges entering the lake from the gulf have raised the lake’s tides high enough to wash surrounding structures away, and powerful winds have caused much damage to lakeside communities. Of all the storms and hurricanes that have visited Lake Pontchartrain since 1950, the most devastating were Hurricane Audrey (1957), which destroyed many camps and businesses, including the beloved Vera’s restaurant on Rat’s Nest Road (she rebuilt); Hurricane Hilda (1964), which took out Swanson’s Restaurant (they rebuilt) at West End as well as the legendary Ruby along Hayne Boulevard, among other camps; Hurricane Betsy (1965), which destroyed the beloved Mama Lou’s camp, also along Hayne Boulevard, among other camps; Hurricane Camille (1969), which did a job on many lakeshore structures; and Hurricane Georges (1998), which wiped the remaining Hayne Boulevard camps off the map—only five were left standing. Georges also did extensive damage to Little Woods camps. The final blow, of course, was Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which left the entire perimeter of Lake Pontchartrain bereft of most homes and camps built over or near the water.

In 1962, work began on the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO). Due to erosion and lack of maintenance, by 1989, it was three times wider than its original 650-foot design, which was implemented to serve as a shortcut from the Gulf of Mexico to the Industrial Canal. The surge caused by Hurricane Katrina rushed through MRGO, into the canal, and into the lake, resulting in failures of shoddily constructed levees and floodwalls, and, consequently, massive flooding in Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes. The US Army Corps of Engineers has since closed MRGO, improved the flood barriers, and installed flood gates in many other canals and waterways that flow to and from Lake Pontchartrain.

Several private and military planes have crashed into Lake Pontchartrain, resulting in tragic deaths, but one accident in particular remains in the collective memory. On February 25, 1964, Eastern Air Lines flight 304, a Douglas DC-8 jet, left New Orleans International Airport at 2:01 a.m. headed for Atlanta under good visibility and weather conditions. It disappeared from radar at 2:10 a.m. Searchers first sighted the wreckage around dawn. The US Coast Guard recovered wreckage, personal possessions, and body parts scattered across a wide area centered six miles south of the north shore and about four miles east of the Causeway. An investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board indicated that the plane had exploded either in the air or on impact due to degradation of aircraft stability characteristics in turbulence, because of abnormal longitudinal trim component positions. All 51 passengers and the 7 crew members were killed.

In 1989, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation embarked upon a citizen-led effort to Save Our Lake—this was, in fact, accomplished. Read more about the foundation on page 95. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, some