West Baton Rouge Parish Bicentennial

West Baton Rouge Parish Bicentennial. , Side A , On March 14, 1699, Iberville and Bienville arrived in the “Bayagoula nation,” where the Bayougoula Indians inhabited the country west of the Mississippi River near Bayou Manchac. The parish’s original 600 square miles were bordered by the Mississippi, Atchafalaya, and False rivers with a boundary across from Bayou Manchac. In 1717, the French Company of the West began issuing land grants in the Territory of Louisiana. The next large group of immigrants were Acadian refugees who settled there in the latter part of the 18th century., On March 31, 1807, Governor William C. C. Claiborne approved a measure dividing the Territory of Orleans into 19 parishes., The eleventh of the 19 was named Baton Rouge, which is now West Baton Rouge Parish. The first parish courthouse was established in St. Michel, now present day Port Allen. In 1812 when the State of Louisiana was admitted into the Union, the Parish of Baton Rouge became West Baton Rouge Parish and the land directly to the east across the Mississippi River became East Baton Rouge Parish. (Continued on other side). Side B (Continued from other side). On April 8, 1826, the Legislative Council of the Territory of Orleans attached the area around Grosse Tête to Iberville Parish. Our parish boundaries were permanently fixed on March 11, 1859, making West Baton Rouge the smallest rural parish with a total land area of 209 square miles., For millennia, soils deposited along the Mississippi banks helped to create a rich agricultural heritage and later successful industries and international commerce would flourish along with the plentiful crops. The parish’s 21,601 citizens live in 3 incorporated towns (City of Port Allen and the towns of Addis and Brusly) and in communities such as Lobdell, Erwinville, and Lukeville. The parish government seat and largest population is in Port Allen. The Port of Baton Rouge ranks as the ninth largest U.S. port and the U.S. Gulf Intracoastal Waterway flows to the Mississippi through the Port Allen Lock., In 2007 with a rich and diverse history, we celebrate this Bicentennial anniversary.