Jim Bradshaw: When Last Island was supposed to be a summer paradise
Many of us know about Last Island because of the deadly hurricane that hit there in August 1856 and that is still listed as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to make landfall in Louisiana. The storm destroyed every structure on the little barrier island and killed more than 100 people, most of whom were there because it had become a popular place for city folk to get away from the summer heat.
Six years before that storm, in the summer of 1850, a correspondent identified only as “Traveler” wrote a series of letters to the Planters’ Banner in Franklin describing a trip to the island that was just beginning to gain its reputation as a resort.
He and several friends sailed from Patterson on the sloop Gov. Walker, stopping at a friend’s house on Bayou Boeuf for the night.
The next day they were up by 3 a.m., and “after partaking liberally of our friend’s morning bounty,” departed at sunrise. They reached Sweet Bay Lake two hours later — “a beautiful expanse of water formed by the junction of Bayou Schaefer and the Atchafalaya River.”
Here, Traveler said, the “extended sea marshes, waving in living green, expanded waters and numerous islands, with their reflected shadows,” conspired “to impress the contemplative mind with awe and reverence for their Almighty Creator.”
They passed Shell Island, “upon which a lone man resides, cultivating a small patch of ground,” and sailed into Atchafalaya Bay.
“Upon your left appear Deer and Plum Islands,” Traveler said, “and a way off to the right, at a considerable distance, arises the delightful and beautiful Belle Isle, owned by Dr. W. Brashear, and at one time in a high state of cultivation.”
Morgan City was once called Brashear City after Dr. Brashear, who had it surveyed and platted.
“To your right and more in front, at a still further distance, appears the light-house, rising like a ghost of Neptune out of the midst of the mighty waters guarding the entrance of this bay,” the correspondent wrote.
It took another day to reach the island, where “seven or eight vessels were in port, with flags streaming in the morning breeze”
They, “with the cottage recently erected upon the eminence between the landing and sea beach, presented a fine appearance and impressed the Traveler that he was really going somewhere.”
Last Island has been much battered by storms since then, and is only a remnant of its former self, but in 1850 it was “from twenty to twenty-five miles long, by half to one mile in width, and in shape [was] slightly crescent.”
For more than 50 years before his visit, Traveler said, “It has been a place of rendezvous and temporary camping ground for fishermen, turtle and terrapin hunters,” and more recently a summer gathering place for “some of our citizens [who] have purchased portions of it from our Government, and are erecting neat and comfortable summer residences.”
Capt. D. R. Muggah, the writer said, “deserves the praise and thanks of all who intend to resort thither, for his enterprise in preparing to make them comfortable. He is at heavy expense and much inconvenience erecting neat and commodious buildings for visitors, and already has opened a hotel, under the care of Mr. Henry Buttrick and lady, where he serves up, to the satisfaction of every piscatorial epicure, all the luxuries of the sea.”
Capt. Muggah operated the steamer Star, and took adults to the island for three dollars, and “half that amount for children and servants.”
Traveler predicted fine things for the island.
“Indeed, from its advantageous situation, fine harbor for small or light draught vessels, accessibility, the inexhaustible abundance of the finest fish and oysters, unrivaled bathing and pure, salubrious atmosphere, [it] must possess advantages equal, if not superior, to any other watering place on our coast.
“Its natural advantages for pleasure and recreation are great. A continued sea beach for twenty or twenty-five miles, in full view of the Texas and New Orleans line of vessels and steamers, as they pass and repass, with the music of lashing billows breaking at your feet.”
The only drawback, he said, “is the great quantity of the blood hound mosquitoes — so called from their insatiable thirst for human blood.”
And also, as the unfortunate visitors to Muggah’s hotel found out six years later, high winds and tides that from time to time storm in from the Gulf.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.