The Angola Ferry was a small and little-known ferry service that crossed the Mississippi River connecting Lettsworth, Louisiana with the Louisiana State Penitentiary, otherwise known as the Angola Prison. [1] It was considered difficult to access, requiring drivers to branch off the Louisiana Highway 418 on an unmarked gravel road and traveling several hundred yards thereafter. A good portion of the area's population was unaware of its existence because it serves mainly prison personnel traveling to and from work. [2]
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows generally south for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth-longest and fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Lettsworth is an unincorporated community located in the extreme northern tip of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the east bank of the Atchafalaya River near its intersection with the Mississippi and Red rivers at the Old River Control Structure. As of 2005, the population is 202. The town's zip code is 70753.
The Louisiana State Penitentiary is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named "Angola" after the former plantation that occupied this territory. The plantation was named for the African country that was the origin of many slaves brought to Louisiana.
The ferry was featured prominently in the 2001 film Monster's Ball .
The year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series, the first of The Fast and the Furious franchise, the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the first of the Ocean's Trilogy, and the first of the Shrek franchise. Significant non-English language films released included Monsoon Wedding and Amélie.
Monster's Ball is a 2001 American romantic drama film directed by Marc Forster and written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos, who also appear in the film. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, Heath Ledger, Halle Berry, and Peter Boyle, with Sean Combs, Mos Def, and Coronji Calhoun in supporting roles. Thornton portrays a widowed corrections officer who begins a relationship with a woman (Berry), unaware that she is the widow of a man (Combs) he executed.
Until 1940, a railroad car float crossed the river nearby, operated first by the Angola Transfer Company and then by the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway. [3]
The Angola Transfer Company, organized in November 1906, was a railroad car float operation that primarily ferried cars of the Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company across the Mississippi River between Angola and Naples, Louisiana. The route was shortened to Angola-Torras in 1928, when a joint highway-rail bridge was built across the Atchafalaya River at Simmesport, and the LR&N took over the Angola Transfer Company's property in 1929, concurrently with its lease to the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway. The L&A took absorbed the LR&N in 1934, and abandoned the car float in 1940 after the Huey P. Long Bridge opened at Baton Rouge.
The Louisiana and Arkansas Railway was a railroad that operated in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. The railroad's main line extended 332 miles, from Hope, Arkansas to Shreveport and New Orleans. Branch lines served Vidalia, Louisiana, and Dallas, Texas.
As of 2016, the Angola Ferry was not operational.[ citation needed ]
