Grand Isle State Park | |
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Location | Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States |
Coordinates | 29°15′31″N89°57′17″W / 29.25861°N 89.95472°W [1] Coordinates: 29°15′31″N89°57′17″W / 29.25861°N 89.95472°W [1] |
Area | 140 acres (0.57 km2; 0.22 sq mi) [2] |
Established | 1968 [3] [4] |
Governing body | Louisiana Office of State Parks |
Official website |
Grand Isle State Park, lies at the eastern tip of Grand Isle, a barrier island in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, U.S.A. Grand Isle is the only inhabited barrier island in the state. [5]
The park has been seriously affected in the past by Hurricanes Katrina, Gustav, and Ike. However, much of Grand Isle State Park has been renovated. Beach restoration in the area is ongoing.
The area has a long-standing reputation as one of America's best fishing spots with access to over 300 species of fish. [6] At one time, the park's fishing pier was especially popular, but it was destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and had to be repaired. [7] [8] An observation tower provides fine views of the surrounding coastal scenery. Visitors come to 160-acre (0.65 km2) Grand Isle State Park to beachcomb, birdwatch, boat, camp, crab, fish, and sunbathe. [9] [10]
The site is rumored to hold the buried treasure of famed 18th century privateers Jean and Pierre Lafitte whose operations were based at the neighboring Grand Terre Island across the Barataria Pass. [11] [12] The legend of the rougarou also is told as part of the area's history. [13]
On May 22, 2010, the beach was closed due to oil contamination from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. [14] On May 3, 2011, a portion of the beach reopened. [15] On June 26, 2011, volunteers, organized by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, planted 1,600 black mangrove trees along the coast to prevent erosion. [16]
It was named in 2020 to The New York Times' List of 52 Places to Go which noted that the site "may soon vanish" and faces one of the world’s highest rates of relative sea level rise. [10]
Jefferson Parish is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 440,781. Its parish seat is Gretna, its largest community is Metairie, and its largest incorporated city is Kenner. Jefferson Parish is included in the Greater New Orleans area.
Grand Isle is a town in Jefferson Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on a barrier island of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico. The island is at the mouth of Barataria Bay where it meets the gulf. The town of Grand Isle is statistically part of the New Orleans−Metairie−Kenner metropolitan statistical area, though it is not connected to New Orleans' continuous urbanized area.
Jean Lafitte is a town on Bayou Barataria in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located in Jefferson Parish, it is named after the privateer Jean Lafitte. The population was 1,809 at the 2020 census. It is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner metropolitan statistical area.
Chalmette is a census-designated place (CDP) in, and the parish seat of, St. Bernard Parish in southeastern Louisiana, United States. The 2010 census reported that Chalmette had 16,751 people; 2011 population was listed as 17,119; however, the pre-Katrina population was 32,069 at the 2000 census. At the 2020 U.S. census, its population rebounded to 21,562. Chalmette is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner metropolitan statistical area. Chalmette is located east of downtown New Orleans and south of Arabi, towards Lake Borgne.
Biloxi is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated population was 46,212. The area's first European settlers were French colonists.
Acadiana, also known as the Cajun Country, is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained much of the state's Francophone population. Many inhabitants of the Cajun Country have Acadian ancestry and identify as Cajuns or Louisiana Creoles. Of the 64 parishes that make up the U.S. state of Louisiana, 22 named parishes and other parishes of similar cultural environment make up this intrastate region.
Port Fourchon is Louisiana’s southernmost port, located on the southern tip of Lafourche Parish, on the Gulf of Mexico. It is a seaport, with significant petroleum industry traffic from offshore Gulf oil platforms and drilling rigs as well as the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port pipeline. Fourchon's primary service markets are domestic deepwater oil and gas exploration, drilling, and production in the Gulf. Port Fourchon currently services over 90% of the Gulf of Mexico's deepwater oil production. There are over 600 oil platforms within a 40-mile radius of Port Fourchon. This area furnishes 16 to 18 percent of the US oil supply.
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve protects the natural and cultural resources of Louisiana's Mississippi River Delta region. It is named after French pirate Jean Lafitte and consists of six separate sites and a park headquarters.
New Orleans East is the eastern section of New Orleans, the newest section of the city. It is bounded by the Industrial Canal, the Intracoastal Waterway and Lake Pontchartrain. Developed extensively from the 1950s onward, its numerous residential subdivisions and shopping centers offered suburban-style living within the city limits of New Orleans. Its overall character is decidedly suburban, resembling the archetypal postwar American suburb much more than the compactly-built environment found in the city's historic core.
Isle de Jean Charles is a narrow ridge of land situated in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. For over 170 years, it has been the historical homeland and burial ground of the state-recognized tribe of the Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians. Residents of the Island have long been threatened by Louisiana's coastal erosion, as coastal Louisiana loses a landmass the size of Manhattan every year. In 1955, Isle de Jean Charles consisted of over 22,000 acres (8,900 ha) and has since lost about 98% of its land due to saltwater intrusion, and subsidence. In January 2016, the state of Louisiana received substantial funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund the tribe's resettlement to safer ground.
Louisiana Highway 45 (LA 45) is a state highway located in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. It runs 22.08 miles (35.53 km) in a north–south direction from a dead end at Bayou Barataria in Lafitte to a junction with LA 18 in Marrero.
Barataria Bay, also Barrataria Bay, is a bay of the Gulf of Mexico, about 15 miles (24 km) long and 12 miles (19 km) wide, in southeastern Louisiana, in Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish, United States. It is separated from the gulf by two barrier islands, Grand Isle and Grand Terre.
Fort Livingston was a 19th-century coastal defense fort located on Grand Terre Island in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The fort was named after Edward Livingston who had held positions as Mayor of New York City, U.S. Senator from Louisiana, and U.S. Secretary of State under President Andrew Jackson. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 30, 1974. Original plans for the fort were prepared by Lieutenant H. G. Wright. These plans called for the fortress to be a trapeziform stronghold surrounded by a wet ditch and by outworks on the land side. The walls were constructed of cemented shell, faced with brick, and trimmed with granite.
Breton National Wildlife Refuge is located in southeastern Louisiana in the offshore Breton Islands and Chandeleur Islands. It is located in the Gulf of Mexico and is accessible only by boat. The refuge was established in 1904 through executive order of President Theodore Roosevelt and is the second-oldest refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System.
Cocodrie is an unincorporated fishing, shrimping and crabbing village in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, United States, 10 miles south of Chauvin and due south of the city of Houma. It is part of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area. The settlement is known for being very near the landfall location for Tropical Storm Matthew on October 10, 2004, Hurricane Gustav on September 1, 2008, and Hurricane Zeta on October 28, 2020.
Louisiana Highway 3134 is a state highway in Louisiana that serves Jefferson Parish. It spans 7.2 miles (11.6 km) in a north-south direction along Leo Kerner/Lafitte Parkway between Jean Lafitte and Estelle and acts as a four-lane bypass to the older Barataria Boulevard.
Salvador Wildlife Management Area is a protected area in St. Charles Parish Louisiana covering a combined total of over 36,000 acres (15,000 ha). The WMA is located 11 miles (18 km) south of New Orleans, Louisiana, and provides habitat for many species of animal and plant life with hunting, fishing, and boating as the predominant activities. Commercial fishing or harvesting is not allowed.
Queen Bess Island Wildlife Refuge is located on Queen Bess Island in the southern portion of Barataria Bay, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The entire island was designated a refuge in 2019 and a restoration project completed in February 2020.
Nestled in the northeastern portion of the only inhabited barrier island in the state, Louisiana purchased the 150-acre park in 1968.
The park was purchased in 1968 by the State.