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8 unusual facts about Lake Pontchartrain


2003 Colima earthquake

A seiche was observed on Lake Pontchartrain in the US state of Louisiana, and sediment was stirred up in several Louisiana wells.

Atlantic stingray

The Atlantic stingray is capable of tolerating varying salinities and can enter freshwater; it has been reported from the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain, and the St. Johns River in Florida.

Bayou St. John Confederate Submarine

The submarine was rediscovered in 1878 during a dredging of Bayou St. John at its intersection with Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the submarine was presumably scuttled to prevent it falling into Union hands after the U.S. capture of New Orleans (see also: New Orleans in the American Civil War).

Delaware Air National Guard

Over a dozen C-130 transport missions brought Civil Engineers from the 166 Civil Engineer Squadron (CES), communications specialists, ground and air medical personnel, fire fighters (166CES) and other skilled personnel who contributed to relief efforts in almost a dozen cities in Mississippi as well as Louisiana in the city of New Orleans, in areas north of Lake Pontchartrain such as the towns of Slidell and Hammond.

Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans

Esplanade Avenue was an important 19th century portage route of trade between the Bayou which linked to Lake Pontchartrain and the River.

Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain

Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana was named after him as well as the historic Hotel Pontchartrain in New Orleans, as was Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit in Michigan (the site of modern-day Detroit) and Detroit's historic Hotel Pontchartrain.

Pontchartrain Railroad

Chartered in 1830, the railroad began traffic of people and goods between the Mississippi River front of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain on 23 April 1831, and closed more than 100 years later.

West End Blues

The "West End" of the title refers to the westernmost point of Lake Pontchartrain in Orleans Parish, Louisiana.


Lee Christmas

As a young man, he worked as a pilot on tugboats on Lake Pontchartrain and later became a brakeman living in McComb, Mississippi for the Illinois Central System in 1879.

Victor H. Schiro

This attempt got as far as recommending a site in New Orleans East; a man-made island was to be created south of I-10 and north of U.S. Route 90 in a bay of Lake Pontchartrain.


see also

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

The idea of a bridge spanning Lake Pontchartrain dates back to the early 19th Century and Bernard de Marigny, the founder of Mandeville.

Pontchartrain Beach

In the early 1930s, subsequent to the construction of a seawall extending from West End to the Industrial Canal that created a new shoreline for Lake Pontchartrain, Pontchartrain Beach was moved to a new location at the lake end of Elysian Fields Avenue, a location formerly offshore of Milneburg.