Portage

In 1699, the Choctaw Indians showed the brothers Pierre and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne (Sieur d’Iberville and Sieur d’Bienville, respectively) the smart way into the river from the Gulf. From the east, along the coast below—or, rather, south of—the present-day city of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a boat can enter Lake Borgne through Chandeleur Sound. From Lake Borgne, there is clear passage into the eastern end of Lake Pontchartrain at the old Highway 90 bridge. From Lake Pontchartrain, a boat could come up the four-mile length of Bayou St. John to within two miles of the river. This was the old Choctaw portage: easier and safer to carry goods and boats these two miles than to enter the river’s mouth.