1957 Map of Bayou Sale

About this map

St Mary Parish and Iberia Parish meet at this coastal intersection of industry and wild marshland. The landscape is defined by the Intracoastal Waterway Gulf and a complex network of canals like the Hanson Canal and Thorgeson Canal, which supported the region's energy and transport needs. Inland from West Cote Blanche Bay, the Bayou Sale Oil Field and Bayou Carlin Oil Field indicate the mid-century's intensive petroleum development. Small clusters of habitation such as South Bend, Ellerslie, and Gordy line the banks of Bayou Sale, where the South Bend Cem provides a point of genealogical interest. To the west, the Russell Sage Foundation State Game Refuge on Marsh Island preserves the natural state of the gulf coast, while a line of demarcation between salt and fresh marsh tracks the shifting ecology of the Louisiana shore.