1971 Map of Pilottown

About this map

The Mississippi River splits into its final distributaries at the Head of Passes, a critical maritime junction where pilots navigate the shifting delta. In the early 1970s, Pilottown served as a remote outpost for river pilots, situated along the Raphael Pass and near the Lookout Tower Wildlife Headquarters. This orthophotomap illustrates the fragile transition between land and water, showing the extensive network of natural channels like Main Pass and Southwest Pass alongside human industrial footprints. The West Bay Oil and Gas Field and various oil wells and pipelines reveal the era's intensive resource extraction within the marshlands. Conservation efforts are equally prominent, with the Delta National Wildlife Refuge and the Pass A Loutre State Waterfowl Management Area protecting the vast reaches of Zinzin Bay and family-named landmarks like Bob Taylors Pond and Mary Bowers Pond.