Interesting and Historical Cemeteries in the Grand Isle Area

 

(The last three pics I copied from the Internet.)

Cheniere Caminada was a retirement refuge for many of Lafitte’s pirates, but the residents of this little fishing community made the mistake of cutting too many of the native oaks to plant orange groves and vineyards as well as to build and heat houses. In 1893 a late-season fast-moving hurricane smashed the sleeping cheniere with 125-mile-an-hour winds and waters surging twenty or thirty feet deep. With few trees for protection, the death toll included more than half of the population of 1600.  On the LA-1 roadside, the austere Cheniere Caminada Cemetery contains many of the victims in mass graves.  The island and the storm would later form the basis for novel ‘The Awakening’ by Kate Chopin, who often visited the resort.  Only a few graves remain, some badly deteriorated.

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Leeville Cemetery

 

All but this pic are mine . . . I copied this one from the Internet.

The Leeville Cemetery along the lower stretch of LA-1, was begun in 1905 during a month-long yellow fever epidemic.  This area has a constant struggle to stay afloat.   Like the cemetery, LA-1 along here is often completely underwater during storms.  It is surrounded by open marsh broken only by skeletal trees being killed by saltwater intrusion from storm surges that are coming farther and farther inland each year as more of the coastline erodes.  In an effort to keep graves from washing away, the cemetery along the roadside has been completely cemented over, tombs and ground and all.

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Grand Isle Cemetery

 

We found the following picture to be ironic and strange--a children's playground next to a cemetery???