History & Facts
Mid 1760's a hand of French settlers hailing from the Bordeaux region traversed Atlantic squalls, sprawling Appalachian foothills, vast wild country to embrace a territory wall-to-wall dense with cypress and pine wood. A swamped land rich in game and vegetation. Overrun by Midwestern Desperados. Eastern Outlaws. Smugglers. Pirates. A restless strip claimed by all, ruled by none. And then they entered. These LeBleus. Salliers. Adventurous Europeans. Purchased land from the Indians. Staked up new homes. A new town born. Reborn. Charlie's Lake. Town of Charleston. Charles. Indoctrinated Lake Charles mid March 1867. And others came often. French. Spanish. Dutch. English. Mixed brews of settlers, growing easily into the natural lumber town.

Pirates had reigned. The latter 17 and early 1800's. The Myth of Captain Jeanne Lafitte loomed thick. His thieving band in tow. Silent in pirogues. Wooden longboats. They'd fled New Orleans on the lam. Hid out in Lake Charles. Buried jewels. Gold. Contraband everywhere. Bubbling up in bayous, they claimed. Myth and reality inseperable still. Then he came. A seaman, Captain Daniel Goos. Sent his schooner out into the Gulf of Mexico for trade. To Mexico. Texas. Attracted neighbors near and far to this rising rivertown. Built a lumber mill in 1885. A schooner dock. Profited handsomely, as did most. Myth was valuable, they knew. But this lumber commerce and burgeoning trade would guide Lake Charles into its lush reality.