Bayou Teche
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The Bayou Teche is a 125-mile long waterway of great cultural significance in south central Louisiana. Bayou Teche was the Mississippi River's main course when it developed a delta about 2,800 to 4,500 years ago. Through a natural process known as deltaic switching the river's deposits of silt and sediment causes the Mississippi to change its course every thousand years or so.
The Teche begins in Port Barre where it draws water from Bayou Courtableau and then flows southward to meet the Lower Atchafalaya River at Patterson. During the time of the Acadian migration to what was then known as the Attakapas region, the Teche was the primary means of transportation. After the levees were built along the Atachafalaya River in the 1930s, the Teche and the rice farms located along the bayou suffered a drastic reduction in fresh water. Between 1976 and 1982, the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a pumping station at Krotz Springs, Louisiana to pump water from the Atchafalaya River into Bayou Courtableau.
The name "Teche" is a French word meaning "snake" based on a story about a large snake told by the Chitimacha indians to the settlers in the area. [1]
Towns along the Teche include:
- St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
- St. Martin Parish, Louisiana
- Iberia Parish, Louisiana
- St. Mary Parish, Louisiana
