Atchafalaya Welcome Center

The center stands inside the Atchafalaya Basin, which the state describes as the nation's largest river swamp. Its exhibits portray the history and lifestyles of the Basin, a film plays inside, and a flat-bottomed crawfishing boat and statues of local birds and animals are on display. Several staff speak French, coffee is free, and walking trails and picnic tables are on the grounds.

The Basin covers about 1.4 million acres, roughly 20 miles wide and 150 miles long. The Chitimacha are the earliest known settlers of the Bayou Chene region, where their villages included Namu Katsi, the Village of Bones, and Kushuh Namu, Cottonwood Village. Bayou Chene thrived from 1830 to 1953 on logging, hunting, trapping and fishing; the 1860 census counted 675 residents. The 1927 flood nearly destroyed it and led to the Basin's designation as a floodway with new levees. Repeated flooding drove residents out, the post office closed in 1952, and the site now lies under at least 12 feet of silt.

Old River Control, finished in 1963, sends by law 30 percent of the combined flow of the Mississippi, Red and Black rivers into the Basin. Interstate 10 crosses it on the 18.2-mile Atchafalaya Basin Bridge. The center is at 1908 Atchafalaya River Highway, Breaux Bridge.