Bayou St. John: Home

The importance of Bayou St. John to New Orleans cannot be overstated. 

Long ago, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville selected the area by the bayou for the site of the future New Orleans because it provided a transportation a link between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, thus obviating the need to sail up the river from its mouth.

Since then, it has been used for navigation, business, recreation, and sport. It has been bridged, dredged, drained, channeled, extended, and dammed. The history of the bayou is as complex as the web of different government entities that now have varying degrees of control over it.

This Libguide tries to list the major laws and groups currently existing that affect this waterway.