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The first recorded European settlers in
the area of what is now Lake Charles, Louisiana were Martin LeBleu
and his wife, Dela Marion from Bordeaux, France. They settled in a
area known as LeBleu Settlement near present-day Lake Charles in 1781.
Another early settler to the area was Charles Salliers, who married
LeBleu’s daughter, Catherine. The young couple built their home
on the eastern shore of the lake that was created by the Hondo River.
The lake became known as Lake Charles. In time the settlement that
developed there became known as Charles Town. Eventually, the Rio
Hondo became known as the Calcasieu River, a named derived from a
Native American term, meaning “Crying Eagle.”
Charles Town was located in the southern portion of what was known as the Neutral Ground, which was established in 1806 to settle an ownership argument between the United States and Spanish-held Texas. Neither country was allowed to claim this area nor could either country impose its laws on it. The area became plagued with lawbreakers and gangs. In 1821, the Adams-Onis Treaty was signed giving the territory to the United States. However, it would be decades before the lawlessness would be addressed. The deadliest gang in American history, the West-Kimbrel Gang operated in the Neutral Ground as late as the 1870s. The pirate Jean Lafitte is known to have delivered stolen contraband and slaves to Jim Bowie and other local plantation owners. The settlement of Charles Town experienced slow growth at first. The primary source of income was timber. For many years, a man named Jacob Ryan headed up the sale of timber. In 1855, Captain Daniel Goos came to the settlement and established a lumber mill and a schooner dock. His schooner sailed downriver into the Gulf of Mexico to do a lucrative business with Texas and Mexican ports. On March 7, 1861, Charles Town was incorporated as the town of Charleston, Louisiana. As the Civil War was nearing, Charleston had less than five per cent of its population in slavery. The influx of northerners, Europeans and Jewish settlers created mixed feelings toward slavery. Some supported the Union; some supported the Confederacy and many became involved in the war. Jacob Ryan began to call on the state government to move the parish seat from Marion, Louisiana to Charleston. He eventually convinced them and Charleston became the parish seat. With that, Ryan and Samuel Kirby relocated the parish courthouse and jail by barge to Charleston. On March 16, 1867, Charleston was renamed Lake Charles, Louisiana. Those years following the Civil War saw Lake Charles restore its status as a timber center. By the 1880s Lake Charles population had grown several hundred per cent over the pre-Civil War numbers. Mister J.B. Watkins conducted a very successful advertising campaign in the 1890s. There were no architects in Lake Charles at that time, so Watkins encouraged carpenters to build large Victorian style homes using only lumber from local mills. The carpenters competed with each other in an effort to build the most beautiful homes and this was what Watkins advertised. The area is located east of the downtown district and is known as Charpentier Historic District. In 1990, the district was placed on the National Historic Register. At approximately 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, 1910 a fire started in a small trash can behind the old French Opera House Saloon, located in the business district. Due to the high winds that day, the fire could not be contained, as it spread throughout the business district, along Ryan Avenue and into residential areas, destroying many fine homes. As the news spread other cities were quick to respond with offers of help. Jennings, Louisiana, Orange, Texas and Alexandria, Louisiana sent trains carrying fire fighting equipment, but it arrived too late to be of any use. The fire department resorted to using dynamite to extinguish most of the flames. By 7 p.m. on that cold night, 5,000 people, one-third of Lake Charles' population, were homeless and moving into camps set up outside the burn area. In 1939, the Lake Charles Junior College began operation on an 86 acre tract of land donated by the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury. It originally offered two years of higher education; by 1950, it had expanded its curriculum to four years and was renamed McNeese State University. In June of 1941, the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury leased land to the US government for the purpose of building the Lake Charles Army Flying School. This became Chennault Air Force base, which remained in operation until June of 1963, when it was deactivated. The location then became the Chennault International Airport. Following World War II, the petrochemical industry moved into Lake Charles and the city kept growing. Dockside gaming was approved in the early 1990s and brought three casinos to the area, providing employment to many. Among those casinos were Harrah's, Isle of Capri and L'Auberge du Lac Casino Resort. Harrah's was so heavily damaged by Hurricane Rita on September 24, 2005 that its casino eventually closed. |
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