Iberville's Red Stick — The 1699 Encounter

In March 1699, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville found a red-stained cypress pole on the bluff. The Houma and Bayougoula peoples had planted it. The pole marked the boundary between their hunting grounds — a border post in an already-organized landscape. Iberville called it le bâton rouge. He built nothing here. The name outlasted every flag that flew over the bluff for the next three centuries. No physical marker of the 1699 encounter remains. The bluff is near the current State Capitol.

Quick facts

·In March 1699, Iberville found a red-stained cypress pole on the bluff — a territorial marker planted by the Houma and Bayougoula peoples.
·The pole marked the boundary between their hunting grounds — a border post in an already-organized landscape.
·Iberville called it le bâton rouge. He built nothing here.
·The name outlasted every flag that flew over the bluff for the next three centuries.
·No physical marker of the 1699 encounter remains; the bluff is near the current State Capitol.