First Mardi Gras in Louisiana — Bayou Mardi Gras Site

On March 3, 1699, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his party camped on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from what would become Fort Jackson. It was Mardi Gras day. Iberville named the spot 'Bayou Mardi Gras' — the first recorded celebration of Carnival in Louisiana, a quarter century before New Orleans existed. A plaque at Fort Jackson commemorates the site. New Orleans didn't invent Mardi Gras. Plaquemines Parish did.