Grand Isle Cemetery

The surnames carved into the tombs match the names painted on shrimp boats working the gulf today. Grand Isle Cemetery sits on Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island, on land barely above sea level, where above-ground vaults hold the dead of Cajun, Croatian, and Filipino fishing families who've worked these waters for over two centuries. Grand Isle has been hit by tropical storms or hurricanes every 2.68 years since 1877. In 1893, a 16-foot storm surge devastated the island. Another 16-foot surge hit in 1909. Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Tropical Storm Frances in 1998 put the entire island underwater. When Hurricane Katrina pounded Grand Isle for two days in August 2005, it destroyed or damaged homes and camps along the entire island; Hurricane Rita followed less than a month later. In 2021, Hurricane Ida's eastern eyewall hit on the sixteenth anniversary of Katrina—100 percent of the island's structures were damaged, and 40 to 50 percent were completely destroyed. The cemetery floods during major storm surges. It is one of the most exposed cemeteries in Louisiana, a quiet stop on the island's main road. The island itself sits at the mouth of Barataria Bay where it meets the Gulf of Mexico—a barrier island that buffers inland parishes from the full force of hurricanes. The only land access is a causeway at the west end; the seat of parish government lies 95 miles away. Grand Isle's chenier forests contain live oaks over 125 years old, and the Govan family held their tract of land since the late 1800s. The graves here reflect that same continuity—over two centuries of island habitation, marked by the names of fishing families whose descendants still work the water.