Jean Lafitte Town

Two thousand people live where the road stops and the marsh begins. Jean Lafitte Town sits at the end of Highway 45, named for the privateer who ran his Barataria operations from these waters and later helped Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. This is the last incorporated town before open marsh. The economy turns on what comes out of the water — shrimp, crab, oysters. Commercial fishing built the place and still runs it. The annual Jean Lafitte Seafood Festival celebrates that work. From here, swamp tour operators including Airboat Adventures launch into the Barataria Preserve, carrying visitors out past the last houses and into the bayou Lafitte knew. Highway 45 dead-ends at Barataria Bay. After that: only water.