La Balize, Louisiana

La Balize
1744 French map of the Mississippi Delta East Pass, showing Fort de la Balize on the lower right
Nickname:  Pilotsville
Coordinates: 29°07′21″N 89°06′26″W / 29.12250°N 89.10722°W / 29.12250; -89.10722

La Balize, Louisiana was a French fort and settlement near the mouth of the Mississippi River, in what later became Plaquemines Parish. The village's name (also spelled La Balise) meant "seamark." La Balize was historically and economically important for overseeing the river. It was rebuilt several times because of hurricane damage.^[1] The active delta lobe of the river's mouth is called the Balize Delta, after the settlement, or the Birdfoot Delta, because of its shape.

La Balize was inhabited chiefly by fishermen, river pilots, and their families. The pilots were critical to helping ships navigate to and from the port of New Orleans through the shifting passages, currents, and sandbars of the river's delta front. The village was vulnerable to seasonal hurricanes. Washed away in a hurricane of 1740, the village was rebuilt on the newly emerged island of San Carlos.^[1] That village in turn was damaged severely several times and finally destroyed.

By 1853 also called Pilotsville, the village of La Balize was rebuilt about five miles (8 km) to the northwest in the Southwest Pass, on the west bank of the Mississippi.^[2] That village was taken down by wind and a storm surge of the September 14–15 hurricane of 1860.^[3] La Balize was abandoned, and a new pilots' settlement was constructed about five miles (8 km) upriver on the east bank of the Mississippi, just above the Head of the Passes. The new village was named Pilottown.