Hidden Town of Sherburne

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LOCATION: POINTE COUPEE PARISH, LA

COORDINATES: 30.462429, -91.714972

STATUS: FORGOTTEN AND LOST

In the 1880s the lumber business came to Louisiana and as the tracts of uncut forest were large, sawmills easily popped up, as the mill itself was able to continue running all day, maximizing the yield and money. Of these sawmill towns that cropped up for Louisiana one was Sherburne along the Atchafalaya River. When the lumber business began to dry up towards the end of the later 1800s, the town’s grocer Henry bought up land for farming and to build houses for farmers as the land was now cleared. Come 1939 the federal government ordered the town to move as the construction of the Morganza Spillway might flood the town. Today the Sherburne Wildlife Management Area in the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), named in honor of the town that was built there and forced to move, covers where the town stood. Besides the name, the remains left of Sherburne are a few wooden frames of homes, steel equipment and a sawdust pile.