Village of Folsom, LA

II. HISTORY
Early Regional History
St. Tammany Parish was originally inhabited by numerous Native
American peoples, including the Colapissas, Bayou Goulas,
Chickasaw, Biloxi, Choctaw and Pensacola nations (although,
Frederick S. Ellis, in his book St. Tammany Parish: L’autre Côté du
Lac i , claims that the regionally prominent Choctaw tribe did not
arrive in the area until after it had begun to be settled by
Europeans).
Early Native American peoples lived off the land, hunting deer,
bears, birds, and other small animals, including fish in the local
rivers and Lake Ponchartrain. The subtropical region, with mild
winters and long summers, and an average of 65 inches of rain a
year, was an ideal location to cultivate wild plants, including maize,
squash, beans, yams, and wild rice, which became major crops in
the region. Cultivation lead to the formation of small villages, and
Native American groups traded with other villages and groups.
Well-established paths between different settlements became
well-worn trading routes.
However, it was not until 1699, when Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, a
French explorer, that the first European visited the area of presentday
St. Tammany Parish. While exploring lakes Pontchartrain and
Maurepas, Iberville wrote in his journal, "The place where I am is
one of the prettiest I have seen, fine level ground bare of canes. The
land north of the lakes is a country of pine trees mixed with hard
woods. The soil is sandy and many tracks of buffalo and deer can be
seen."
It was the climate and soil of lower Louisiana that Bienville believed
would be well suited for growing cane, cotton, tobacco, and rice. It
was under his direction that African slaves from Guinea were
brought to the region. In 1718, he established a new settlement
and called it New Orleans and 50 years later New Orleans became
the seat of government.
The region began to change tremendously during the era of
European exploration, with France, Spain, and England leading the
way throughout the south. In 1519, Spanish explorer Alvarez de
Pineda documented the Mississippi’s flow of fresh water into the
Gulf of Mexico and in the mid-16 th century another Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto explored the Mississippi region up to Memphis,
Tennessee.
Village of Folsom, LA
Comprehensive Master Plan
Detailed view of West Florida from map created in 1806
Courtesy of the Special Collections Department, University of South Florida
St. Tammany Parish is known as one of the Florida Parishes of
Louisiana, as it was a part of the Spanish State of West Florida until
1810. The Florida Parishes stretched from the Appalachicola River
to the Mississippi River and included present day St. Tammany
Parish and what is now Folsom. On September 22, 1810, American
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