New Orleans History -- Lake Pontchartrain
Monday, October 07, 2024
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The 1960s


157 camps remained on the lake during the 1960's. It is estimated that some 30,000 New Orleanians enjoyed the camps at this time.

From 1961 through 1963 the remaining camps were in peril due to New Orleans Levee Board plans to continue the land reclamation (approximately 2 miles of additional fill/land from the present shoreline) and stepped seawall which resulted in destruction of the camps from West End to the Lakefront/Shushan airport.

The newly formed Hayne Boulevard Camp Owners Association fought the project, arguing that The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was already planning adequate flood protection via a stepped seawall which would require only 150 feet of additional shoreland. Elmore Rouyer, president of the camp owners association added that aditional "protection" (the land fill) was planned only to create lucrative real estate which would replace "poor man's paradise" with "millionaires palaces".

The project was never undertaken, sparing the last remaining camps from destruction.