LAURENTS POINT - Hermosa Plantation Laurents Point, today mostly memory, was once a leading settlement in the early development of the Lake Arthur area. It was on a strip of land jutting out into the lake from the south shore, midway between the place where the Mermentau River enters Lake Arthur and the part of the lake called The Narrows. Gustave Laurent, son of a French immigrant, moved to the point about 1845. He and his wife, Carmelite Hebert, opened a store that became the trade center for the area. The French settlers around Laurents Point engaged in farming, cattle raising, and logging. Trade goods came to the store via Leesburg (as Cameron was called then) up the Mermentau River in sailing schooners, which, in turn, hauled locally produced goods to Galveston and other ports. Oranges were one of the leading exports from Laurents Point, many of them grown on Hermosa Plantation, owned by the Laurents. Laurents Point had one of the first rice mills in southwest Louisiana, and the first post office in the area was in Laurents store. A ferry ran between Laurents Point and the Lake Arthur community for some years in the late 1800s.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 01:50:09 +0000
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