Lake Pontchartrain

Lake Pontchartrain is a broad, shallow body of brackish water north of the lower Mississippi. Pass Manchac connects it with Lake Maurepas to the west, while channels to the east lead toward the Gulf of Mexico. One Indigenous name for the lake is Okwata, or wide water. In 1699 Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville reached its waters with the help of Indigenous guides and named it for the French minister Pontchartrain. The lake and its connecting bayous offered an approach to the Mississippi from the Gulf.