Fontainebleau State Park


Fontainebleau State Park is located in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The park is in size and was once the site of a sugar cane plantation and brickyard operated by Bernard de Marigny and later by his son Armand Marigny. The park has a multitude of habitats for birds.

History

The visitor center highlights the history of the land which was once owned by the wealthy Bernard de Marigny of New Orleans and founder of Mandeville, which lies directly to the west of Fontainebleau Park. Marigny operated a sugar mill that was built in 1829. He named his large holding Fontainebleau after the beautiful forest near Paris, France. In 1840, his son Armand documented the presence of 153 enslaved individuals at the site, including 57 children under the age of ten.
Fontainebleau State Park is surrounded on three sides by water: Lake Pontchartrain, Bayou Cane, and Bayou Castine. The state originally named the park Tchefuncte State Park and Conservation Reservation, after the Tchefuncte River.
The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Overnight features