The History of Frenchtown Road

By Vicki Carney
    The paved historic French Town Road becomes a narrow foot path when it passes the last house on the east side at the confluence of the Comite and Amite Rivers. The end of this mergence is the Florida Boulevard Bridge. There have been many tales over the decades as to what went on in this area.
    Some believe that there is an Indian Mound which means that Native Americans were the first inhabitants. Leroy Summers has lived in that area since the Nineteen-fifties and said that two busloads of Native Americans would visit the Indian Mound area each summer. There was an investigation made by the State of Louisiana in 1986 and in 2001 on two mounds and a village in this area called the Wall Mounds. The conclusion was that “these mounds were either misreported originally, being natural features rather than manmade ones, or else the mounds that originally existed somewhere in this patch of woods were destroyed.” (Site Record Update #16EBR2) It was noted in the 1986 report that one small grit-tempered plain body shard was found in a tree fall. 
    Some people had heard rumors that a fort existed there at one time during the French or Spanish ownership of the area. Larry Gates, a relative of the Hawes, said that his family owned the land at one time. There is even a Hawes’ Old Ford on a sharp bend of the Comite River where a road that appears to be Benton’s Ferry Road is located very close to the River. (note: Flannery Road is the closest road to the Comite River today. On some maps there appears to be a Benton’s Ferry Road between Flannery Road and the Comite River which connected to Benton’s Ferry Road {Old Hammond Highway today.}) 
    Dr. Cliffort Mondart, in an interview in 1992, heard rumors that a camp was established there during and after the Civil War. It was used as a hide-out for young men from East Baton Rouge, Ascension, and West Baton Rouge Parishes. Either these men deserted from the army, never went into it, or they couldn’t show their faces when the war ended. 
    In the nineteen-hundreds, the land was part of the old Droze plantation which was farmed and sugar cane was grown. Bamboo was also introduced that was used by Central High students in pole vaulting competitions. They would cut and dry it. They had to stop using it when the cane snapped and boys were injured or killed. 
    Huge flooding issues limited the use of this area. Leo Summers said that it would depend on which river flooded first as to the flood pattern. Water has been so high during flooding that it actually covered the railroad trestle at the beginning of this confluence.