Cheniere Caminada

Overview

The village on the oak ridge

A chenier is a low ridge of shell and sand in the coastal marsh, high enough for live oaks to grow. Cheniere Caminada stood on one at the edge of the Gulf, across Caminada Pass from Grand Isle and about 55 miles from New Orleans by boat, by Wikipedia's account. By 1893 some 1,500 people lived there: Creoles from New Orleans, Acadians from Lafourche, Italians, Germans and others, most of them French-speaking Catholic fishermen. They sent oysters, shrimp and crabs to the New Orleans restaurants and grew some sugarcane and oranges.

On the night of October 1 to 2, 1893, an unnamed hurricane came ashore near the village at the strength of a low Category 4 storm. The sources disagree on how high the water rose. Wikipedia says the storm tide reportedly reached 20 feet, Heart of Louisiana gives an 18-foot surge and Country Roads Magazine 16 feet; accounts gathered in 1893 put the water in the village at 6 to 8 feet, and modern modeling cited by Wikipedia suggests a storm of this size could raise the tide no more than 8 feet. The official count of the dead in the village is 779, about half the population; the 1996 marker at the cemetery says over 750. Only a handful of homes were left standing: four of 450 by Wikipedia's account, 13 of over 300 family homes by the marker's. The storm killed about 2,000 people in all. Grand Isle's 2023 remembrance notice calls it "America's most deadly natural disaster"; Wikipedia ranks it the deadliest hurricane in Louisiana history and third in the continental U.S., behind the 1900 Galveston and 1928 Okeechobee hurricanes.

Most survivors moved inland to higher ground, to Golden Meadow, Cut Off, Larose, Leeville, Galliano, Westwego and the rim of Barataria Bay, by the account of the 1993 commemorative book Country Roads Magazine draws on. A few came back, and later storms took their toll. In 2016 Country Roads found Cheniere Caminada "barely more than a smattering of fishing camps and bait shops" by the Grand Isle bridge. Those camps, which the USGS maps show growing up at the bridge from the 1950s, are a later settlement, not the old village. The village survives in its cemetery beside the highway.

Timeline

A fishing village and a storm

1. By 1866The Cheniere cemetery is in use: the oldest dated grave in a 1985 listing reads March 18, 1866.
2. 1883–1889Missionary priest Gaston d'Espinosa serves the village and founds its church, Our Lady of Lourdes (Wikipedia).
3. 1892The USGS Cheniere Caminada sheet shows rows of houses along the shore of Caminada Pass and back across the ridge.
4. 1893The village has about 1,500 people (1,471 by Heart of Louisiana's count; 1,500 to 1,600 by Wikipedia's) in some 300 to 450 homes (over 300 family homes by the 1996 marker's count, 450 by Wikipedia's). Its fishermen supply oysters, shrimp and crabs to New Orleans.
5. Oct 1–2, 1893An unnamed Category 4 hurricane comes ashore near Cheniere Caminada overnight. Reported storm tides run from 16 to 20 feet, though 1893 accounts and modern modeling put the water at about 8 feet. 779 people die in the village by the official count, and only a handful of homes are left standing: four by Wikipedia's count, 13 by the 1996 marker's.
6. After 1893Most survivors move inland to higher ground; one family's house is taken apart and carried to Cut Off on Bayou Lafourche. A few rebuild, and later storms take their toll.
7. 1947–1957USGS sheets show a road along the ridge with a cemetery beside it and a road across the pass to Grand Isle, then a cluster of buildings at the west end of the crossing, with "Ruins" marked by the shore.
8. 1978Grand Isle recognizes the Cheniere cemetery as a historic site on August 8.
9. 1994The USGS sheet shows a dense grid of buildings and boat slips at the end of the bridge.
10. 1996The Cheniere Hurricane Centennial and the Lafourche Heritage Society put up a marker at the cemetery. It says most of the dead were buried there in mass graves.
11. Oct 1, 2023For the 130th anniversary, Grand Isle and Our Lady of the Isle Church schedule a blessing of the tombs and the rededication of the hurricane monument at the Cheniere cemetery. Their program was published that September.
12. June 15, 2024Photos for the Historical Marker Database show the cemetery fenced beside LA 1, with a flagpole, the granite monument and two markers at the roadside. They are the newest dated report we found.

October 1893

The night of October 1

The hurricane was the tenth known hurricane of the 1893 season. Wikipedia's account of it puts landfall near Cheniere Caminada on the night of October 1 to 2, with winds of about 130 mph. Contemporary counts of the dead across the coast ran from 1,884 to 2,448; 779 of them were at Cheniere Caminada and 27 at Grand Isle. The Thibodaux Sentinel wrote that the village had been swept out of existence. Heart of Louisiana's 2023 report adds that children made up the greatest share of the dead, and that one survivor's family sheltered under their house's roof after it fell onto the island's high ground. Wikipedia and Country Roads say 62 people survived under that one roof.

Some houses went inland with the survivors. Heart of Louisiana tells of the Curole house, one of the few that survived, taken apart, loaded onto a wagon and moved about 40 miles north to Cut Off, where it stood on Bayou Lafourche for more than a century. In 2022 it was moved again, about a mile, to be restored.

What's left

The cemetery by the highway

The cemetery is what remains. It lies on the Gulf side of LA 1 about 0.7 mile southwest of the end of the routes on this page (OpenStreetMap, which uses the federal name Cheniere Cemetery). A 1985 LAGenWeb listing puts it 15.4 miles below the Leeville bridge on the right, inside a fence, with very old graves outside the fence in the marsh grass, facing a small bayou. Country Roads (2016) says it is believed to hold the mass grave of the hurricane victims, and the 1996 marker says most of the dead were buried there in mass graves. Country Roads Magazine's 2015 photo essay describes hundreds of graves with a shared death date, crumbling tombs, the lone skeleton of a live oak and ground that is "going back to nature." Heart of Louisiana (2023) describes the dead oak, sinking ground and crumbling brick graves, and the hurricane monument in front of the cemetery, placed for the 1893 storm's centennial and due to be rededicated that October.

The newest look at the site we found is a pair of photos taken for the Historical Marker Database on June 15, 2024. They show the cemetery behind a chain-link fence with a gate, and at the roadside, on gravel, a flagpole, two white statues, the granite monument, the green cast cemetery marker of 1996 and a newer sign commemorating the hurricane's dead. A cross and a bare dead tree stand in the grass behind.

The USGS sheets in the historic maps below show the change. The 1892 sheet, made the year before the storm, shows the village as rows of houses along the shore of Caminada Pass and back across the ridge, with Grand Isle across the water. The 1947 sheet has a road along the ridge, a cemetery beside it, a road across the pass to Grand Isle and only a few buildings. The 1957 sheet shows buildings clustered at the west end of the crossing, with "Ruins" marked by the shore. The 1983 sheet labels the whole headland Cheniere Caminada, and the 1994 sheet shows a dense grid of buildings, boat slips and the cemetery southwest of them.

• Cheniere cemetery and 1893 graves
• Hurricane monument
• 1996 marker and a newer hurricane sign
• Dead live oak
• Later camps and houses
• Caminada Pass bridge

Historic maps

Cheniere Caminada on USGS maps, 1892–1994

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18921:62,50019471:31,68019571:24,00019831:100,00019941:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Grand Isle is the nearest town. Both routes end at the west end of the Caminada Pass bridge, where Central Avenue leaves LA 1, at the northeast end of the village as the 1892 sheet draws it. The cemetery is on LA 1 about 0.7 mile southwest of the route's end: on the right coming from Leeville, before the camps, and on the left driving out from Grand Isle (OpenStreetMap).

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Cheniere Caminada in photos

A damaged house after the hurricane of 1893A shell beach with two houses, August 2006, titled Cheniere Caminada by the photographer; the exact spot isn't recordedAn abandoned wooden house with a box fan in the window, August 2006, titled Cheniere Caminada by the photographer; the exact spot isn't recorded

Visitor reports

Been to Cheniere Caminada?

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Nearby

Other sites near Cheniere Caminada

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Louisiana index.

• Burrwood44.0 mi E · Plaquemines
• Pilottown47.9 mi E · Plaquemines
• Fazendeville50.6 mi N · St. Bernard
• La Balize57.2 mi E · Plaquemines
• Good Hope57.9 mi N · St. Charles
• Frenier65.9 mi N · St. John the Baptist
• Ruddock72.2 mi N · St. John the Baptist
• Bayou Goula96.6 mi NW · Iberville

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Cheniere Caminada, Louisiana", retrieved October 2026: 1,500 to 1,600 people, their origins, the church and priests, oysters, cane and oranges, 55 miles from New Orleans by boat, 779 dead, today's camps and bait shops, coordinates.
2. Wikipedia, "1893 Cheniere Caminada hurricane", retrieved October 2026: landfall, winds, the reported 20-foot storm tide, the 1893 accounts of 6 to 8 feet of water and the modeling, the death counts, 62 under one roof, four of 450 homes left, the Thibodaux Sentinel, the ranking among U.S. hurricanes.
3. Heart of Louisiana, "Cheniere Caminada Hurricane", Dave McNamara, September 25, 2023: 1,471 residents and 779 dead, the 18-foot surge, children among the dead, the Curole house, the cemetery, oak and memorial.
4. Town of Grand Isle, Day of Remembrance, published September 27, 2023, for October 1, 2023: the remembrance program at the Cheniere cemetery and monument, 779 of 1,500 dead.
5. Country Roads Magazine, "Relics 2015: Caminada Cemetery", Lucie Monk Carter and Paul Christiansen, September 22, 2015: the fenced cemetery, sinking ground, crumbling tombs, the dead oak, survivors moving to higher ground.
6. Country Roads Magazine, "Cheniere Caminada's "Great October Storm"", Christie Matherne Hall, September 27, 2016: the 16-foot surge, the ridge height, the 62 under one roof, where survivors went, the camps and bait shops by the bridge, the cemetery and mass grave.
7. Historical Marker Database, "The Chenière Caminada Hurricane", photographed by Craig Doda, June 15, 2024: the newest dated report on the site, two photos of the fenced cemetery with its flagpole, statues, monument and markers at the roadside, and the newer sign's text (779 of 1,500 dead).
8. Historical Marker Database, "Cheniere Caminada Cemetery", photographed by Rick Collins, December 21, 2012: the text of the 1996 marker (over 750 dead, all but 13 of over 300 family homes destroyed, mass graves) and who put it up.
9. L'Observateur, GeauxPass toll rate increase, December 1, 2022: the toll on the LA 1 bridge at Leeville and how it is billed.
10. LAGenWeb, Cheniere cemetery, listings of 1985 and 2011: the location on LA 1, the fence and outlying graves, the 1866 grave, Grand Isle's 1978 recognition.
11. USGS Cheniere Caminada sheet, 1892, Caminada Pass sheets, 1947, 1957 and 1994, and Terrebonne Bay sheet, 1983 (in the historic maps below): the village, the cemetery, the bridge and the later settlement.
12. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited below. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; OpenStreetMap also for the cemetery's location. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• A damaged house after the hurricane of 1893: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• A shell beach with two houses, August 2006, titled Cheniere Caminada by the photographer; the exact spot isn't recorded: hspauldi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
• An abandoned wooden house with a box fan in the window, August 2006, titled Cheniere Caminada by the photographer; the exact spot isn't recorded: hspauldi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Cheniere Caminada 1892, 1:62,500; Caminada Pass 1947, 1:31,680; Caminada Pass 1957, 1:24,000; Terrebonne Bay 1983, 1:100,000; Caminada Pass 1994, 1:24,000.