Abandoned Towns
A two-storey bar pilots' house with deep porches, raised on piers, with a wooden boardwalk and a water tank in front, September 1938

River and lake town

Pilottown

A town on piers in the marsh of the Mississippi delta, founded by river pilots after the 1860 hurricane. NBC News put its old population at about 200; Katrina wrecked it in 2005, and no one has lived there permanently since. No road reaches it.

29°10′54″N 89°15′27″W · ≈5 ft

Photo: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Access not verified · no road

Pilottown can be reached only by water or helicopter, by Wikipedia's account. It is a working pilot station: in January 2025, the newest dated report we found, the Crescent River Port Pilots sent pilots there by boat. Rivergator, a paddlers' guide, calls it "a semi-private collection of dormitories for river pilots." We found no dated source on who may land there. Don't land without permission from the people who work there.

Overview

The pilots' town at the end of the river

Pilot Town, an engraving from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, 1883
Pilot Town, an engraving from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, 1883 · Photo: Artist not credited., Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Ships coming up the Mississippi from the Gulf have to take on pilots who know the river. For more than a century and a half, many of those pilots lived and waited at Pilottown, a strip of houses on piers on the east bank, about two river miles above Head of Passes (river mile 1.9 in Rivergator's log), where the river splits for the sea. Wikipedia gives it 7.2 square miles, 5 of them land, at an elevation of about 3 feet.

The town began after the hurricane of September 1860 destroyed the pilots' village on Southwest Pass, which then went by the name of the Balize, by Wikipedia's account; geographer Richard Campanella (2025) writes that a Balize on Southeast Pass, the old pilot station's later site, held on into the late 1870s. The river's main channel had moved to Southwest Pass, and the pilots built a new settlement upriver and named it for themselves. Fishermen, pilots and their families lived there through the 19th and early 20th centuries. When Russell Lee photographed it in 1938 it had boardwalks raised over the marsh, a pilots' clubhouse, a bar pilots' house and a barroom busy on Saturday night.

The families drifted upriver. The school closed in the 1970s and the post office about 2001. By 2004 NBC News found almost no one but the bar pilots, 45 of them, living there two weeks on and two weeks off. Hurricane Katrina struck nearby in August 2005 and damaged nearly every structure. The Associated Branch Pilots, based there since the 1860s, moved to Venice. The last residents never came back; Wikipedia reports no permanent residents as of 2020. The Crescent River Port Pilots, who take ships from Pilottown up to New Orleans, still keep a station for pilots on duty, by Wikipedia's undated account, which Rivergator repeats.

Timeline

From La Balize to Katrina

A river pilot entering the River Port Pilots' clubhouse, September 1938
A river pilot entering the River Port Pilots' clubhouse, September 1938 · Photo: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. Officials in Paris order La Balize, a pilot station at the mouth of the Mississippi, built (Campanella). Wikipedia's La Balize article says the French had put up a 62-foot wooden pyramid there as a seamark for ships by 1721.
  2. A hurricane destroys the pilots' village on Southwest Pass, then called the Balize (Wikipedia's La Balize article). The main channel has already shifted to Southwest Pass, and the river pilots found a new settlement upriver, above Head of Passes, and name it for themselves. Campanella (2025) has a Balize on Southeast Pass lasting into the late 1870s.
  3. The Associated Branch Pilots make Pilottown their base, "since the 1860s" in Professional Mariner's words (2008). NBC News (2004) dates the association itself to 1870.
  4. Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi prints an engraving of Pilot Town: buildings on piers, tall towers and boats at a landing.
  5. Russell Lee photographs Pilottown for the Farm Security Administration: the bar pilots' house, the river pilots' clubhouse, a barroom on a Saturday night and men building new elevated boardwalks.
  6. The USGS Cubits Gap sheet labels "Pilot Town," a row of buildings along a walk on the east bank.
  7. The one-room school closes.
  8. The post office closes when no one will take the postmaster's job. The ZIP code, 70081, stays.
  9. NBC News finds a place "part ghost town and part bachelor barrio": once about 200 residents, now almost no one but 45 bar pilots working two weeks on and two weeks off.
  10. Hurricane Katrina damages nearly every structure. The Associated Branch Pilots' headquarters is pushed off its foundation; the pilots move to Venice, into a new building there by December 2007. The last few residents don't come back.
  11. Wikipedia reports no permanent residents as of 2020, and notes that Pilottown isn't listed in census figures. The Crescent River Port Pilots keep a station for pilots on duty, by Wikipedia's undated account, which Rivergator repeats.
  12. With Highway 23 not open to Venice, the Crescent River Port Pilots send pilots down to Pilottown by crew boat, nine of them on January 23, to start moving ships again.

1938 and 2004

Life on the boardwalk

Building new elevated boardwalks over the marsh, September 1938
Building new elevated boardwalks over the marsh, September 1938 · Photo: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Saturday evening in the barroom, September 1938
Saturday evening in the barroom, September 1938 · Photo: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Pilottown was built for a place where the ground floods. Russell Lee's 1938 photographs show buildings raised on piers and men building new elevated boardwalks across the marsh; the original caption says tides and swampy conditions made the walks necessary. In 2004 NBC News described the main street as an elevated sidewalk a mile and a half long, used to reach fishing spots and for biking and jogging. Wikipedia and Rivergator both describe it today as a raised concrete walkway running the length of the island.

Lee also photographed the social life: a Saturday evening in the barroom, and two women in the combined bar and pool room watching from the window for the boat. By 2004 the island's two bars had closed. NBC found the bar pilots staying in waterfront camps or in dormitories at their headquarters, taking two or three calls a day, and sharing the island with birds, bullfrogs and alligators.

What's left

A pilot station in the marsh

The River Port Pilots' station, photographed by Carol M. Highsmith; undated, probably before Katrina
The River Port Pilots' station, photographed by Carol M. Highsmith; undated, probably before Katrina · Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Wikipedia and Rivergator, both undated, describe a few buildings: temporary housing for river pilots, a weather station, large oil tanks and the concrete walkway. NBC News reported in 2004 that the one-room schoolhouse still stood. We have no dated report since Katrina of which buildings survive.

The USGS sheets in the historic maps below show the town's shape. The 1949 sheet labels "Pilot Town" with a line of buildings along a walk on the east bank; the 1953 sheet has Pilottown above Head of Passes; the 1971 and 1993 sheets add a levee, oil tanks at the north end, a radio tower, two lights on the shore and the boundary of the Delta National Wildlife Refuge behind the town.

  • Pilot housing
  • Weather station
  • Oil tanks
  • Raised concrete walkway
  • Schoolhouse (standing in 2004)
USGS topographic map of Pilottown on the east bank of the Mississippi, with marsh behind it and storage tanks at upper left
USGS The National Map, topo. The Pilottown label on the east bank, with the river at left, marsh behind and boundary lines crossing it; storage tanks at upper left.
Aerial view of Pilottown: brown river water at left, a line of small buildings along the bank, a larger building with piers, and marsh and ponds inland
Aerial imagery, same area. The river at left. Small buildings line the bank, a larger building with piers sits at lower centre and a tank at upper left; marsh and ponds lie inland.

Historic maps

Pilottown on USGS maps, 1949–1993

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.

USGS topographic map around Pilottown, 1949
Cubits Gap sheet, 1949, 1:31,680 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

No road reaches Pilottown. Wikipedia says it can be reached only by water or helicopter. Both routes below end where the road ends, south of Venice, about 7 miles in a straight line from Pilottown across the river's passes and marsh. We give no boat route, and we haven't verified that visitors may land.

USGS topographic map of the lower Mississippi from Venice to Pilottown and Main Pass, with the route to the end of the road drawn on it

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

From Venice5.0 miabout 14 min
  1. From Jump Basin Road in Venice, continue south on Tide Water Road.3.2 mi
  2. Turn left on Venice Boat Harbor Drive and follow it to where the road ends. Pilottown is about 7 miles southeast, across the water.1.8 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The routes are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us. They stop at the end of the road; the last 7 miles to Pilottown are water and marsh.
  • Pilottown is a working pilot station. We found no dated statement on whether visitors may land. Ask the pilots' associations before you go.
  • The lower river carries ocean-going ships. Rivergator's paddlers' guide warns of the wakes of passing freighters.
  • This is hurricane country, and the town sits a few feet above the river. Check the weather and river stage before any trip on the water.

Photos

Pilottown in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Pilottown?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

River and lake

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Colored view of the Balize in 1828: a sailing brig, a steamboat and a rowboat on choppy water, low buildings and a lattice tower on the marsh behind, and an alligator on a floating logGuide

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Nearby

Other sites near Pilottown

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Pilottown, Louisiana", retrieved October 2026: La Balize and the 1860 hurricane, the founding, the school and post office, Katrina and the pilots' move to Venice, the Crescent River Port Pilots, current buildings and walkway, water or helicopter access, no permanent residents as of 2020, area, elevation and coordinates.
  2. NBC News, "Out of the river and into the Gulf", Mike Brunker, August 19, 2004: some 200 former residents, the association's 1870 founding, 45 bar pilots on two-week rotations, camps and dormitories, the elevated sidewalk, the school, the post office, the closed bars, wildlife.
  3. Professional Mariner, "New pilot boat navigates the mouth of the Mississippi", January 16, 2008: the Associated Branch Pilots' Pilottown station, their base since the 1860s, wiped out by Katrina, and the December 2007 move into a new building at Venice.
  4. Rivergator, "Venice to the Gulf", read October 2026 (undated; footer ©2023): "a semi-private collection of dormitories for river pilots," river mile 1.9, the concrete walkway, the pilots' stations, freighter wakes.
  5. Moran Shipping, port notices for New Orleans and the Mississippi River, January 22 and January 23, 2025, relaying the pilots' and maritime association's updates: Highway 23 not open to Venice, Crescent pilots sent down by crew boat, "9 pilots enroute to Pilottown via boat."
  6. Library of Congress Farm Security Administration photographs by Russell Lee, September 1938, and Carol M. Highsmith, via Wikimedia Commons (in the photos): buildings, boardwalks, clubhouse and barroom.
  7. USGS Cubits Gap sheet, 1949, West Delta sheet, 1953, and Pilottown sheets, 1971 and 1993 (in the historic maps below): "Pilot Town," the levee, tanks, radio tower, lights and refuge boundary.
  8. Wikipedia, "La Balize, Louisiana", retrieved October 2026: the 62-foot seamark by 1721, the pilots' village on Southwest Pass by 1853 and its destruction in the September 1860 hurricane.
  9. Richard Campanella, "In Search of the Balize", The Times-Picayune, June 8, 2025: the December 23, 1721 order for La Balize, and the Balize on Southeast Pass lasting until the Eads jetties of the late 1870s.
  10. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

  • The bar pilots' house, raised on piers, September 1938: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Pilot Town in Life on the Mississippi, 1883: Artist not credited., Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Buildings and boardwalks, September 1938: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Building new elevated boardwalks, September 1938: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Entering the River Port Pilots' clubhouse, September 1938: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Saturday evening in the barroom, September 1938: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Watching for the boat from the barroom window, September 1938: Russell Lee, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • The River Port Pilots' station, undated, probably before Katrina: Carol M. Highsmith, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • USGS aerial image of Pilottown and the river, January 1998: United States Geological Survey (USGS), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Oil storage tanks near Pilottown from a Coast Guard overflight after Katrina, September 8, 2005: U.S. Coast Guard, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
  • Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Cubits Gap 1949, 1:31,680; West Delta 1953, 1:62,500; Pilottown 1971, 1:24,000; Pilottown 1993, 1:24,000.