Ruddock

Overview

A mill town on stilts

Ruddock stood on the narrow strip of swamp between Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain, about 10 miles north-northeast of LaPlace. The railroad had crossed that strip since the 1850s. In 1892 William Burton and C. H. Ruddock of the Ruddock Cypress Company built a sawmill there to cut the swamp's cypress, and a company town grew up beside it.

It was a town built on stilts. Two-story houses stood above the dark water, joined by raised walkways of cypress slabs. By 1915, accounts list a post office and telegraph office, a commissary and company office, a locomotive repair shop, a blacksmith, a boarding house, a one-room school and Holy Cross Catholic Church. There was no grocery store, so people took the daily train to New Orleans to shop. Wikipedia puts the population at about 700 in 1910; other accounts run as high as 1,000.

On the night of September 29, 1915, the great hurricane came in off the Gulf. By morning only one house was left standing, by L'Observateur's account. The death toll is given as 28 from the Ruddock area, or 58 from Ruddock and Frenier together; the sources differ. The railroad was rebuilt, but the town never was. The swamp grew over the site, and today the name survives on an exit sign on I-55.

Timeline

Cypress, the railroad and the storm

1. Early 1800sGerman colonists settle the land, by L'Observateur's 2015 account.
2. 1850sThe railroad is built along the western shore of Lake Pontchartrain, across the strip of swamp between the lakes. L'Observateur dates the route to 1854.
3. 1891–1892The Ruddock Cypress Company is incorporated in 1891 (L'Observateur). In 1892 William Burton and C. H. Ruddock build a sawmill and a town for its workers (Wikipedia), and the town takes the Ruddock name.
4. 1902The sawmill burns. It is rebuilt.
5. 1910About 700 people live in Ruddock, by Wikipedia's count. FOX 8 says up to 1,000; an undated listing gives about 900 around the turn of the century.
6. By 1915The town has a telegraph office, a post office, an engine shop and a boarding house, two-story houses on a walkway of cypress slabs over the swamp, a school and Holy Cross Catholic Church.
7. Sep 29–30, 1915The great hurricane of 1915 strikes overnight. L'Observateur counts 28 dead from the Ruddock area and one house left standing; Wikipedia, citing a 2009 history of the lakes, says 58 residents of Ruddock and nearby Frenier were killed.
8. After 1915The railroad is rebuilt. The town is not.
9. 1936–1967USGS sheets keep the name Ruddock beside the highway and Ruddock Canal, with a handful of buildings.
10. 1990Researcher Wayne Norwood interviews survivor Helen Schlosser Burg, who calls the place "still, quiet, and a forgotten place."
11. 2011Ruddock is still signed as an exit on I-55 and marked on the state highway map.
12. 2016FOX 8 reports that the site is now only a boat launch, and that Norwood has collected thousands of bottles, housewares and tools from the lost communities. L'Observateur had reported in 2015 that he dives in the swamp for artifacts.
13. May 2021The state closes the I-55 ramps at Ruddock (exit 7) for high water until it recedes.
14. Oct 2023The Historic New Orleans Collection describes the place as an unassuming boat launch, identified only by an exit sign that reads "Ruddock." This is the newest dated report on the site that we found.

What's left

An exit sign and the swamp

Nothing of Ruddock stands. An undated listing says nothing remains but the interstate exit sign. Wikipedia, citing Robert Hastings's 2009 history of the lakes, says only decayed wood from the buildings is left. FOX 8 reported in 2016 that the site is now only a boat launch, and showed the broken dishware, bottles, grindstones and tools collected by Wayne Norwood, who has studied Ruddock for decades; L'Observateur reported in 2015 that he dives in the swamp for them.

The USGS sheets in the historic maps below show the change. The 1892 sheet has only the railroad crossing the marsh between the lakes. The 1936 and 1952 sheets label Ruddock with a few buildings where Ruddock Canal meets the highway, with the railroad to the east. The 1967 sheet adds a jeep trail along the railroad, and by 1983 the interstate runs through. Today's map puts the name between I-55 and the railroad, with Old US Highway 51 alongside the interstate.

• Nothing standing
• Buried artifacts in the swamp
• Ruddock Canal
• Railroad line
• I-55 exit 7, signed Ruddock

Historic maps

Ruddock on USGS maps, 1892–1983

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.

18921:62,50019361:31,68019521:24,00019671:24,00019831:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

LaPlace is the nearest city. Both routes leave I-55 at exit 7, the Ruddock exit, and end on Old US Highway 51 beside the interstate near the mapped townsite. The state has closed these ramps when the swamp floods. We haven't verified what is there now or who owns the land.

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

Photos

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Visitor reports

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Nearby

Other sites near Ruddock

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

• Frenier6.7 mi S · St. John the Baptist
• Good Hope14.8 mi S · St. Charles
• Fazendeville31.7 mi SE · St. Bernard
• Burtville43.3 mi W · East Baton Rouge
• Bayou Goula44.9 mi W · Iberville
• Morrisonville48.4 mi W · Iberville
• Anchorage50.6 mi NW · West Baton Rouge
• Alma63.5 mi NW · Pointe Coupee

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Ruddock": fact sheet fields (roads, climate, best time, remains, population).
2. Wikipedia, "Ruddock, Louisiana", retrieved October 2026: the 1892 founding, the 1902 fire, about 700 people in 1910, the town's buildings and church, the daily train, the 1915 hurricane and 58 dead (citing Robert W. Hastings, The Lakes of Pontchartrain, 2009), decayed wood, the 2011 exit sign and highway map, coordinates.
3. L'Observateur, "Ruddock washed away 100 years ago", September 30, 2015: German settlers, the 1854 railroad, the 1891 incorporation, the telegraph and post offices, engine shop and boarding house, the cypress-slab walkway, the storm of September 29, 1915, 28 dead and one house standing, Wayne Norwood and Helen Schlosser Burg.
4. FOX 8 (WVUE), "Heart of Louisiana: Hurricane of 1915", updated October 27, 2016: up to 1,000 people, the 1850s railroad, the I-55 exit and the boat launch, an estimated 28 deaths in the area, Norwood's finds.
5. L'Observateur, "Emergency road closure: I-55 northbound and southbound ramps at Ruddock", May 20, 2021: the state transportation department's closure of the exit 7 ramps for high water.
6. Sarah Drago, "The Julia Brown curse: hoodoo, hurricanes and the storm that swamped Ruddock", The Historic New Orleans Collection, October 25, 2023: the site as "an unassuming boat launch" identified only by the Ruddock exit sign, Ruddock lost for good after the 1915 hurricane.
7. USGS Bonnet Carre sheet, 1892, Ruddock sheets, 1936, 1952 and 1967, and Ponchatoula sheet, 1983 (in the historic maps below).
8. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, credited below. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• US 51 at the Ruddock exit, looking north beside the elevated I-55, June 2013: formulanone from Huntsville, United States, 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): Bonnet Carre 1892, 1:62,500; Ruddock 1936, 1:31,680; Ruddock 1952, 1:24,000; Ruddock 1967, 1:24,000; Ponchatoula 1983, 1:100,000.