As Louisiana hunters, we have a profound and enduring appreciation for the beauty and tranquility this sportsman’s paradise provides. There’s something beyond description that overwhelms us each time we head afield. What else can justify the hardships we endure in pursuit of our quarry in this state we’re so proud to call home? For me, it’s knowing that others before us ventured into this same wilderness without the modern conveniences we’ve come to enjoy. They came as adventurers, much as we liken to be on our outings afield, but during their time things were much different.
Today, we’re only left with the remnants of this authentically wild Louisiana. But the explorers before us—the fortunate few—they saw our state in its raw and undisturbed beauty; I truly envy them for this, and have spent many countless hours and sleepless nights pouring over maps, manuscripts, translations, and journals trying to recreate, in my mind and in print, what Louisiana must have been like then.
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, Louisiana Explorer.
The Native Americans witnessed it for millennia, but there’s little written account. One of the first published records came in 1699 from the journal of Louisiana’s most well-known early explorer, Frenchman Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, or simply Iberville, as he’s commonly known today. Imagine the serenity of a time period when the only inhabitants of Louisiana were Native Americans. There was no hum of vehicles from the highways, no barking dogs, no churning barges, and no rumbling freight trains to be heard in the distance—only the peaceful sounds of wind, water, and the animals. Envision vast herds buffalo grazing throughout the prairies, eagles swooping into the waters, enormous alligators sunning along the rivers with graceful wolves trotting the banks, and thousands of cackling parakeets amongst the tops of towering virgin forests. These were just some of the things Iberville would experience on this wild frontier we call Louisiana.
It Begins
One of Iberville's larger ships, 3 of which would remain stationed off the coast of Biloxi, MS at Ship Island as he ascended the river.
Iberville was summoned by France in 1697 to lead an expedition to rediscover the mouth of the Mississippi River and colonize Louisiana. Although France knew of the mouth’s existence, no one had been able to find it from the Gulf of Mexico yet. Another expedition had been sent 15 years prior to this, and they overshot the mouth of the river, endlessly searching for it along the coast of Texas to no obvious avail. So, equipped with 3 large sailing ships in November of 1698, Iberville embarked from France towards Louisiana, and arrived at Ship Island off the coast of Biloxi, MS on February 10, 1699.
