Manchac, Louisiana

Historical marker in Manchac (Akers), Louisiana

Middendorf Restaurant is, as of 2012, actually a sequence of three restaurants along old United States Highway 51. The view is toward the south.

Manchac (also known as Akers) is a small unincorporated community in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States.

Fort Bute or Manchac Post, named after the then British Prime Minister John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, was established in 1763 at the junction of Iberville River (Bayou Manchac) with the Mississippi River, and remained an important British military and trading post in West Florida until captured by Spanish forces under Bernardo Galvez of Louisiana on September 7, 1779, during what became known as Battle of Fort Bute of the American Revolutionary War. Manchac was raided in February 1778 by American forces under the command of James Willing—see related articles Continental Marines and USS Morris (1778).

Manchac is part of the Hammond Micropolitan Statistical Area. The name "Manchac" derives from a Choctaw expression for "rear entrance" (i.e., to Lake Pontchartrain). "Akers" is a namesake of Willie Akers, a telegraph operator on the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad who in 1857 began operating Manchac's first post office.

Manchac was one of the originally planned stations along the railroad, generally at intervals of 10 miles. Akers' father, William Akers, was the first mayor of Ponchatoula the station to the north of Manchac. Manchac straddles the railway, which is, at the start of the 21st century, part of the Canadian National Railway system.

Manchac is located on Lake Maurepas on the Pass Manchac waterway, which connects to Lake Pontchartrain. It is home to the ruins of one of the five lighthouses set up for Lake Pontchartrain, the Pass Manchac Light. The existing lighthouse (the fourth on the site) was completed in 1857. It was automated in 1941, and the dwelling was razed in 1952; the Coast Guard decommissioned the light and abandoned the property in 1987.

Manchac is known for fishing, duck hunting, seafood restaurants like Middendorf's, and swamp tours. It is also home to the Port Manchac Distribution Center, with storage facilities and rail, truck, and water links to the east, west, and north. Interstate 55 has exit and entrance ramps for Manchac.

External links

• Port Manchac