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Bayou Manchac forms the original boundary between East Baton Rouge Parish and Ascension Parish in south-central Louisiana. (Small changes in the bayou's course have subsequently left small areas of Ascension north of the river and small areas of East Baton Rouge south of it.) The bayou, which empties into the Amite River -- which flows into Lake Maurepas, not into the Mississippi -- was the Sieur d'Iberville's route into the area in March 1699, and it was a major trading route in south Louisiana throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. It formed the northern local border of the Louisiana Purchase in December 1803, Baton Rouge and the parishes to the east (and north of the Isle of Orleans) remaining under Spanish Control and known as West Florida. This area is still known as the "Florida Parishes." In the past, settlers along the bayou generally said they lived "in Manchac" (as settlers on Bayou Lafourche usually said they lived "on Lafourche"), but this should not be seen as implying the existence of a town of that name. The only town in the area was the now-vanished Galveztown, at the juncture of Bayou Manchac and the Amite. The town of Manchac, or Port Manchac, in Tangipahoa Parish has no connection with the bayou itself.
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