Pilottown, Louisiana
| Pilottown | |
| Unincorporated community | |
 Pilot Town in the 1880s
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Louisiana |
| Parish | Plaquemines |
| Elevation | 3 ft (0.9 m) |
| Coordinates | 29°10′54″N 89°15′27″W / 29.18167°N 89.25750°WCoordinates: 29°10′54″N 89°15′27″W / 29.18167°N 89.25750°W |
| Area | 7.2 sq mi (18.6 km2) |
| - land | 5.0 sq mi (13 km2) |
| - water | 2.2 sq mi (6 km2), 30.56% |
| Population | 0 (2010) |
| Density | 0/sq mi (0.0/km2) |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 70081 (closed) |
| Area code | 504 |
  Location of Pilottown in Louisiana
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 Location of Louisiana in the United States
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Pilottown (or Pilot Town) is a small unincorporated community in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States. It serves as a base for river pilots to guide ships across the bar and up and down the Mississippi River.
In the 18th and 19th century, the French settlement and fort that preceded Pilottown near the mouth of the Mississippi was known as La Balize, a name that meant "seamark" in French. La Balize was located about ten miles downriver from Pilottown.
Pilottown was constructed and settled after September 1860 in its current location. It replaced the earlier village of La Balize, that had been founded more than 160 years earlier downriver. After the hurricane of September 14–15, 1860, blew its buildings down and destroyed the area in a storm surge, La Balize was finally abandoned. The main river passage was moved to the Southwest Pass, because of its deeper water. The Mississippi River pilots built their new settlement upriver above Head of Passes. They named it Pilottown.
The first French settlers had built a crude fort and dwellings for La Balize near the mouth of the Mississippi in 1699. The name meant "seamark", and the French built a 62-foot-high wooden pyramidal structure in 1721 to help guide ships on the Mississippi River and at its shifting delta. This was where river pilots came to live.
Pilottown is built on piers in swampy ground on the East Bank of the lower Mississippi River, about 85 miles (137 km) down-river from New Orleans (65 miles or 105 km by air) and about 10 miles (16 km) south of Venice, Louisiana. Pilottown is located a few miles above Head of Passes, the point considered to be the mouth of the Mississippi River. Below there the River splits into multiple branches. This is part of the active delta front that has, over time, built up the larger Mississippi River Delta.
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Wikipedia