Mile 186.0 RBD — Claiborne Island

John Ruskey

26 Apr 2026 � 1 min read

Claiborne Island has joined the mainland of the West Bank of the river, but still houses a narrow slice of wetlands in the batture protected between the river and the levee. Unfortunately this wild place has no safe landings, and as result is not easily accessible. William Charles Cole Claiborne was born in Virginia, in the portentous year of 1775. At the age of 20, the young man went to Tennessee, where the following year he helped frame a constitution for the new State. When Claiborne was 26 years old, President Thomas Jefferson appointed him to serve as governor of the Mississippi Territory. In 1803, Governor Claiborne and General James Wilkinson were appointed commissioners to receive possession of the vast territory known as the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson then named Claiborne as the temporary governor of the Orleans Territory and later appointed him its permanent governor. In September, 1811, Louisiana was getting ready to elect its first State governor, and William Caliborne wrote to his friend Julien Poydras that he had purchased a plantation and planned to become "a plain simple Planter." Claiborne was a candidate for governor of the new State, but he thought his chances of election very slim. He was mistaken; he won the office by a large majority. In 1817 Governor Claiborne was elected to serve in the V .S. Senate, but he died within a year. He was 42 years old at the time of his death. Claiborne's plantation was on the west bank of the Mississippi, and the old steamboat landing and the V.S. Coast Guard navigation light in the area still bear his name. (Braggs)

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