Mile 138.0 - RBD Reserve

138 RBD Reserve

The Reserve Ferry is no longer in operation, but paddlers can stop at the old Ferry Landing and access Reserve. Be sure to pull your vessel out of the water. Tugboats making big waves also frequent this landing. Recommended resupply: Greg's Neighborhood Market, just over the levee, past US Post Office and 2 blocks further into town. Greg's Neighborhood Market, 148 Central Ave, Reserve, LA 70084.

Reserve, Louisiana, is a small town located in the heart of one of the most productive sugar cane producing areas of Louisiana. It is the home of Godchaux Refinery, one of the nation's largest sugar companies. Sugar cane has been the basis of Louisiana's agricultural economy for almost two hundred years. Early French settlers in the Louisiana colony had tried to produce it in 1725, but the effort was a failure. They tried again in 1762, and failed again. They had turned to indigo and cotton as export crops, but in the closing years of the century, the indigo was all destroyed by insects and the cotton that had to be separated from its seed by hand was hardly profitable enough to make it worth raising. In 1795, Etienne de Bore, made desperate by crop failures, decided to risk everything he had on one more effort to produce sugar. He bought a supply of seed cane, engaged a professional sugar maker, installed machinery for grinding and boiling the cane, and made $12,000 on his first crop. His neighbors were quick to follow his example. An influx of refugees from Santo Domingo gave impetus to the industry. The newcomers were familiar with sugar culture and had brought their skilled slaves with them to Louisiana. By 1827 there were 308 sugar estates in Louisiana, employing about 21,000 able- bodied slaves in the production and processing of the crop. By 1849 there were 1,536 sugar plantations, employing more than 100,000 slaves in the production of the profitable crop. The sugar plantations today are highly mechanized, but the method of production remains much the same. Cane is planted by burying stalks end to end in a shallow furrow. The new cane comes from the "eyes" of the old stalk. The growing season is from April to October, and cutting usually begins late in October. In the old days, the cutting had to be done by hand, but today machines are used. The stalks are loaded into high "wagons" and trundled to the sugar refinery behind a tractor. In the mill the cane is crushed, the syrup is processed, and the sugar is produced and refined. (Braggs: Historic Names)

138 RBD - 137.6 LBD Reserve Ferry

Note: Reserve Ferry not in operation Fall 2015.