Лаплас: История и современность города в Луизиане

LaPlace (/l//ə/'/p//l//ɑː//s/ ləPLAHSS) is a census designated place (CDP) in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, United States, situated along the east bank of the Mississippi River, in the New Orleans metropolitan area. In 2020, it had a population of 28,841. LaPlace is the southern terminus of Interstate 55, where it joins with Interstate 10, and of US 51, where it terminates at the junction with US 61. LaPlace is located 25 mile (40 km) west of New Orleans.

The Chitimacha lived in the region prior to the arrival of European colonists. The tribe’s lands once encompassed the entire Atchafalaya Basin, westward to Lafayette, southward to the Gulf of Mexico and eastward to the New Orleans area. The Chitimacha tribe currently resides on a reservation in St. Mary Parish.

Present day LaPlace was settled by German immigrants in the early 18th century during Louisiana's French colonial period, as part of a larger settlement on the bank of the Mississippi called Karlstein. Karlstein was one of the four settlements collectively known as the "German Coast" , having been populated by German speaking immigrants since 1721. French and Acadians intermarried with the Germans, and the area came to be known as Bonnet Carré (French for "square bonnet").

Manual Andry built Woodland plantation in 1793 and forced enslaved people to cultivate sugarcane there. The amount of money he stole from their forced labor was sizable. Severe violence was inflicted on the enslaved people, as had been common in Haiti (and had led to a successful slave rebellion there). In early January 1811, slaves at Woodland Plantation and several nearby plantations attempted the German Coast Uprising. A group of 200 500 slaves armed with guns, axes, and cane knives set out from LaPlace to conquer New Orleans and gain freedom for themselves and others. Local white "militia" men crushed the rebellion within three days, and nearly 100 slaves were either killed in battle, slaughtered by pursuing militia, or executed after summary trials by planter tribunals.

In 1879, pharmacist, planter, and patent medicine purveyor Basile Laplace arrived from New Orleans and established a large plantation in Bonnet Carré. In 1883, he allowed the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Railroad to cut through his land. In 1850, a flood created the Bonnet Carré Crevasse, a levee breach that was more than a mile wide. In February 2016 and again in March 2016, several tornadoes touched down in LaPlace, damaging hundreds of buildings and disrupting power. LaPlace was badly damaged by Hurricane Ida on August 29, 2021.

Despite the spelling used for LaPlace's namesake, the St. John the Baptist Parish Police Jury decreed in 1971 that the official spelling of the town includes a capital letter "P".

Andouille, a smoked pork sausage that originated in France, is popular in LaPlace and elsewhere in Louisiana, but in the 1970s, then Governor Edwin Edwards proclaimed LaPlace the "Official Andouille Capital of the World". Since 1972, LaPlace has held an Andouille Festival every October.

The Port of South Louisiana is headquartered in LaPlace. Other major employers in the region include Shell Chemical Company, DuPont, ADM Growmark, and ArcelorMittal (formerly Bayou Steel).

LaPlace is located at (30.075025, 90.484896) and has an elevation of 10 feet (3 m). According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 22.7 square miles (59 km2), of which 21.5 square miles (56 km2) is land and 1.2 square miles (3 km2) (5.29%) is water.

Cable and Internet services in LaPlace are provided by Reserve Telecommunications.