Bayou Teche National Water Trail

The Bayou Teche is a 135-mile-long waterway of great cultural significance in south central Louisiana in the United States. Bayou Teche was the Mississippi River's main course when it developed a delta about 2,800 to 4,500 years ago. Through a natural process known as deltaic switching, the river's deposits of silt and sediment cause the Mississippi to change its course every thousand years or so.

Bayou Teche was added to the National Water Trail System in 2015 as the 17th water trail in the country and the first in Louisiana. This system is a network of exemplary water trails that are catalysts for protecting and restoring the health of local waterways and surrounding lands. They also provide a connection for current and future generations to the nature, history and adventure that can be found on the water.

The Teche begins in Port Barre where it draws water from Bayou Courtableau and then flows southward pass to meet the Lower Atchafalaya River at Berwick. During the time of the Acadian migration to what was then known as the Attakapas region, the Teche was the primary means of transportation.

During the American Civil War, fighting occurred on Bayou Teche on November 3–5, 1862. Four Federal gunboats with twenty-seven guns came up the Teche despite weak obstructions placed in the bayou by Confederate General Alfred Mouton. The gunboats engaged the Confederate ship Cotton near Cornay's Bridge in an exchange that lasted for an hour and a half. Though struck several times, the Cotton escaped real damage. In the next two days, two other duels occurred, and each time the Cotton prevailed.

After the levees were built along the Atachafalaya River in the 1930s, the Teche and the rice farms located along the bayou suffered a drastic reduction in fresh water. Between 1976 and 1982, the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a pumping station at Krotz Springs to pump water from the Atchafalaya River into Bayou Courtableau.

The etymology of the name "Teche" is uncertain. One hypothesis is that it comes from "tenche", a Chitimacha Indian word meaning "snake", related to the bayou's twists and turns resembling a snake's movement. The Chitimacha tell an ancient story of how the snake attacked their villages, and it took many warriors many years to kill it. Where the huge carcass lay and decomposed, the depression it left behind filled with water to become the bayou. Alternatively, George R. Stewart asserts that it is, "probably a French rendering of Deutsch, the name by which the German colonists of the area would have named their stream. Cf. Allemand ['German']."

Historic towns along the Teche include:

• St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
  • Port Barre, Louisiana
  • Leonville, Louisiana
  • Arnaudville, Louisiana
• St. Martin Parish, Louisiana
  • Cecilia, Louisiana
  • Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
  • Parks, Louisiana
  • St. Martinville, Louisiana
• Iberia Parish, Louisiana
  • Loreauville, Louisiana
  • New Iberia, Louisiana
  • Jeanerette, Louisiana
• St. Mary Parish, Louisiana
  • Charenton, Louisiana
  • Baldwin, Louisiana
  • Berwick, Louisiana
  • Franklin, Louisiana
  • Patterson, Louisiana