Camp Salmen House: French Creole on Bayou Liberty

On the banks of Bayou Liberty west of Slidell stands one of the oldest surviving French Creole cottages in Saint Tammany Parish. The Camp Salmen House dates to roughly eighteen thirty, built with bricks made on site in the pièce-sur-pièce timber framing tradition that French colonial builders brought to Louisiana. It is believed to have served as a trading post where Choctaw, Spanish, and French settlers exchanged goods along the bayou network that connected the north shore to New Orleans.

It is one of only fourteen surviving examples of period Creole architecture in the parish. The surrounding one hundred thirty acres became a Salmen Brick and Lumber Company property, which supplied bricks used in the construction of buildings across New Orleans. Boy Scout camps occupied it for decades.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in two thousand six and today forms the core of Camp Salmen Nature Park.