Des Allemands: Catfish Capital of the Universe

Des Allemands, French for the Germans, takes its name from the German settlers who arrived on Louisiana's German Coast in seventeen twenty-one, some of the earliest European colonists outside New Orleans. These Rhine Valley immigrants spread out from the Mississippi River into the bayous and swamps, farming the waterlogged land and fishing the vast Lac des Allemands nearby. Historians credit them with feeding the struggling young colony of New Orleans when it might otherwise have starved.

Their descendants stayed, and the community built around Bayou des Allemands became known above all for catfish. The town today calls itself the Catfish Capital of the Universe and long hosted a Louisiana Catfish Festival.