Slidell, Louisiana

Slidell was born in eighteen eighty-three when the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad was looking for the first solid high ground north of Lake Pontchartrain on its new line to Meridian, Mississippi. Workers set up camp at that ridge, a town grew around the depot, and the Louisiana Legislature chartered it as Slidell in eighteen eighty-eight, naming it for John Slidell, a New Orleans politician who had served as a U.S.

Senator, negotiated for the United States in Mexico, and later became a Confederate diplomat to France. The town sits in Saint Tammany Parish, named for the Delaware Indian chief Tamanend, who helped early settlers and was so revered that colonial Americans called him a patron saint of the republic. Slidell today is the largest city in Saint Tammany Parish, rebuilt and expanded after Hurricane Katrina severely damaged it in two thousand five.