Image courtesy of The Great Flood Centennial Project.
The 1927 Mississippi River Flood historic marker at the Pointe Coupée Museum in New Roads.
In recent months, Pointe Coupée Parish has gathered its cultural engines around two sites of historic significance—first, a memorial of one of America’s most devastating natural disasters, the other a place of inspiration for one of our country’s most profound literary voices.
On December 16, 2025, community members gathered at the Pointe Coupée Museum in New Roads to dedicate the very first official historic marker commemorating the upcoming centennial of the 1927 Mississippi River Flood.
A two-year initiative by the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation (LTHP), the Great Flood Centennial project aims to work with communities along the Mississippi Delta to remember, document, and interpret the longstanding impact of the greatest flood in American history—which engulfed 23,000 square miles across the Mississippi River Valley. In addition to the hundreds of deaths and thousands of individuals displaced in the flood’s immediate aftermath, lasting effects included new legislation, population and economic shifts, the establishment of modern levee and transportation systems, and environmental and cultural losses.
“There are so many stories within our communities that were impacted by the flood,” said Kriston McCullum, the project manager for The Great Flood Project at LTHP. “One of our goals is to highlight and make visible these stories from individuals and communities.”
To achieve this, LTHP has created a collaborative digital archive of written stories, oral tellings, photos, videos, and other ephemera telling the many stories of the flood, and invites organizations and individuals to contribute.
[Read this: "Survival Instinct—How Louisiana's wildlife fared after the flood of 1927"]
The other major branch of this project is the historical marker program—officially launched with the Pointe Coupée marker, which recognizes the parish as the site of the last levee breach of the 1927 flood. The marker itself, designed by local artist Joel Breaux, is a tall aluminum pole with a spun funnel on top, which will collect rainwater. A gauge on the marker will indicate the floodwaters’ depth during 1927, and a compass at the foot of the installation provides historical facts on other nearby impacted sites.
McCullum said the hope is more communities will invest in historical markers to commemorate their own stories of the flood, as well as collaborate with the Great Flood Project to create specialized programming, events, and exhibitions leading up to the centennial in 2027.
Follow False River five miles east, and you’ll find the parish’s other newly recognized historic site right beneath a four-hundred-year-old oak tree, one of the legendary survivors of the 1927 flood. Known colloquially as the “Miss Jane Pittman Oak,” the tree served as inspiration for the Louisiana literary icon, Ernest J. Gaines, in his 1971 novel The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.
A landmark of Gaines’s own youth, which he passed daily walking from his home at River Lake Plantation, the tree gained immortality as a symbol of endurance for Gaines’s character, Miss Jane.
In October of 2022, the original historical marker—dedicated earlier that year—was stolen and never recovered. Four years later, on January 18, 2026, thanks to the joint efforts of the Pointe Coupée Historical Society, the Albert Family Foundation, the Curet Family, and donors of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, a new marker was finally purchased and installed to recognize the tree’s historical, literary, and spiritual significance to the region.
[Read this: "Literary Pilgrimages Across the South"]
“What a wonderful time to be alive to pause and celebrate the life and legacy of our native son, Ernest J. Gaines and the Miss Jane Pittman Oak,” said Katrice Albert. “The replacement and rededication of this important historical marker allows us to remember his literary excellence and his enduring love for Pointe Coupée. For citizens and visitors alike, it educates us about our cultural heritage, creates a sense of place and pride, and preserves the stories of our people and our community.
Learn more about the Great Flood Project at 1927flood.lthp.org. Visit the new markers at the Pointe Coupée Museum and at 11850 LA-416 Lakeland, LA 70752.
