Venice (Orchard) Louisiana

Venice Louisiana is appropriately named after that famous Italian city of canals and gondolas. Both feel as though they could sink at any time. The photograph below shows a wetland typical of those in and around Venice, it was taken on the road to the marina.

Just the Facts

NOTE: Venice Louisiana is too small to show up in U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

Venice Louisiana is more of a stop-over than a final destination. Orchard Louisiana can't be found, and unless you know it exists because you've seen it on a map, you'd swear it isn't there. Technically Orchard is the very last town on the road and just a tad south of Venice. Until somebody puts up a sign however, any kind of sign that let's you know you're in Orchard, you'll just think you're in Venice. I'll have to guess at the population but I'd say it's well under one hundred--probably under fifty. At any one time, I'd guess that most of the people in Venice are passing through in one way or another. The town does have a couple of motels, restaurants, shops and a marina and port which provide a livelihood for the town's inhabitants.

An unusual sight in Venice is all the helicopters. You'd swear they have at least one for everybody who lives there. During the day you see them taking off and landing all around town. These helicopters are the ferry service for the people who work the off-shore oil rigs. My younger brother lives in Alaska and works for British Petroleum, and when I mentioned to him that Isaac and I had visited Venice Louisiana he said, "Oh yeah, I've been to Venice. I flew out of there a couple of times."

In addition to being the debarkation point for people working out in the Gulf, Venice is a commercial fishing port and sport fishing paradise. The Venice marina is larger than the town and packed full of every imaginable kind of boat. There are certainly more boats in Venice than there are buildings. Commercial fishers work out of Venice and fish for shrimp, mullet, red fish, tuna, et cetera. The sport fishing enthusiasts come from all over the country; apparently the Gulf waters around the Mississippi delta are a hot location. As I understand it, the oil rigs themselves actually bolster the quality of the sport fishing business functioning as artificial reefs where fish congregate. At the Venice marina you can charter a boat or join a group charter for a day or more of deep sea fishing. You can also bring your own boat and the marina will provide you with launching and mooring services.

With all that fresh fish around, Venice is a great place to go for lunch. You can easily make the drive down and back from New Orleans in a day with plenty of time to look around. A seafood lunch at the Riverside Restaurant couldn't be fresher if you caught it yourself.

At Venice the levees finally fade away. The river is no longer a flood risk--you've reached the ocean, and no matter how much water comes down the Mississippi, it isn't going to raise the level of the ocean. Still, many of the homes in Venice are built on stilts fifteen or even twenty feet high. This is to guard against a storm surge in the event a Gulf hurricane hits the area. The winds from a category three or four hurricane can easily raise up a ten or even fifteen foot high wall of water and drive it ashore. Venice, in this case, would go under.

As you look around down here you see water everywhere. Half of what little land you do see is wet and swampy. Wildlife abounds. The birds are a special delight. Water birds of all kinds can be seen in profusion. We saw egrets, heron, pelicans, what looked like cormorants, all types of ducks, and dozens of species we couldn't identify. And we saw fish--big fish! We saw a catfish that must have been over two feet long (for us that's a big fish). We also saw bird watchers--folks in their cars or along the roadside with binoculars watching the birds. The cypress swamps are exotic and beautiful; any time of the year something's in bloom. Also a treat for Isaac and myself were the citrus trees and citrus groves. Once you travel south of New Orleans the climate is suitable for growing oranges and grapefruit. My first trip to Venice was the first time I'd ever seen orange trees bearing fruit.

Venice is at the end of the road, but not the end of the river, and it is not the last town on the river. Pilottown is the last town on the river, but the only way to get there is by boat. Ocean going ships heading up river are met at Pilottown where the ships pilots are exchanged. The pilots who bring the ships across the ocean are not qualified to handle them in the smaller confines of the river channel and so as the ships pass pilottown they are met by a boat carrying the pilot who will take the ship to its final destination.

If you're wondering why the road continues a little further on past Venice, the marina is down that way as is a fairly large industrial complex that looks to be oil industry related. You can actually drive a bit further, but to do so you must drive on a private gravel road that belongs to that oil business. At the end of the road there is a sign put up by the State of Louisiana which is in fact somewhat inaccurate; there's still a little more of Louisiana further south, there's just no road to take you there.

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