History of Lake Charles, Louisiana
The area on the east side of the Calcasieu River was defined as the southern part of the "Neutral Ground" until ratification of the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1821.
The infamous pirate, Jean Lafitte, once delivered stolen slaves and contraband to James Bowie and other enslavers in the area.
The Rio Hondo, which flowed through Lake Charles, was later called Quelqueshue, a Native American term meaning "Crying Eagle".
Jacob Ryan convinced the state government to move the parish seat to Lake Charles from its former location at Marion, a settlement about eight miles (13 km) upriver.
Later that year, Ryan and Samuel Kirby transferred the parish courthouse and jail by barge to the then-named Charleston.
By the time of the U.S. Civil War, many Americans from the North, along with a large influx of continental Europeans and Jews, had settled the area.
The area of present-day Lake Charles just east of downtown is known as the "Charpentier Historic District", from the French word for carpenter, and features unique homes from that era.
In the early 1880s, Michigan lumber tycoons, including R. H. Nason and N. B. Bradley, as well as William E. Ramsey (originally from Canada), had purchased large tracts of land in the area.
In 1887 the "Bradley-Ramsey Lumber Company" was formed by the "Michigan Men", who included Ramsey, Nason, Bradley, Lewis Penoyer and Benton Hatchett, owning over 150,000 acres.
The Lake Charles Civic Center, built on reclaimed land on the lakefront in the 1970s, hosted many national shows, acts, and pop singers such as Elvis Presley.
Lake Charles suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Rita, which struck the city as a Category 3 storm early September 24, 2005.
On June 20, 2006, a Citgo petroleum plant located in Sulphur, Louisiana released between 15,000 and 18,000 barrels (2.4 and 2.9 megalitres) of oil into the Calcasieu Ship Channel.
The Calcasieu Refining Co., which normally processes 76,500 barrels (12.16 megalitres) of oil a day, was working at low levels[specify] for weeks after the incident.
[6] As part of the city's recovery from Hurricane Rita, elected officials proposed a plan to renovate the downtown area to make it more attractive and pedestrian-friendly.
