Pilottown, Louisiana

Pilottown is built on piers in swampy ground on the banks of the lower Mississippi River, about 85 miles down-river of New Orleans (65 miles by air) and about 10 miles south of Venice, Louisiana. It is just upriver from the point where the Mississippi River Delta splits into multiple branches. Pilottown serves housing for Mississippi River pilots; ocean going shipping takes aboard a river pilot when navigating the river. The Pilottown pilots serve the area from the mouth of the Mississippi to New Orleans; vessels going further up river take on other pilots in New Orleans. The town consists of a few buildings, mostly housing pilots, a small general store, and a weather station, connected by raised wooden sidewalks. Pilottown is accessible only by water or by helicopter. In the 19th and early 20th century many pilots and their families lived here, but now most make their residence in larger communites up river and only stay in temporary quarters in Pilottown while working. The peak population was probably reached in the 1860s, when Balize had a population of some 800 people. Today the permanent population of Pilottown is small, less than 20 people, and Pilottown is not listed in the United States census figures.