Cameron Parish, Louisiana

Among them were Joseph "Beausoleil" Broussard, his brothers Alexander and Pierre, and their wives and families, who first went to Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) before settling in Louisiana.In the 18th century, France ceded its holdings in Louisiana and other areas west of the Mississippi River to Spain, and the Spanish colonial government made grants of land to the Acadians.In 1803, Napoleon sold all the French territory west of the Mississippi River to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.In the 1806 Neutral Ground agreement, both parties agreed to leave this free of military occupation or civil law enforcement.[5] The Mermentau Jayhawkers were made up of a band of "200 mounted draft dodgers, bushwhackers, cattle thieves, runaway slaves, and Confederate deserters from Texas and Louisiana.This is among the largest civil parishes in Louisiana, yet the least populated, owing to the high proportion of land area made up of marsh and wetlands.Authors Nola Mae Ross and Susan McFillen Goodson chronicled the stories of many survivors in their book Hurricane Audrey (1997).[9] The American Medical Association honored a local Cameron physician, Cecil Clark, as the 'General Practitioner of the Year' in recognition of his dedicated service despite the great personal loss.[10] Hurricane Audrey was a defining event for Cameron Parish for nearly 50 years, with local history being divided into "before" and "after" the storm.[11] Nearly all of the coastline in that area was flooded heavily, with surge and floodwaters reaching 60 miles inland,[12] as far north as Lake Charles.[25] The system operates six[24] Cameron Parish, once solidly Democratic, has trended sharply Republican in recent years.Like other Acadian parishes with large Cajun populations, Cameron has turned sharply right in the 21st century based on cultural issues and Democrats' discomfort with the oil and gas industry.