The Cane River (French: Rivière aux Cannes) is a 30-mile-long (48 km) river[1] in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, originating from a portion of the Red River. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it gained prominence as the locus of a Creole de couleur (multiracial) culture,[2] centered around the Melrose Plantation and the adjacent St. Augustine Parish (Isle Brevelle) Church. Melrose Plantation is a National Historic Landmark.
In 1836, the Red River shifted into an eastern channel, known as the "Rigolette de Bon Dieu."[3]
Lyle Saxon wrote a short story titled "Cane River" published in 1926.[4] The Cane River and Creoles also feature in Saxon's 1937 novel Children of Strangers.[5]
^U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National MapArchived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed June 3, 2011
^The term of multiracial background créole was applied to all individuals born in the colony of parents from another continent, regardless of color, and to their offspring. Free Creole citizens of multiracial origins were classed Creoles of color, gens de couleur libre, or free people of color. Today, the term Créole, when applied to Louisianians, usually references its historically distinct multiracial culture.
^N. Philip Norman. "The Red River of the South". Louisiana Historical Quarterly. v. 25. (April 1942), no. 2. p. 397.
