Bayou Mardi Gras, across the Mississippi River, was the oldest place-name of non-Indian origin in the entire Mississippi River Valley. On Tuesday, 3 March 1699, Pierre le Moyne, Sieur D'Iberville, and his companions camped where the bayou, then 135 feet wide, entered the river. Because that day was the pre-Lenten holiday Mardi Gras, he gave the name to both the bayou and the adjoining point of land. The name later disappeared from maps and was replaced by Bayou Plaquemine and by Fort Bayou because of nearby Fort St. Philip, established by the Spanish in 1795, and Plaquemine Point. On 28 January 1971, the Plaquemines Parish Commission Council officially restored the name Bayou Mardi Gras.