Bayou Teche, an ancient channel of the Mississippi River that flowed through this area 3,800 to 5,500 years ago, became a center of daily life because travel by water was easier than by land in the late 1800s. The 125-mile bayou is lined by natural levees, crevasse splay ridges, and other geologic traces left when the Mississippi changed course. Early travelers used personal boats there, and by 1821 the Attakapas Steamboat Company served the waterway; in 1826 the steamer Louisville became the first to reach St. Martinville. By 1850, four steamboats regularly made the two-day trip from New Orleans up the bayou, carrying freight and passengers to Franklin, New Iberia, and St. Martinville, while also stopping at intermediate landings for commerce. Many activities that might otherwise have occurred in town took place by boat on the bayou, including trade and mail delivery, and in 1857 a member of the Weeks family wrote of a large flatboat that advertised in the local newspaper and floated along selling plants and evergreens. In New Iberia today, markers on the bank outline the bow of the Civil War steamer gunboat Teche, which lies below the water’s surface; after the war it was reused to carry goods and passengers between bayou towns and New Orleans, and it is believed to have wrecked and sunk there in 1868. The shipwreck was found in 2004, placed on the National Registry for Historic Places in 2008, and later had its keel removed for display at the Bayou Teche Museum.