Father Charles Menard of St. Joseph's Church in Thibodaux, Louisiana, offered the first mass on this bayou in June 1842. The original mission chapel was built in 1843 about a mile below this site. Archbishop J.M. Odin, C.M., appointed Father Jean-Marie Joseph Denecé as the first pastor in South Terrebonne, and during his tenure from 1864 to 1890 he erected a larger church in 1867 in honor of St. John the Baptist. In time, it became known as Sacred Heart Church or L'Église Centrale, and from it priests ministered to the people of Petit Caillou, Grand Caillou, Pointe-Aux-Chênes, Île Jean-Charles, and Le Terrebonne (Montegut).