The Drowned Towns of Ruddock and Frenier: What the 1915 Storm Took
On a still morning out here, the water goes flat enough to hold the whole sky, and it is easy to forget you are floating over anything but mud and cypress roots. You are not. Somewhere under my kayak, and under yours if you come out with us, are the bones of two towns that had post offices and train schedules and Saturday nights, right up until one September morning in 1915 when the lake stood up and walked through them. This is the true part of the Manchac ghost story. Not the curses and the candles, the actual history. If you want the folklore, we keep that in the Julia Brown legend in full. This post is about what really stood here, and what really took it. You are paddling over two towns Their names were Ruddock and Frenier….