Locate
Ponchatoula
on the map of Tangipahoa Parish
Population: 5,425
Mayor:
Julian E. Dufreche (D)
(504) 386-6548
Clerk:
Elizabeth LeSaicherre
(504) 386-6484
P. O. Box 428
Ponchatoula, LA 70454
Chief of Police:
Tim Gideon (D)
Tangipahoa
Parish Info
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Ponchatoula is a Choctaw name meaning falling or flowing hair, which was the Indian description of the fungus we call Spanish Moss. William Akers built a house along the Old Spanish Trail in 1832. When the railroad was commissioned, a small village began to grow as the work crews building over the swamps to the south needed a base camp. Eventually sawmills were built to harvest the abundant pine and cypress forests nearby. Strawberry and truck farms provide another basic industry to the area.
The original Ponchatoula, La. railroad depot is built by the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad (later Illinois Central). The depot is burned when Union forces captured town in March 1863. Rebuilt c. 1865. Present depot built in 1894 & remodeled in the 1920s.
Altitude: 129 feet msl
Type of Government: Mayor and Board of Alderman (5) Lawrason Act
Fire Department: 6 full time, 48 vol. Fire Rating: 4
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Districts
Congress-
ional | Supreme
Court | Court of Appeals
Circuit ~District | Public
Service | BESE | Senate | House | Judicial |
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5 |
1 ~ 3 |
1 |
6, 8 |
6, 11, 12, 15 |
62, 72-75, 77 |
21 |
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