IBERIA PARISH — A new Legends & Lore marker is being dedicated today in New Iberia, honoring the legend of pirate Jean Lafitte and the tunnel said to run beneath Bayou Teche.
According to local lore, Lafitte once approached Mrs. Depirier, the owner of an 1825 homestead that later became Mount Carmel School for Girls, asking for her help to make a clean getaway. The solution, as the story goes, was a tunnel running from the house to Bayou Teche. After his escape, Lafitte is said to have repaid her with gold and gems—treasure that remains hidden to this day.
The Teche Project applied for and received a grant to place the marker, which highlights the “Teche Tunnel” tale. The project’s administrator, Erin Z. Bass, said the group wanted to celebrate the local story while also connecting it to the wider history of the bayou.
John “Pudd” Sharp, assistant director of research at the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, explained that the Legends & Lore program is less about historical proof and more about stories communities continue to share.
“These are stories that persist over time and are told over generations and passed through families, like in this case, at a school in New Iberia,” Sharp said. “They aren’t necessarily found easily in other ways, so we try to preserve them this way.”
Whether the treasure is real or just legend, the new marker ensures Lafitte’s story continues to live on along the Teche.
