[Map of proposed railroad from Morganza to Opelousas, Louisiana]

In 1835 the Atchafalaya Railroad Co. was granted a charter to establish a rail line from the Mississippi River at Morganza, in Pointe Coupé Parish, to Opelousas, La. In St. Landry Parish. This railroad, along with fourteen others was part of a large-scale railroad-building project planned to link LA's three major rivers-The Mississippi, the Red, and the Sabine. This map, which traces the projected route documents Louisiana's early antebellum railroad development projects in which seventy-five percent of the railroads chartered by the state legislature during the 1830's failed to materialize.