Have you ever wondered how the name English Turn came about? According to Captain Willard Glazier’s 1885 book, “Peculiarities of American Cities”, an ambitious English frigate was navigating the Mississippi River looking to claim territory when Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne (aka Bienville) and several of his men rounded a bend in the river just below present-day New Orleans in two bark canoes (though Glazier asserts the men were in a more imposing vessel). While not exactly an intimidating sight to behold, Bienville nonetheless paddled over to the ship and convinced English captain Louis Bond that a large community of French settlers were already established upriver and would defend France’s claim to the territory. Bond bought Bienville’s bluff and promptly turned his ship around, and the area about 75 miles from the Mississippi River’s mouth has since been known as English Turn.
