Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana

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

Ponchatoula City Hall
125 West Hickory Street, Ponchatoula, LA 70454
985 386-6484   Fax: 985 386-5533

Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival
April: Ponchatoula, LA