NO Adventure

Way back in the day, New Orleans had two amusement parks. Pontchartrain Beach was the predominant one that existed on the spot of today’s UNO campus. Before integration, there was a blacks-only amusement park further east on the lake. According to WIKI, “the Orleans Levee Board first designated this section as a swimming area in the lake for “Colored” New Orleanians, then built out additional land in the lake for the amusement park to be built on. The park was similar to the then “whites only” Pontchartrain Beach amusement park on a smaller scale. It featured various rides, games, restaurants, a swimming pool in addition to lake swimming, and frequent live music performances.”

Lincoln Beach was active from 1939 to 1965.

John and I decided to kayak there.

There were tons of wooden posts sticking out of the water from all the piers that were knocked away during Katrina.

Judging by the sun, we had less than 2 hours of daylight.

After a short paddle, we arrived at a pretty nice beach on the eastern edge of the park.

The water visibility was remarkably clear for Lake Pontch(in another post I’ll go snorkeling in the lake – but probably on the north shore).

Once on land, there were these buttresses. I don’t know what they were used for exactly but they appeared to be part of a concrete deck along the water with some sort of roof for shade. Directly behind this decking was the fabled Lincoln Beach swimming pool(now filled with weeds and rubble). It was easily bigger than 2 olympic-sized pools and it was right on the lake.

On the west side of the park is another beach; this one’s a little bigger and had a few people fishing off the rocks.

The structure that is most intact at Lincoln Beach is this pavillion, where people probably ate and chilled. Almost all of the other buildings
have been torn down since Katrina. I’ve heard talk of developing or restoring the park, but I don’t see it happening just yet.