Located in the town named for it, Abita Springs, the site was originally a Choctaw Nation Village centred around the Artesian Spring – said to have great medicinal qualities. Near the Abita Trailhead, Park, Museum & Pavilion
Legend of the Spring:
For centuries the local Choctaw Indians knew about the healing powers of the water found in what is now known as Abita Springs.
This story is of a young Spaniard named Henriques who lived in
Louisiana during the late 1790s. While hunting along the shores of Lake
Pontchartrain, he met a beautiful Choctaw girl and persuaded the chief
to allow them to marry. After bringing her home to New Orleans,
Henriques watched his wife grow pale and weak, and soon he realized that
she was very ill.
None of the local doctors could cure her so Henriques finally consulted
the Choctaw’s medicine man. The young woman was carried to the spring
and left there with only a hammock, food and a dipper to drink from the
spring.
When Henriques returned, to his amazement, his wife was totally well and the water’s fame as a curative began to spread.
