Morgan City

City in St Mary Parish, southeastern Louisiana; population (2000) 12,700. Morgan City lies on Berwick Bay of the Atchafalaya River, and on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, 80 km/50 mi south of Baton Rouge.

Founded in 1850 in an area formerly inhabited by the Chitimacha, and in the 18th century by French settlers driven out of Acadia (Nova Scotia), Morgan City has long been a fur-trapping centre and a fishing port. It was an early railway terminus, of strategic importance during the Civil War. After oil was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in 1947, the city became the headquarters for offshore drilling companies. Local industries include shipbuilding, seafood processing (especially shrimps and oysters), and the manufacture of machinery, chemicals, and metal products.