English: 1830 - French Creole Cottage located on Bayou Liberty in Slidell, Louisiana. The cottage was built by an early settler with bricks made on site. Evidence suggests this structure served as a trading post for Native Americans and early Spanish and French settlers. An 1885 property deed indicates the building was used as a store and that a ferry and landing was operated nearby. The property is surrounded with giant oak trees in which the branches touch the ground and drip with Spanish moss while the view just in front of the creole cottage porch is a picture perfect view of Bayou Liberty. Bayou Liberty, lined with huge Cypress trees and knees, merges with Bayou Bonfouca just before it meets the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, a brackish estuary located on the north shore of the lake and New Orleans, Louisiana. Bayou Liberty and Bonfouca are two of the several fresh water bayous that flow into Lake Pontchartrain and mixes with the salty waters from the Gulf of Mexico. The diversity of this area is incredible from its American Indian, French, Spanish, Creole, African and European settlers to the diversity of the plants and animals native to the area combined with the physical beauty of the area make up the treasured land that we call home. Unique, historic and diverse, this creole cottage is less than an hour drive from New Orleans, Louisiana.