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A bayou ( or ) is a small, slow-moving stream
Stream

A stream is a body of water less than 60 feet wide with a current , confined within a stream bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as brook, beck, Burn , creek, crick, kill, lick , rill, river syke, bayou, rivu...
 or creek, or a lake or pool (bayou lake) that lies in an abandoned channel of a stream.






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Big Cypress Bayou
Labayou
A bayou ( or ) is a small, slow-moving stream
Stream

A stream is a body of water less than 60 feet wide with a current , confined within a stream bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as brook, beck, Burn , creek, crick, kill, lick , rill, river syke, bayou, rivu...
 or creek, or a lake or pool (bayou lake) that lies in an abandoned channel of a stream. Bayous are usually located in relatively flat, low-lying areas, for example, in the Mississippi River
Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
 delta
River delta

A delta is a landform that is created at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river....
 region of the southern United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. A bayou is frequently a slackwater anabranch
Anabranch

An anabranch is a section of a river or stream that diverts from the main watercourse channel and rejoins the mainstem downstream.In the simplest case, an island or rock in the river creates a main course and an anabranch course; a more significant anabranch would diverge for a distance of several kilometres before rejoining....
 or minor braid of a braided channel, that is moving with less velocity than the mainstem
Mainstem (hydrology)

A mainstem is defined as the principal river within a given drainage basin, in the case where a number of tributaries discharge into a larger watercourse....
. Many bayous are the home of crawfish, certain species of shrimp
Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, Decapoda crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh water and seawater. Adult shrimp are Filter feeder benthic animals living close to the bottom....
, other shellfish
Shellfish

Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton bearing aquatic invertebrate used as food, including various species of Molluscas, crustaceans, and echinoderms....
, and catfish
Catfish

Catfish are a very diverse group of Actinopterygii fish. Named for their prominent barbel s, which resemble a cat's whiskers , catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest, the Pangasius gigas from Southeast Asia and the longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores , and even to a tiny parasite species commonly called the ca...
.

The word was first used by the English
English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England who speak English language in England. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
 in Louisiana
Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
 and is thought to originate from the Choctaw
Choctaw

The Choctaw are a Native Americans in the United States people originally from the Southeastern United States . They are of the Muskogean languages group....
 word bayuk, which means "small stream." Another theory on the origin of bayou is from the French words "bas lieu" (pronounced phonetically as ba-li-you) meaning "low land". The first settlements of Acadian
Acadian

The Acadians are the descendants of the seventeenth-century France French colonial empires who settled in Acadia . Although today most of the Acadians and Qu?b?cois are francophone Canadians, Acadia was founded in a geographically separate region from Quebec leading to their two distinct cultures....
s in southern Louisiana were near Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Lafourche

Bayou Lafourche is a bayou in southeastern Louisiana, United States, that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The first settlements of Acadians in southern Louisiana were near Bayou Lafourche and Bayou des Ecores which led to a close association of the bayou with Cajun culture....
 and Bayou des Ecores, which led to a close association of the bayou with Cajun
Cajun

Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles and peoples of other ethnicities with whom the Acadians eventually intermarried on the semitropical frontier....
 culture.

Bayou Country is most closely associated with Cajun
Cajun

Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles and peoples of other ethnicities with whom the Acadians eventually intermarried on the semitropical frontier....
 and Creole
Louisiana Creole people

Louisiana Creole refers to people of various racial backgrounds who are descended from the colonial France/Spain settlers, African Americans, and Native Americans in the United Statess from the time before the Louisiana territory became a possession of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase....
 cultural groups native to the Gulf Coast region generally stretching from Houston, Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
, to Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama

Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern United States United States state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama....
, with its center in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans metropolitan area metropolitan area, the largest metro area in the state....
.

An alternate spelling "buyou" has also been used, as in the "Pine Buyou" used in a description by Congress in 1833 of Arkansas Territory.

In Fiction

Bayous are often the setting of horror stories as they are commonly seen as spooky and mysterious.

Films
  • Southern Comfort (film)
    Southern Comfort (film)

    Southern Comfort is an United States thriller film directed by Walter Hill , working from a script by Hill, longtime collaborator David Giler, and Michael Kane....
  • Eve's Bayou
    Eve's Bayou

    Eve's Bayou is a 1997 in film Drama film Screenwriter and Film director by Kasi Lemmons, who made her directorial debut with this feature. Samuel L....
  • The Skeleton Key
    The Skeleton Key

    The Skeleton Key is a 2005 Horror film-suspense film released in the UK on 22 July and in the USA on August 12. It is set in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana and has a cast led by Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, and John Hurt in an original screenplay by Ehren Kruger, directed by Iain Softley....
  • Hatchet
    Hatchet (film)

    Hatchet is a 2007 in film slasher film from Ariescope Pictures directed by Adam Green . Set in the Louisiana bayou , it is the story of the legend of Victor Crowley....
  • The Reaping
    The Reaping

    The Reaping is an United States horror film released on April 5, 2007, and starring Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb and Stephen Rea....
  • Swamp Thing
    Swamp Thing (film)

    Swamp Thing is a 1982 in film horror film written and directed by Wes Craven. It starred Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau and Ray Wise as the scientist who was transformed into a monster by a laboratory accident....


Literature
  • the novels of Anne Rice
    Anne Rice

    Anne Rice is a best-selling United States author of gothic fiction and religious-themed books. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002....
  • The Southern Vampire Mysteries
    The Southern Vampire Mysteries

    The Southern Vampire Mysteries is a series of books written by The New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris, first published in 2001....


Television
  • True Blood
    True Blood

    True Blood is an Television in the United States Drama created and Executive producer#Television by Alan Ball . It is based on the Sookie Stackhouse book series by Charlaine Harris....


Music
  • Bayou Country
    Bayou Country

    Bayou Country is the second album by United States band Creedence Clearwater Revival, released in 1969 ....
     (album)     - Creedence Clearwater Revival
    Creedence Clearwater Revival

    Creedence Clearwater Revival was an United States rock and roll band who gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various Studio album....
  • Blue Bayou
    Blue Bayou

    "Blue Bayou" is the title of a song written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson and sung by Orbison. The best known version remains Linda Ronstadt's 1977 cover, which was a top-ten pop, country and easy listening single in the U.S.; the song was included on Ronstadt's Triple-Platinum-Plus Simple Dreams album....
     - Roy Orbison
    Roy Orbison

    Roy Kelton Orbison was an influential Grammy Award-winning United States singer-songwriter, guitarist and a pioneer of rock and roll whose recording career spanned more than four decades....
  • Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
    Jambalaya (On the Bayou)

    "Jambalaya " is a song credited to United States country music singer Hank Williams that was first released in 1952. Named for a Louisiana Creole cuisine and Cajun cuisine, jambalaya, it spawned numerous cover versions and has since achieved popularity in a number of music genres....
  • Louisiana Bayou-Dave Matthews Band
  • Evangeline-The Icicle Works (mentioned in lyrics)


See also

  • Wetland
    Wetland

    File:Mangrove trees in Everglades.JPGA wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water....
  • Slough
    Slough (wetland)

    The word slough has several meanings related to wetland or aquatic features.The etymology is related to the Dutch word 'slechten' = to lower, to cut, to destroy....
  • Swamp
    Swamp

    A swamp is a wetland featuring temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land, by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a substantial number of hammock , or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation....
  • Hurricane on the Bayou
    Hurricane on the Bayou

    The film Hurricane on the Bayou is about the wetlands of Louisiana before and after Hurricane Katrina.Hurricane on the Bayou is both a documentry of Hurricane Katrina's effects and a call to restore Louisiana's wetlands, rebuild New Orleans, and honor the culture of the city....
  • New Orleans
  • Louisiana
    Louisiana

    The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....


Notable bayous

  • Bayou Bartholomew
    Bayou Bartholomew

    Bayou Bartholomew is the longest bayou in the world. Until the construction of railroad lines in the area in the late 1800s, it was the most important stream for transportation in the interior Delta....
  • Bayou Lafourche
    Bayou Lafourche

    Bayou Lafourche is a bayou in southeastern Louisiana, United States, that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The first settlements of Acadians in southern Louisiana were near Bayou Lafourche and Bayou des Ecores which led to a close association of the bayou with Cajun culture....
  • Cypress Bayou
    Cypress Bayou

    Cypress Bayou is the name applied to a series of wetlands at the western edge of Caddo Lake, in and around Jefferson, Texas, making up part of the largest Cypress forest in the world....
  • Bayou St. John
    Bayou St. John

    Bayou St. John is a bayou within the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.The Bayou as a natural feature drained the swampy land of a good portion of what was to become New Orleans into Lake Pontchartrain....
  • Devil's Bayou
    Devil's Bayou

    'Devil's Bayou' is the fictional setting from Walt Disney Pictures' 1977 animated film, The Rescuers.This gloomy swamp is the hideout of the evil Madame Medusa, here is where she has brought the little orphan girl, Penny , so she can search for the Devil's Eye, the world's largest diamond in a pirate cave near by, at the Black Bayou...
     (fictional)
  • Big Bayou Canot
    Big Bayou Canot train disaster

    The 1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck was the derailing of an Amtrak train on the CSXT Big Bayou Canot bridge near Mobile, AL , killing 47 and injuring 103, on September 22, 1993....
  • Buffalo Bayou
    Buffalo Bayou

    Buffalo Bayou is a main waterway flowing through Houston, in Harris County, Texas, United States. It begins on the west side of the county near Katy, Texas and flows approximately east to the Houston Ship Channel and then into Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico....
  • 12-mile bayou
  • French bayou