The abundance of fish, wildlife, natural resources, and waterways for travel attracted early Native American people to the Spanish Lake Basin and Alligator Bayou areas. Evidence of native people extends back 8,000 years when migrating tribes collected clamshells from the salty Gulf of Mexico waters lapping at the ridge. At that time the area was on the southern coast of the North American continent; the Mississippi River had not yet created much of southeastern Louisiana (see Chapter 2 Introduction). Native people were certainly present 3,500 years ago, as evidenced by pottery shards discovered on a ridge near Alligator Bayou. Later, between 600 BC and 1,590 AD, native people developed a village on the banks of Bayou Manchac just across from Alligator Bayou. The village was a regional seat of government, just as Baton Rouge is today. More