Holding Down the Fort

(Left) This plaque on the grounds of Fort Jackson commemorates Louisiana’s first Mardi Gras. Across the Mississippi River from what later became Fort Jackson, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville camped with his party on March 3, 1699, Mardi Gras day. (Right) Constructed as a pentagon, Fort Jackson contains walls made of red brick that in some places are twenty feet thick.

Ten miles before LA HWY 23 halts in Venice, self-proclaimed “End of the World,” Mark Cognevich finds himself in his usual position doing double duty. He’s back for his weekly work as self-appointed groundskeeper at Fort Jackson, the masonry fort constructed between 1822 and 1832 to protect the lower Mississippi River. After mowing near the wood footbridge that crosses the fort’s moat, Cognevich pauses to answer questions from a Washington Post journalist working on an article about the salt wedge that since April 2023 has contaminated drinking water in the area. In Cognevich, a councilman born and bred in nearby Buras and president of the Plaquemines Parish Historical Association, she’s found the reason that Fort Jackson remains open.

Cognevich leads her toward the Mississippi River. Across the river on Plaquemines Parish’s east bank lies the location of Louisiana’s inaugural Mardi Gras. The site of that first ritual, in 1699, appeared on early maps as Bayou Mardi Gras. Today, it bears the name Plaquemines, the parish that owns Fort Jackson, where on April 27, 1862, Confederate soldiers mutinied against their commanding officers. Days later, New Orleans fell to Union forces.

Cognevich holds the keys to Fort Jackson’s gates. He also keeps its stories. “Our mission is to preserve history,” he says after the journalist leaves and he returns inside the fort. He’s lapsed into his Historical Association role, or maybe that role and this one — pulling weeds that choke a Civil War-era cannon — are interchangeable. “This looked worse last week,” he says. “It will look the same next week when I come back, but the work needs to be done to keep this place alive.”

When heading south on LA Hwy 23, the Fort Jackson Museum and Welcome Center lies one mile before the fort itself.

The gods condemned Sisyphus to roll his boulder uphill. Cognevich chose this duty. Aside from once each year when the parish sends a crew or when he organizes volunteers, Cognevich has been the sole groundskeeper at Fort Jackson since 2019, when he assumed office. When he’s not here for his weekly work, visitors who cross the moat will find the fort locked.

“Every time I cut the grass, it’s open,” Cognevich says. In the past thirty minutes, half a dozen people have wandered in freely. If they had pulled up yesterday or tomorrow, they could have walked the property but not set foot inside the fort, now a National Historic Landmark. And yet they continue to come. At the Fort Jackson Museum, one mile upriver on LA 23, today’s guest log includes addresses from Louisiana, Illinois, and Minnesota. “I’ve seen China, France, Belgium, England, Canada,” Cognevich says. “It’s like that all the time.” But that’s only because Cognevich has made it so. “I was willing to do the work for free and try to keep it open,” he says.

(Left) The Fort Jackson Museum houses Civil War-era munitions from the fort and relays the history of Plaquemines Parish’s citrus and seafood industries. (Right) Munitions carts and other artifacts remain on display inside Fort Jackson.

Before extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina, when six feet of water flooded the fort, causing structural damage, Fort Jackson had been open to the public every day. After Katrina, the parish received federal funds to help with restoration. Gates eventually reopened. A full-time crew maintained the grounds. Then came more storms, and for more than a decade, Fort Jackson has been closed — except when Cognevich is working here or when the parish opens its gates for the annual Orange Festival.

After his election, Cognevich moved his secretary into the then-closed Fort Jackson Museum. Now, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, visitors can see artifacts and learn about Fort Jackson, along with other Plaquemines Parish history, including the Belle Chasse Plantation and its citrus and seafood industries.

Buras native and Plaquemines Parish Councilman Mark Cognevich works year round to maintain the grounds at Fort Jackson.

“My daddy used to say that God put his hand on Plaquemines Parish,” says Cognevich, who first visited Fort Jackson at age five. “Down here, we have sulfur, natural gas, we have oil. We have every kind of seafood. You can fish in salt water, fresh water, brackish water. You can kill any kind of animal you want. Now, we’ve got all these storms. We’ve got saltwater intrusion. We’ve got the salt wedge. But still, there’s nowhere else in the world like it.”

Did You Know? The first Mardi Gras in Louisiana took place across the Mississippi River from Fort Jackson. Historical markers in Plaquemines Parish tell the story this way: On Tuesday, March 3, 1699, “Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur D’Iberville with his companions camped where the bayou — then 135 feet wide — entered the river. The day being the pre-Lenten holiday called Mardi Gras, he gave that name to both bayou and adjoining point of land.”