Perhaps one of the least well known European ventures in the Americas was the German Colonization of the New World and the Colony of Klein Venedig. Though the country of Germany didn’t exist until 1870, Germans from the many principalities of the Holy Roman Empire were just as interested as anyone in striking it rich by conquering a wealthy new world empire like the Aztec or Inca. Some were even driven by the desire to find that mythical city of gold, El Dorado.
On Louisiana highway 1, just south of the leeway bridge in Jefferson parish, not far from where the road ends, is a marker for the Cheniere Caminada cemetery, all that remains of a once thriving town that disappeared virtually overnight.