Last month, this photo came up for sale on eBay. It was labeled on the back, “Monroe, La. Jany 1st 1877, 18 inches snow. The heaviest known to white men. View of wharfboat which fell to pieces from the weight of the snow. Ouachita River at low water mark.” I really believe this photo is one of Mealy’s fifteen lost views of the 1877 snow I mentioned in the “South Grand Street Covered In Snow” post I did a few years ago.
I don’t exactly know where the wharf was located, but on the 1890 Sanborn maps there is a freight steamboat landing at the end of Breard street about where the Children’s Museum currently sits. I think this view is looking towards Trenton.
What a rare treasure! Two down, thirteen more to find! I donated the photo to the collection of Ouachita Parish Public Library and it is digitized (you can zoom in a little better) here: https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/oplib-pho%3A806
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 