Krotz Springs Map
Krotz Springs is a town in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana on the Atchafalaya River. The population was 1,219 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Opelousas–Eunice Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Around the turn of the 20th century, an Ohio native, C W Krotz, bought 20,000 acres (81 km2) of woodland around the Atchafalaya Basin and set up a sawmill to trim the trees hauled out of the basin. The tiny settlement that grew up around the mill was called Latania (fan palm), after the bayou of the same name and the types of palm plants found in the area.
Thinking he was sitting on an untapped pool of oil Krotz put down the first oil well in St. Landry Parish, but he struck water instead of oil, the result becoming known as Krotz’s spring. The spring was used to supply water for the developing sawmill town and Krotz even bottled the water, selling it throughout the country.
Nearby cities include Melville, Livonia, Port Barre, Leonville, Maringouin.