Ama, LA

At the 2020 census, Ama had a population of 1,290 in St. Charles Parish, on the west bank of the Mississippi River just west of the Jefferson Parish line. It grew around plantations and the river levee, with a post office established in 1891. Even the name comes with local debate: one tradition connects Ama to Amazalie Perret, a postmaster’s daughter, while the parish history also records a Greek theory meaning “to love.” Either way, Ama is a place where the river and family names do a lot of the map-making.

The Sellers family left an especially strong mark. Alice Plantation stood here, Sellers Canal gave the family a route toward Grand Isle, and the plantation’s story included levee moves, river pressure, and a 1938 fire. St. Mark Catholic Mission Chapel was built around 1912, mass was held in the old Ama school, and St. Mark’s became a parish in 1974. The plantation is gone and the school was demolished in the 1980s, but the chapel, levee, Mississippi batture, and old family stories keep Ama connected to the German Coast landscape. It is a small place with a very large river beside it.