Cut Off had its start by the building of a canal cutoff at that point from Bayou Lafourche northeast to Lake Salvador, to shorten the route to New Orleans.[2] The name (La Coupe, or "The Cut") was French in origin.[3]
Louisiana Highway 1 runs through the center of Cut Off, along the west bank of Bayou Lafourche, while Highway 308 runs along the east bank. Highway 3235, a four-lane highway, runs through the west side of the community. All three highways lead northwest into Larose and south into Galliano. Thibodaux, the parish seat, is 37 miles (60 km) to the northwest (upriver), and Port Fourchon on the Gulf of Mexico is 34 miles (55 km) to the south.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the Cut Off CDP has a total area of 14.7 square miles (38.2 km2), of which 14.6 square miles (37.9 km2) are land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km2), or 0.85%, are water.[5]
A particular section of the town is known as Côte Blanche, French for "White Coast" because of a statistically abnormal number of white painted homes that lined Bayou Lafourche for much of the early and mid 1900s.[citation needed]
In a segment of Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe interviewed a Cut Off alligator farmer.
Cut Off School opened in 1927. In September 1950 the schools of Larose and Cut Off were consolidated into Larose-Cut Off High School. It was then consolidated with Golden Meadow High School to form South Lafourche High School in 1966.[14]
Lafourche Parish Library operates the South Lafourche Library in Galliano, which has a Cut Off postal address.[15][16] Damage from Hurricane Ida meant that the parish had to rebuild the inside of the library.[17]
