M'Closkey and Sam Henry may be responsible for the 'Lakes," plural. The Traditional Ballad Index goes with the correct singular, 'Lake,' but most people use the plural, perhaps because it 'sings better."

Pontchartrain itself is usually mis-spelled. The name comes from the old French Commune, where a royal chateau was built in the 17th c.

Creole is one of those terms that can get you in trouble (or used to, people are less touchy now). A lady in New Orleans, an old friend from college days who says that she is Creole 'in the proper sense'; traces back to the French and Spanish entrepreneurs of about 1800. This claim is somewhat tainted, because to this must be added an Irish immigrant of Civil War time. She would get highly incensed at the idea of 'blacks' being included in the term.

Thread 1866 perhaps is the best thread for the newcomer to discussion of this song: Lakes of Ponchartrain

Incidentally, Fort Pontchartrain was ancestral to Detroit.