Mossville is a small, predominantly African American unincorporated community on the outskirts of Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Lake Charles Metropolitan Statistical Area and is sandwiched between Sulphur to the west and Westlake to the east. With the Sasol expansion project almost all of the homes north of Old Spanish Trail have now been either moved to other locations or torn down and the land completely deforested. The community is featured in the 2002 documentary film Blue Vinyl, which focuses on the health effects of nearby polyvinyl chloride factories on community members. The film features footage of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade collecting air samples to determine the toxicity of the community's air. Some of its last residents were documented in the 2019 film Mossville, When Great Trees Fall which played at festivals around the world and broadcast nationally on PBS. History Mossville was founded by Jack Moss, an ex-slave, beginning in 1790. This was more than fifty years before the creation of Imperial Calcasieu Parish. Over the years the hamlet grew to more than 600 residents but was never incorporated. The main roads are the Old Spanish Trail (East Burton Street), Prater Road, and extends west to the Sulphur city limits and Evergreen Road. The town was settled by former enslaved Africans who were granted the land through a "fee-simple title acquired by squatters rights." In this manner, anyone who agreed to improve the property while residing for a specified number of years could attain ownership. After the Civil War, these individuals mostly from nearby farms, settled on the land and began growing crops and raising cattle. Originally known as Shoats Prairie, Mossville has a current population of 8,000 inhabitants. The area remained rural until the early 1900s, when the Locke-Moore Company built a sawmill. Lumbering became the major industry and was later joined by sugar refinement. The greatest period of growth occurred in the 1940s and 1950s, when petrochemical and industrial plants moved into the area. Today, these plants remain the primary source of employment for Mossville residents. The massive Sasol chemical plant project is physically changing the Mossville landscape and geography. The town has almost no resemblance to what it looked liked before the chemical plant project. Sasol Vista Chemical Company purchased Conoco Chemical Company in July 1984. In March 1996, Vista Chemical Company became Condea Vista Company. Sasol bought