Where can you find farmers who grow both rice and crawfish—called crayfish in other states? In what state is the largest city partly below sea level? Louisiana!
Louisiana is the only state besides Florida that lies entirely within the Gulf Coastal Plain. It’s bordered by Texas on the west, while the Mississippi River forms the border with Mississippi on the east. Arkansas borders Louisiana to the north.
Hilly uplands in northern Louisiana are largely forested. Rich farmlands are located on the low, flat flood plains that border the Mississippi, Red, and Ouachita Rivers. Grassland prairies well suited to growing rice are found in southwest Louisiana. Louisiana’s state tree, the bald cypress, is most common in swampy coastal marshes that stretch along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast.
The abundance of water in Louisiana is hinted at by its state tree, state bird (the pelican) and state reptile (alligator). As in neighboring Mississippi, “Bayou” is a common word in Louisiana. Early settlers called these slow-moving streams near the lower Mississippi River “sleeping water.”
The Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans, which is farther south than mainland Mississippi and Alabama. And Louisiana doesn’t stop there. For the sediments the Mississippi River has been carrying since before there were people have been piling up, making Louisiana larger and larger. The Delta Country is a world of sand bars, marshes and lagoons that protrudes into the Gulf of Mexico.
Partly below sea level, New Orleans is prone to flooding. Like other Louisianans, residents have sacrificed part of their riverbank heritage for safety. They have contained the Mississippi River and pump rainwater into Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana’s largest lake. Where the lower Mississippi River once meandered to and fro like windblown hair, it now runs much straighter between concrete walls and levees—banks of dirt and gravel.
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park is named for a pirate who once offered a reward for the head of Louisiana’s Governor, then fought for the United States against the British at the Battle of New Orleans. Lafitte was pardoned for his crimes—then became a pirate again!
Personnel at Jean Lafitte Park interpret the rich history of the diverse ethnic groups who inhabit New Orleans today, including descendants of French and Spanish settlers, or Creoles. These and people of many other heritages make New Orleans one of America’s most colorful cities. This is the home of the Mardi Gras, spicy Cajun food, and jazz.
Louisianans seem to have a fondness for “primitive” symbols. Some of the oldest known bird fossils represent an ancestor of the pelican. This aquatic bird lived more than sixty-five million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs stalked the land. Crocodiles, to which alligators are related, were thriving before dinosaurs evolved.
Even Louisiana’s state tree, the swamp-dwelling bald cypress, is considered primitive. In form and habits, the bald cypress resembles both the conifers, or evergreen trees, and hardwoods, many of which shed their leaves in fall.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Paperback
