Louisiana

I

Introduction

Louisiana, state in the southern United States, on the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River.

Louisiana is richly endowed with such nonrenewable minerals as oil, natural gas, sulfur, and salt. In addition to mining, the state has flourishing agricultural, lumbering, and fishing industries. These activities provide the basis for much of the manufacturing in Louisiana. Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana. The state’s three principal cities are New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport.

A succession of Native American cultures occupied the area of Louisiana beginning as long as 12,000 years ago. Many were local societies sustained by hunting and gathering or subsistence agriculture, but others, such as the Poverty Point Culture centered along Bayou Macon in northeastern Louisiana, had regional influence and trading networks.

The French were the original European colonizers of Louisiana, beginning in the early 18th century. After a period of Spanish control it reverted to France. During this colonial period other European and African cultures were introduced into the area. Most of Louisiana was bought by the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase; the rest came as a result of the West Florida Rebellion of 1810. Louisiana entered the Union on April 30, 1812, as the 18th state.

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Initially, in the colonial period, the locality was known as Louisiane. This name was given by the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who journeyed down the Mississippi River in 1682 and claimed a vast area for France, naming it for the French king, Louis XIV. The Spanish version of the name was Luisiana. From these forms evolved the present name of Louisiana. The most popular nickname for Louisiana is the Pelican State, after the native coastal bird. Other nicknames are the Creole State, after the descendants of early French and Spanish settlers, and the Bayou State, for the many lush, slow-moving waterways found in the state.

II

Physical Geography

Louisiana, which ranks 31st in size among the states, covers 134,265 sq km (51,840 sq mi), including 10,759 sq km (4,154 sq mi) of inland water and 5,012 sq km (1,935 sq mi) of coastal water over which it has jurisdiction. It has a maximum length, from north to south, of 440 km (275 mi) and a maximum width of 480 km (300 mi). Elevations range from 2 m (8 ft) below sea level, at New Orleans, to 163 m (535 ft) above sea level, at Driskill Mountain, in northwestern Louisiana. It has an average elevation of only 30 m (100 ft) and, along with Florida and Delaware, is one of the three lowest states.

A

Natural Regions

Louisiana lies wholly within the gulf portion of the Coastal Plain, which is one of the principal natural regions, or physiographic provinces, of the United States. The Gulf Coastal Plain can be divided into three subregions, or sections, all of which lie partly within Louisiana. They are, from east to west, the East Gulf Coastal Plain, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, and the West Gulf Coastal Plain.

The Mississippi Alluvial Plain in Louisiana extends from the Louisiana-Arkansas border in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south and parallels the main channel of the Mississippi River. In Louisiana the region is commonly referred to as “the Delta,” a term that, in local usage, is not confined to the delta at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Largely a low-lying and swampy area, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain has an average width of about 80 km (about 50 mi) and slopes gently southward from 35 m (115 ft) on the Louisiana-Arkansas border to sea level at South Pass, one of the delta’s chief channels at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Near New Orleans, parts of the plain lie below sea level.

Along the banks of the Mississippi and other rivers are natural levees, which have been built up from river silts deposited by floods. The levees rise as much as 4.5 m (15 ft) above the general level of the surrounding plain, although most are about 2 to 3 m (about 6 to 10 ft) high. The levees, some of which are very wide, include some of the state’s best farmland. Because of the protection from flooding afforded by their greater elevation, the levees are also used for transportation purposes. Many levees have been further heightened for flood control purposes. In the Mississippi Alluvial Plain away from the levees are vast poorly-drained areas, generally called backswamps. However, when drained and cultivated, as in the northeast, the backswamps are productive farmlands.

The West Gulf Coastal Plain, west of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, occupies the western half of Louisiana. Hilly regions, often with steep bluffs 90 m (300 ft) high, mark the transitional zone between this region and the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The northern and north central areas of this region are primarily areas of rolling hill country, much of it still heavily forested. The most prominent features of the hill country include Driskill Mountain and the Kisatchie Hills. Farther south are extensive areas of prairie, or grassland, which lie mainly along the southeastern bank of the middle course of the Calcasieu River. In the southern part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain, marshlands rim the coast and extend inland as much as 30 km (20 mi). They are generally separated from the Gulf by low sandy ridges called cheniers.

The East Gulf Coastal Plain, a small area east of the Mississippi, is similar to its counterpart in western Louisiana. Steep bluffs as much as 90 m (300 ft) above sea level occur in the Tunica Hills of West Feliciana Parish. The rest of the region is lower in elevation with numerous steep bluffs, clear springs, pine forests, and deep ravines.

B

Rivers and Lakes

All the rivers of Louisiana flow into the Gulf of Mexico or into other rivers that do so. The principal rivers that lie in or partly in Louisiana are the Mississippi, Red, Ouachita, Sabine, Pearl, Atchafalaya, and Calcasieu rivers.

The Mississippi River, one of the greatest rivers in the world, meanders sluggishly in a southerly and then southeasterly direction through Louisiana. For much of its length, south of the Louisiana-Arkansas state line, the river forms Louisiana’s boundary with Mississippi. However, the lowermost reaches of the river lie entirely within Louisiana.

The principal tributary of the Mississippi in Louisiana is the Red River, which flows diagonally across the West Gulf Coastal Plain. A few miles west of the Mississippi the Red River divides into the Atchafalaya River, which flows southward to the Gulf of Mexico, and the Old River, which joins the Mississippi via a flood control structure. The Ouachita River, the lower section of which is known as the Black River, is the chief tributary of the Red River. The lower Sabine River forms much of the Texas-Louisiana state line. The Pearl River (and the East Pearl River after the river divides) form the Louisiana-Mississippi state line at the eastern tip of Louisiana. The Calcasieu River is the chief river within the southwestern part of the state. Numerous shallow streams, many of which are called bayous, thread the low-lying sections of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and the southern sections of the East and West Gulf Coastal plains. In Louisiana the terms “river” and “bayou” have, over the years, been used almost interchangeably in naming the state’s rivers and streams.

Lakes are numerous in low-lying Louisiana. The largest lake is Lake Pontchartrain, a brackish lake covering 1,619 sq km (625 sq mi). Other large brackish lakes (those containing a mixture of seawater and freshwater) in the south are Salvador, Sabine, Calcasieu, Grand, White, Maurepas, and Caillou lakes. The principal freshwater lakes are on the Red River and its tributaries. In addition, small oxbow lakes are numerous in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. Oxbow lakes are formed when a river cuts through the neck of one of its loops, or meanders, thus establishing a shorter course and leaving the former loop as a lake separate from the river. Louisiana also has some artificially created reservoirs.

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