The Mississippi River is highly regarded as the most important river in Louisiana. One of the lesser known rivers is just as phenomenal, however. The Atchafalaya River (pronounced At-cha-fa-lie-uh), which is adjacent to the Louisianan southern half of the Mississippi River, is so much of a phenomena that the United States Army Corps has been put in charge of controlling the river!
The first settlers of the Atchafalaya River Basin were different Native American Tribes, including the Houma, Chitimacha, Tunica-Biloxi, Opelousas, and Atakapa Tribes. The Atchafalaya River, however, got its name from the Choctaw tribe. They arrived to the Atchafalaya River Basin in the time period around 1760 and decided to call the river the “hacha falaia”, which
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The Old River flows from the Mississippi to the Atchafalaya River. To regulate this flow, the Old River is dammed by the Old River Control Structure, which is an effort by the Army Corps to keep the Mississippi River from giving most of its water to the Atchafalaya River. If that were to occur, Morgan City (a town of 12,000 that sits on the banks of the Atchafalaya River) would be underwater and New Orleans would lose its most vital asset in the Mississippi River. To New Orleans, the Mississippi River means financial success, as New Orleans is a transportation hub. Baton Rouge, the state capital of Louisiana, also sits on the banks of the Mississippi River. Baton Rouge originally had an economy based on natural gas, to which the river was vital in a transportation aspect. Now, the state capital has an economy with many different sectors. Marucci Sports, best known for making baseball bats, calls Baton Rouge home. The Atchafalaya River would struggle to support economies that require transportation like the Mississippi River, as it doesn’t run the length of the United States. The Atchafalaya River is 137 miles long, compared to the Mississippi’s 2,320 miles, running from where the Red River and Old River meet all the way to the Atchafalaya Bay. The Atchafalaya Bay is connected directly to the Gulf of Mexico, which differs from the Mississippi River’s situation …show more content…
Ray McClain). The ‘farmed’ and the wild crawfish are both composed of the same species, the red swamp crawfish (Procambarus clarkii) and the white river crawfish (P. zonangulus). The more popular of the two crustaceans the red swamp crawfish, as it is caught more often is purchased more at the market. There are other crustaceans that are important to the basin besides crawfish, however. Blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) are a vital resource in Louisiana’s seafood industry. The crabs are harvested by way of traps. In the case that the traps are lost or abandoned, they will continue to catch crabs. This is leading to a downturn in the blue crab population. Fish are also affected by the traps, as they are also caught. Despite the risked to the crab population, , the Marine Stewardship Council recognized the Louisiana blue crab fishery as the only sustainable blue crab fishery in the world in March of
The Red River in the Shreveport area has crested 16 times since the major flood of 1945, when the river raised to 38.30 feet. In the last 15 years, the area has seen the river crest a total of 4 times (National Weather Service, 2015). During the
It shares ancestral background with shrimp and lobsters. They are omnivores with their prey being mussels, fish, plants, and smaller blue crabs (Society). Although the Blue Crab is well established within its ecosystem it is highly sensitive to environmental and habitat changes ("Blue Crab, Maryland State Crustacean", 2016). The detrimental conditions of the Chesapeake Bay have affected the populations of Blue Crabs along with over harvesting.
The Atchafalaya travels approximately 300 miles beside the Mississippi River. South West from the Red River in Louisiana, and flows South one hundred and forty miles to the Atchafalaya Bay in Louisiana. For as long as people can remember, the Atchafalaya River Basin had attempted taking over the flow of the Mississippi River, coming close to becoming its main distributary instead as it reaches the Gulf of Mexico in south Louisiana. “This dynamic environment, comprising almost a million acres of the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley and Mississippi River Deltaic Plain, is perhaps best known for its expansive swamp environments dominated by bald cypress, water tupelo, and alligators. But the Atchafalaya River Basin contains a wide range of habitats and one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the North American continent.” (Piazza) The River is was so threatening to the Mississippi River that it had to be blockaded by dams, locks, and levees.
In 1803 the land deal between the French and the United States shaped the way the United States is today. Without the Louisiana territory we have today, the United States would be a whopping 828,000 square miles smaller. This was the largest Acquisition of land the United States had ever bought. This included Louisiana, Arkansas, Parts of Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. The Louisiana Territory is a very vital place but also included the very important New Orleans port. This port was very important for trading goods with other countries. The Port of New Orleans was first found along the Mississippi river by Jean Baptist Le Moyne. The Louisiana Purchase
The artist is trying to communicate a feeling of achievement. Being that there was a suggested battle the day before, their existence still suggests that the battle was won . Additionally, a cross is being planted in the bottom right of the corner as a claim on the land. The Indians are surrounded and seemingly defenseless and defeated. An emotion of accomplishment exists within the already mentioned elements of the painting. In addition to the drive for the emotion of accomplishment, the reaching of the Mississippi suggests an accomplishment in as of itself . This painting was commissioned in 1853 and two years later hung in 1855. This painting was extremely important within the historical context of the 1850s. During this time, the country
Dating to 1000 B.C., the Kolomoki complex near present-day Blakely is one of the best-known sites of these ancient civilizations. During the Mississippian Period (A.D. 800-1600), at least sixteen significant settlements dotted the Chattahoochee's banks south of the fall line. As these civilizations died because of exposure to European diseases, native survivors from other areas moved into the river valley below present-day Atlanta. (Lynn Willoughby)
The river plays an important role in North Carolina’s estuaries found in the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound as it dumps its nutrient-dense waters into the estuaries to feed the system. One of only three rivers to be totally contained within North Carolina’s borders, the river has been noted to have the widest mouth in the continental
Hey yah I think this is freaking retarted but I have to pass this class. Anyways some things I thought were interesting and kind of cool are that the Mississippi river created most of the Louisiana I didn’t know that a river could do that ya that is like so exciting however it couldn’t have made it if it stayed in one channel. Southern Louisiana exists in its present form because the Mississippi River has jumped here and there within an arc about two hundred miles wide, like a pianist playing with one hand—frequently and radically changing course, surging over the left or the right bank to go off in utterly new directions. (The Control of Nature February 23, 1987 issue Atchafalaya by john McPhee). In other words the river moving in all directions
Additionally, the Callinectes sapidus, otherwise known as the blue crab is another native species of the Chesapeake bay. It's decline has been quite evident to the bay and has many effects. With the oysters in the bay, the crab population had been cut by half, from 1980-1990, to 300 million. In 2008, it was reported that the population was declining by 70%. It was quite evident to the researchers that the blue crab population was decreasing due to poor water
The Mississippian culture of the Mississippian River Valley is a collection of numerous Native American tribes that maintained their individual identities while being incorporated into changing centralized polities from the beginnings of Cahokia in 800 AD to the decline of Moundville in 1400 AD (Blitz 2008: 38). The social complexities and economic systems of the Mississippian peoples have been highly contested (Wilson et al. 2006; Marcoux 2007; Byers 2013; Cobb 2010; Steponaitis and Scarry 2016). Some scholars have argued that the social structure was inherently hierarchal, while others have argued that the polities of Cahokia and Moundville were defined by their heterarchical structure (Beck 2003; Byers 2013). In addition, the tendency for archaeologists to define Mississippian polities as chiefdoms has been in flux in recent years due to the rigid nature of the term in past scholarship (Cobb 2010; Steponaitis and Scarry 2016).
At the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico, there is an area where virtually no living things exist that can also be known as a ‘Dead Zone.’ Primarily, a dead zone is where absolutely nothing happens or exists and is virtually a biological desert. It can also be known as a hypoxic zone, meaning there is a very low concentration of oxygen in the water - too low to support life. Hence, the name a Dead Zone comes from that idea.
Nature has been a captivating force that many have had the pleasure to witness in a number of capacities over the years. Whether one’s fascination comes in the form of seeing a beautiful sunrise or watching the first flowering of Spring, time and time again there has been a deep intrigue with nature in the hearts of humanity. In the case of John M. Berry who writes about the Mississippi River in Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, the level of which he is simply amazed by the water body is very evident. Barry’s intense interest becomes largely apparent through the unique perspective with which he presents his readers. Rather than a formal and meticulously cultivated scientific report, Barry writes with a true passion while describing the mechanics of the river. In an attempt to thoroughly express how astonished he is by the great body of water, Barry uses awed descriptors and strategic applications of personification that go beyond what would be found in normal scientific analysis. Such tools are used to expertly showcase just how taken aback Barry, like many often are with nature’s miracles, is regarding the river and its capabilities.
n 1973, the Mississippi River was out of its banks for more than 2 mo from April to June. The thickness and the texture of overbank sediments were determined for a number of depositional environments on the Mississippi River flood plain in Louisiana. Average sediment thickness ranged from 53 cm along the natural levee to 1.1 cm in the back-swamp. The texture of deposits varied from natural levee sediments with 68 percent sand to backswamp sediments with 97 percent silt and clay. The amount of lateral erosion of bordering Pleistocene bluffs increased 271 percent over the previous 9 yr of record because of the flood. Using the rate of backswamp deposition during the 1973 flood, it is suggested that backswamp deposits in this area required 10,000
Throughout this paper, there are terms you will need to know. While discussing the water systems of Baton Rouge, we will discuss both precipitation and evapotranspiration. Precipitation is the process of weather in the form of rain, snow, hale, or sleet falling to the ground. Evapotranspiration is the process in which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation (merriam-webster.com). Also understanding what a deficit is, or when the amount of water being provided is too small an amount. While discussing the landforms of Baton Rouge we will discuss the Topography, or the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area (merriam-webster.com).
Is the shoreline of the Mississippi River Undesirable? In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain the shore line of the Mississippi river is undesirable, because it is violent, full of trouble, and demonstrates conformity.