“THE RIVER MOVES FROM LAND TO LAND…
reminding us what native peoples have never forgotten: that you cannot separate the land from the water, or the people from the land.”
– Lynn Noel, Voyages: Canada’s Heritage Rivers
Unlike other States, Louisiana is more than just a swatch of square miles, marked on a map by imaginary lines.
Our home is best understood as a dynamic meeting of land and water, defined more by its constantly changing coastline than by any arbitrary borders. From the marshy merger of sea and shore comes 70% of the nation’s harvest of oysters and other seafood. The Mississippi River, which formed much of Louisiana, is the spine of commerce connecting us with America between the Rockies and the Appalachians. Water from the Mississippi is pumped into the industries that line its banks for manufacturing of products that, in turn, are shipped out over the same river waters to markets around the world.