Long ago, someone wrote that the rivers and
bayous were the great architects of Louisiana. Certainly the statement has
major elements of truth; for the waterways, which today total almost as many
miles as there are miles of highways, have in eons past aided in shaping the
face of the Land of Louis, and in historic times have determined many of the
patterns of the State's development.
To the Indians these rivers and bayous offered sites for villages and places
to fish and were roads of easy travel. To Spanish explorers they were
hindrances to movement, hazards to be crossed. To French pioneers they offered
locations for settlement and were highways for coureurs de bois,
trappers, Indian traders and voyagers of commerce. To the British and Americans
they were international boundaries and were barriers to be forded or ferried or
bridged in the development of farmland and timberland and other natural
resources. Throughout the years, they were determining factors in international
diplomacy and played major roles in the rise of economic empires. And all of
the men who traveled these streams developed a strong desire to possess and to
live upon the lands through which they passed. . . .
Here then, along the banks of the rivers and bayous of Louisiana, is found
the stuff of which legends and tall tales and dreams and romances are
fashioned-and where, also-matter of fact, magnificent history has been and is
still being made. Here are the heartlands of Louisiana.
-Edwin Adams Davis
from the Foreword
The Rivers and Bayous of Louisiana
Long ago, someone wrote that the rivers and
bayous were the great architects of Louisiana. Certainly the statement has
major elements of truth; for the waterways, which today total almost as many
miles as there are miles of highways, have in eons past aided in shaping the
face of the Land of Louis, and in historic times have determined many of the
patterns of the State's development.
To the Indians these rivers and bayous offered sites for villages and places
to fish and were roads of easy travel. To Spanish explorers they were
hindrances to movement, hazards to be crossed. To French pioneers they offered
locations for settlement and were highways for coureurs de bois,
trappers, Indian traders and voyagers of commerce. To the British and Americans
they were international boundaries and were barriers to be forded or ferried or
bridged in the development of farmland and timberland and other natural
resources. Throughout the years, they were determining factors in international
diplomacy and played major roles in the rise of economic empires. And all of
the men who traveled these streams developed a strong desire to possess and to
live upon the lands through which they passed. . . .
Here then, along the banks of the rivers and bayous of Louisiana, is found
the stuff of which legends and tall tales and dreams and romances are
fashioned-and where, also-matter of fact, magnificent history has been and is
still being made. Here are the heartlands of Louisiana.
-Edwin Adams Davis
from the Foreword