De Soto approached the river from the 

 Florida Peninsula. It was 140 years 

 before the next European, LaSalle, 

 explored the coast in 1682, having 

 approached from upriver. He claimed the 

 great basin drained by the river for 

 France and in 1584 led an expedition to 

 establish a colony at the mouth of the 

 river. Although he failed in this 



attempt, and lost his life, he was 

 followed by Iberville, who explored and 

 mapped the river and by Bienville, who 

 established New Orleans in 1718. 



Thus began a settlenent phase that 

 resulted in the development of the 

 distributary (a diversion near the mouth 

 of a river that distributes water out of 



the main channel) levees for agriculture. 

 Rice, indigo, tobacco, corn, cotton, and 

 later sugarcane were the large plantation 

 crops, but many other crops brought in 

 from Europe and elsewhere were also grown. 

 During this period Germans settled part of 

 the coast, beginning in about 1720. In 

 1760 an influx of French refugees from 

 Eastern Canada began. These poor farmers, 

 trappers, and fishermen brought with them 

 a strong culture still characteristic of 

 the coastal villages (Kane 1943). 



One hundred years ago Louisiana had 

 only about 900,000 inhabitants (Kniffen 

 1968). Many developments led to the 

 present industrialized state. The 



construction of levees along the 



Figure 1. The groves of trees in the middle of this broad expanse of marsh identify the 

 site of old Indian villages (Photograph courtesy of Louisiana State University Museum 

 of Geosciences, Robert Newman, curator). 



