16 
overflow by dikes. The soil is rich and mostly under cultivation in 
cane and other crops. Many scattered cypress trees remain in the 
swampy areas. 
The extensive swamp lands in the Mississippi Valley in Louisiana 
are mostly useless for settlement without expensive diking, but they 
are valuable for growing cypress and other lumber. Some areas in 
the midst of the swamps that are high enough for cultivation are uti- 
lized for small farms, but even these are subject to overflow at times 
of high water. 
Morgan City, on the right bank of a baylike expansion of the 
Atchafalaya River, i is a commercial and lumber center of considerable 
importance, as it has waterways of moderate depth 
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
Morgan City. into many parts of the cypress swamps as well as into 
tion 18 feet. the sugarcane country. The wide river here is the out- 
Population 5,985. 
cw Orleans 8036 mileslet of a series of large shallow lakes and numerous 
bayous occupying the area known as the Atchafalaya 
Basin. It receives the water of the Red River ® mixed with some 
overflow water from the Mississippi River, which joins the Red River 
by way of the Old River near latitude 31°, 50 miles above Baton 
Rouge (130 miles above New Orleans). In the great flood of 1927 a 
large part of Morgan City was under water for two months. 
Morgan City (originally Brashear, later renamed for Charles Mor- 
gan ') is near the head of tidewater and from 1850 to 1869 was the 
terminus of the railroad from New Orleans. At that time there were 
extensive boat connections in all directions by the rivers and bayous, 
and by way of the Gulf of Mexico to Galveston. The United States 
Government took possession of these communications d the 
Civil War. Charles Morgan, who had controlled most of the boat 
oe purchased the railroad in 1869; it was extended west to Lafayette 
0. Formerly the city’s luraber business was extensive, but 
18 When the Mississippi River is low 
and the Red River is high the slope in 
the Old River is reversed and some of 
the Red River water flows through it 
into the Mississippi. No doubt the 
of a natural levee on the west bank of 
the big river forced the Red River to 
find an independent course to the Gulf 
down the channel now called the Atcha- 
mostly by way of Plaquemine Bayou 
and locks to the Mississippi. 
4 Charles Morgan is regarded as one 
of the most important influences in the 
development of southern Louisiana. He 
was born in Connecticut in 1795 and 
died in New York City in 1878. He 
inaugurated various early coastwise 
steamship lines, mainly to places on the 
Gulf of Mexico, developed the railroad 
from New Orleans to Cuero, Tex., and 
a steamboat channel through 
Atchafalaya Bay. In 1836 he founded 
a great iron works in New York, and in 
he same year he sent the first vessel 
from New Orleans to Texas, stopping 
at Galveston when that place consisted 
of one house. 
