Crossroads, cutoffs & confluences : origins of Louisiana cities, towns, and villages / Richard Campanella.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Campanella, Richard, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Louisiana--History.

Louisiana.

Human settlements--Louisiana--History.

Human settlements.

Cities and towns--Louisiana--History.

Cities and towns.

Physical Description:

374 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), maps (chiefly color) ; 27 cm

Other Title:

Crossroads, cutoffs and confluences

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Richard Campanella's Crossroads, Cutoffs, and Confluences tells the epic story of human settlement in Louisiana, unearthing the original geographical rationales for the formation of hundreds of cities, towns, and villages where most Louisianians live now. Campanella illuminates why these communities formed where they did, be they at river confluences, forks, crossroads, heads of navigation, ferry landings, shortcuts, portages, resource-extraction sites, or railroad stations, and explores other spatial factors that initially attracted settlers. Many of these raisons d'être have faded into the past. People no longer settle in Alexandria, for example, on account of the Red River rapids; nor do they reside in Breaux Bridge because of Breaux's footbridge over Bayou Teche, or in Cut Off because its canal cut off days of arduous travel. Nevertheless, residents of those communities can trace every movement of their lives to those forgotten reckonings, made at a time when history cast those geographies as critical to the comings and goings of their forebears. Readers curious about the origins of Louisiana's cities, towns, and villages can turn to Crossroads, Cutoffs, and Confluences for answers to that most fundamental question of human geography: Why are we here?"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Greater New Orleans

The lower Mississippi River

Bayou Lafourche, Bayou Terrebonne, and the Barataria-Terrebonne Basins

Greater Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupée

The Western Florida Parishes

Bayou Manchac and the Maurepas Basin

The Eastern Florida Parishes

The Atchafalaya Basin

Bayou Teche, the Vermilion River, and the Opelousas and Attakapas Districts

Southwestern Louisiana and the Chenier Plain

The Red River Region

The Western Hill Country

The Northern Hill Country

The Ouachita River Valley

The Upper Delta Country

Conclusion : trends and patterns in the siting of Louisiana cities, towns, and villages.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780807183687

0807183687

9780807185100

0807185108

OCLC:

1467671964