Miles Richardson

Donald Wayne Davis

This volume on coastal systems and coastal research is in honor of H. Jesse Walker, who has takes his place with the original founders of the present-day Louisiana State University Department of Geography and Anthropology -- Drs. Fred B. Kniffen, Richard J. Russell, Robert C. West, and William G. Haag.Through its coverage of coastal research from theory to applied, from modeling in the lab to measuring in the field, from the varied lessons of managing the human impact on the coast, and from distant Hawaii, to California, to New Jersey, and to the adjacent Gulf of Mexico, the volume replicates in its incomplete fashion the wide-ranging interest and persistent adventure of its honoree.

Papers in Honor of H. Jesse Walker

The Coastal Zone

The History of Melting Louisiana's Sulphur

Fire and Brimstone

"For persons lacking an emotional attachment to the region, it is easy to see how South Louisiana's wetlands came to be labeled a "No Man's Land," a forgotten human landscape. However, a surprisingly large and ethnically diverse population has historically lived in this "wasteland," which boasted perhaps as many as 150,000 season inhabitants in the late 1930s. These resident trapper-hunter-fisherfolk collectively give a human face to the coastal lowlands that have traditionally been studied almost exclusively for the their distinctive flora and fauna. Indeed, books, monographs, and a sizeable body of research material have been published on the marsh and estuary's terrestrial, aquatic, and avian species, but little has been written about the trappers, commercial hunters, cattlemen, oystermen, shrimp fishermen, Chinese and Filipino seine crews, oil and gas company field crews, government service employees, rum-runners, shrimp-drying communities, and others. Yet, were it not for these marshdwellers, this topographic element would have only aesthetic, not economic value. Ultimately, each wetlands group has imprinted its respective territory with its own unique cultural values, in the process giving Louisiana's near sea-level marshes its "personality." Washed Away? is the first comprehensive look at the settlement, occupation and environmental challenges of these Louisiana coastal communities" --Cover, p. 2.

Donald Wayne Davis

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