Geographers divide the State into five major areas, three of which lie in the belted plain covering all of central and southern Wisconsin. This belted plain is so named because it includes a ring of ridges, each with a short steep descent on one side and a long gentle slope on the other, marking the junctures of weak sedimentary rocks with more resistant, overlapping formations. Such ridges are called cuestas.
First of the three areas within the belted plain is the Western Upland, which begins in southern Polk County and widens southward until, at the Wisconsin-Illinois border, it extends from the Mississippi River to beyond the middle of the State. With elevations above sea level ranging between 900 and 1,200 feet, it has the highest altitudes of the belted plain. Two cuestas -- the Galena-Black River and the Lower Magnesian, of much greater length -- are salient land features in this region of 13,250 square miles. The Baraboo Ranges intersect the Magnesian Cuesta at Sauk County. A section of the Galena-Black River Cuesta, extending from Fennimore to Mount Horeb, is widely known as the Military Ridge. The Green Bay-Prairie du Chien Military Road, built in 1835, followed the crest of the cuesta. Other wellknown heights are Blue Mounds of 1,716 feet, highest point in southern Wisconsin, situated near Mount Horeb; and Platte Mounds and Sinsinawa Mound in the vicinity of Platteville.
Most of the Western Upland was never covered by the glaciers and therefore retained its early rugged landscape. But in the eastern part of the Baraboo Ranges the ice tore away huge blocks of the quartzite rock, deposited moraines, and created Devils Lake; in a region near the St. Croix and Chippewa rivers the glaciers deposited a thick drift. Nearly all of that portion of the Magnesian Cuesta which extends for 35 miles through Polk and Barron Counties is covered by glacial deposit. Drift left by some of the earliest ice sheets is spread throughout the Upland near Beloit and Monroe. The area north of the Baraboo Ranges affords good examples of glacial lake deposits.
Chief rivers of the Western Upland are the Chippewa, St. Croix, Trempealeau, Black, La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the Mississippi on the western border. The latter two have terraced their valleys and cut exceptionally deep gorges; the gorge of the Mississippi is cut to a point more than 500 feet below the level of the Upland Ridges. Interstate Park on the St. Croix River, Perrot, Merrick, and Wyalusing State Parks along the Mississippi, and Devils Lake and Tower Hill State Parks are regions of great natural beauty.
The province known as the Eastern Ridges and Lowlands covers 13,500 square miles in eastern and southern Wisconsin. Its western boundary reaches southwest from the Menominee River in Marinette County to the Wisconsin River in Sauk, thence southeast to the southern limit of the State in Rock County. The eastern boundary touches on Lake Michigan from the tip of Door County south to the Illinois line. Along this eastern boundary abandoned beaches, wave-cut cliffs, and terraces are found at varying distances inland. Door, Racine, and Kenosha Counties possess the best preserved of the ancient shorelines of the glacial predecessors of Lake Michigan.
The Eastern Ridges and Lowlands is a glaciated plain, flanked by northeast-southwest running cuestas of Lower Magnesian and Black River limestone on the west, and by a broader and higher parallel escarpment of Niagara limestone on the cast. In contrast to the cuestas of the Western Upland the escarpments are generally of lower altitude and are simpler in outline. Between the two cuesta flaakings a lowland, underlain by Galena-Black River limestone and St. Peter sandstone, provides the level topography and fertile soil which make this province the foremost agricultural portion of the State.
For a distance of some ninety miles in the upper part of this Green Bay-Lake Winnebago-Rock River Lowland the topography is that of a smooth plain, made so by evenly spread glacial lake deposits. From here south topography is progressively more irregular until in the southern lowland the area is marked by a glacially made landscape of modified hills, moraine and drumlin mounds, many small streams, and lakes. A great kettle moraine, an irregular mass resulting from glacial accumulation between two lobes of the ice sheets, and marked by deep hollows and knobs, is an important topographical feature of the area from Kewaunee County south to Walworth County.
The principal lakes of the Lowland are the Oconomowoc group and the Lake Geneva group in the south, a large group north of the Oconomowoc group, the Madison chain, and Lake Winnebago; the chief river systems are the Rock and the Fox of Illinois in the south and the Fox of Wisconsin in the north. A series of rapids in the northern Fox River provides the most valued water power in the State. Important manufacturing cities have developed at the sites of the rapids, and these, with Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Madison, and the cities of the Lake Michigan shore, make the Eastern Ridges and Lowlands region the most highly populated and industrialized of the five geographic provinces. The lake regions, Terry Andrae, Peninsula, and Potawatomi State Parks, and the coastal islands and mainland of Door County are notable for their scenery.
Between the Western Uplands and the Eastern Ridges and Lowlands is the great crescent-shaped Central Plain. With the exception of a small area in the northwest portion which is floored by Keeweenawan lavas, all of the area is immediately underlain by Cambrian sandstone. Elevations vary from 685 feet above sea level (at Ellis Junction) in the eastern end of the plain to 1,242 feet at the western end.
Within the 13,000 square miles of the crescent are both driftless and glaciated areas. The unglaciated Camp Douglas country extending from Wisconsin Dells through Mauston and Camp Douglas to Tomah, and from Camp Douglas through Wyeville and Black River Falls to Merrillan and Humbird, a flat expanse of sandy, arid-looking landscape broken frequently by isolated buttes and mesas, is typical of Central Plain "driftless" country. Roche à Cris, standing 225 feet above the plain, and Friendship Mound, even higher, are well known among scores of castellated ridges and mounds.
Though the Camp Douglas country was never overridden by the glaciers, the water from the melting ice sheets covered the region with lake deposits -- sand, gravel, and clay. Some of the Camp Douglas country is within a much larger area, which was once the basin for glacial Lake Wisconsin, and much of the Camp Douglas sand is sand of that lake bottom.
The glaciated landscape of the Central Plain is one of low, rounded hills and moraines, with occasional castellated hills, called nunataks, which were surrounded by the ice during the glacial period but never overridden by it.
Three-quarters of a million acres of swampland lie within the Central Plain. One great swamp covers an area of 30,000 acres between Wisconsin Rapids, Camp Douglas, and Black River Falls.
Lakes are few within the crescent. Some lie in the northwestern part of the section and a few others in the east within Waushara County. Green Lake in Green Lake County is deepest of all inland Wisconsin lakes; Lakes Shawano and Poygan, associated with the Wolf River, are among the largest lakes of the Central Plain. Major rivers are the Wisconsin, Wolf, Fox, Black, Chippewa, and St. Croix. The Wisconsin and the St. Croix rivers have both cut deep gorges, the beautiful Dells of the Wisconsin at Wisconsin Dells and the Dalles of the St. Croix at Interstate Park near St. Croix Falls. Rapids on the Chippewa River provide water power for the furniture factories and paper mills at Eau Claire.
With the exception of a relatively small area touching on Lake Superior, all of Wisconsin outside the belted plain is Northern or Lake Superior Highland. This plain, covering 15,000 square miles, shield-shaped and gently arched -- with elevations ranging between 700 and 1,700 feet -- is part of a great upland area which reaches beyond Wisconsin to Canada, Labrador, and Hudson Bay. Its moderate topography and underlying pre-Cambrian rock are evidence of the Wisconsin which was once all lofty mountains. Now only in the Northern Highland and a few other places are the early gneisses, quartzites, granites, schists, and lavas exposed.
Certain ridges and monadnocks are remnants of the early landscape. These more resistant metamorphic rocks stood above the ancient plain much as they do now. The eighty-mile long Penokee-Gogebic Range in the northern part of Ashland and Iron Counties is an outstanding example of a pre-Cambrian ridge. The quartzite Barron Hills of Barron County, the Flambeau Ridge of Chippewa, and quartzite Rib Mountain near Wausau are prominent. The latter, rising 1,940 feet above sea level, is the highest known outcrop in the State. The mountain summit has been designated a State Park.
Most of the Northern Highland was glaciated, but a small area near Wausau, Stevens Point, and Wisconsin Rapids escaped the ice. Some hundreds of square miles in Marathon, Wood, Clark, Taylor, Lincoln, and Langlade Counties are within an old drift area which was abandoned by the ice earlier than other parts of the highland. Here the lakes and swamps have practically all been drained and filled, the landscape shows great erosion, and the pre-Cambrian rock is almost everywhere very near the surface.
Areas of younger glaciation have abundant lakes and swamps and many moraines and drumlins; they are covered with a great thickness of drift. Lakes of the glaciated Northern Highland fall into two groups those of northwestern Wisconsin, of which Lakes Court Oreilles, Upper St. Croix, Chetek, and Namekagon are probably best known, and those of the extreme northern part of the State in Vilas, Oneida, and adjacent counties. The latter, the Highland Lakes group, are numbered in the hundreds. Most of the lakes lie in holes, called kettles, that were left by the melting of ice blocks buried in the drift.
Principal rivers of the Northern Highland are the St. Croix, Chippewa, Menominee, Wolf, and Wisconsin. All of these rivers have rapids and waterfalls and are a source of water power. Extensive marshes, numerous boulders, and frequent areas of poor sandy soil that are found in the glaciated parts of the Northern Highland, combined with a short growing season, make much of this region better suited to forestry and recreation than to farming.
The Lake Superior Lowland, fifth and last of the geographic provinces, is a comparatively small region of 1,250 square miles -- all within Douglas, Bayfield, and Ashland Counties in the northwest corner of the State. It is essentially a plain, with altitudes ranging between 600 and 1,000 feet above sea level.
Presumably this area was one part of a great pre-Cambrian peneplain which included the area now occupied by Lake Superior, the Northern Highland, and areas extending northwest into Minnesota and northeast into Canada. Unlike the hard bedrock of most of the peneplain, a relatively small part of the area was of weak sandstone and shale. In a period of uplift the rock weathered and was worn away to such an extent that the area became a lowland. Eventually the continental ice sheets covered the lowland, scoured its surface in some places, and left deposits in others. The water from the melting glaciers formed a mammoth lake whose waters spread and retreated, becoming finally the present Lake Superior.
The Lake Superior Lowland is covered by the deposits made when the lake extended farther inland; abandoned beaches and shorelines are frequently evident. The sand and clay soil, largely compounded of Lake Superior deposit, makes the region better adapted for grazing and for hay production than for grain and general agriculture. Glacial drift is thick in certain parts of the lowland and contains some native copper.
For a considerable distance inland from Lake Superior the postglacial streams have cut deeply into the plain, and here the landscape is one of ravines and hills.
The most prominent relief feature of the Lowland is the escarpment which extends southwest to northeast from the Wisconsin-Minnesota line to the Apostle Islands and marks the boundary between Superior Lowland and Northern Highland. A companion escarpment edges a lowland of Minnesota. The two indicate the abutment of weak sandstone against the hard lavas and other older rocks of the Northern Highland. The Superior escarpment appears at Ashland as a low sloping wall and, south of the city of Superior, as the South or Douglas "Copper" Range.
As the St. Louis, Nemadji, Brule, Bad, and Montreal rivers descend over the Superior escarpment to the lake, they have developed cataracts which are among the steepest in the State. The Copper Falls of the Bad River and the falls at the juncture of Tylers Fork and the Bad River may be seen at Copper Falls State Park near Mellen. Little Falls and Manitou Falls on the Black River (tributary to the Nemadji) are in Pattison State Park south of Superior. Manitou Falls, one hundred and sixty feet, is the highest cataract in Wisconsin.
Showing posts with label Mississippi River. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mississippi River. Show all posts
New Orleans Development in the 20th Century
The birth of the twentieth century marked the start of an era of prosperity and municipal development for New Orleans. The Federal census of 1900 disclosed a population of 287,104; one hundred years of growth had seen the number of the city's inhabitants increase by more than 2800 per cent. Total commerce in 1900 was valued at $430,724,621. Many changes were in evidence: the river passes, had been brought under control; the steamboat had yielded first place to the railroad, the bulk of all freight now arriving in New Orleans by rail; export shipments were carried mainly in foreign ships; and a large proportion of freight was delivered directly to the steamship side and reshipped without the necessity of the old style of rehandling on the levee.
Along with commercial and industrial expansion came labor disputes and serious strikes. In 1902 there occurred a violent dispute between the various street-car companies operating in the city and their employees. The trouble was brought about through the introduction of a larger type of car and a change in schedule which enabled the companies to dispose of a large number of men. The street-car men, interpreting the action as a direct violation of a previous agreement, walked out on strike on September 27, demanding that the discharged men be returned to their jobs, the working day be reduced to eight hours, and an hourly wage of twenty-five cents be paid. In the fifteen-day strike that ensued, public sympathy was, for the most part, on the side of the strikers. Using buggies, wagons, automobiles, and improvised vehicles, the citizens boycotted the street-cars. No violence occurred until October 8, when the companies attempted to run four cars under police guard with strike-breakers imported from the Middle West. Strikers attacked the cars at Galvez and Canal Streets and quickly put them out of commission, several men being injured in the disturbance. Street-car service was finally resumed with the work day fixed at ten hours, the hourly wage at twenty cents, and only such men as were necessary to operate the larger cars taken back into the company.
Another serious strike occurred in 1907, when 8000 dockworkers walked out on a strike which began when 'screwmen' demanded that the stowage of 160 bales of cotton should constitute a day's work for which they should be paid six dollars instead of the old pay of five dollars for the stowage of 250 bales. Numbers of strike-breakers were imported from outside cities. However, a few concessions were won by the strikers.
The year 1907 saw the completion of the magnificent publicly owned water purification and pumping plant which still serves the city. In 1908 another important step in municipal ownership was taken when the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad was constructed. Efficient and economical operation soon effected material reductions in former excessive switching and handling charges. Two large girls' schools, the Sophie B. Wright and John McDonogh High Schools, were built in 1911, costing $195,777 and $188,037 respectively. Crowded conditions which had prevailed for some time were greatly relieved. Warren Easton High School for boys was completed in 1913, at a cost of $311,000.
Radical changes were made in' the form of the city government in 1912. The aldermanic system was done away with and the commission form instituted.
A tropical hurricane of great intensity struck the city and vicinity on September 29, 1915. The wind attained a speed of from 80 to 110 miles per hour, while 8.36 inches of rain fell within 21 hours. The waters of Lake Pontchartrain overflowed into the city. During the succeeding fifteen days more than twenty-two inches of rain fell, seriously handicapping the drainage and sewerage systems. Property damage ran into the millions and scores were injured, but only one person was killed.
Shortly after the United States entered the World War several important military camps were established in New Orleans. The largest of these was located on the site of the old City Park racetrack,' where thousands of soldiers were quartered and trained. Various civic organizations led the citizenry in a patriotic and full-hearted response to the Government's appeal for money and military supplies. The influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919 was at its height when the Armistice was signed. Thousands were stricken -- at times the death toll reached one hundred daily.
In 1921 the New Orleans Inner-Harbor Navigation Canal, connecting Lake Pontchartrain with the Mississippi River, was completed at a cost approximating $20,000,000. This waterway is now an important link in the intracoastal canal system.
Along with commercial and industrial expansion came labor disputes and serious strikes. In 1902 there occurred a violent dispute between the various street-car companies operating in the city and their employees. The trouble was brought about through the introduction of a larger type of car and a change in schedule which enabled the companies to dispose of a large number of men. The street-car men, interpreting the action as a direct violation of a previous agreement, walked out on strike on September 27, demanding that the discharged men be returned to their jobs, the working day be reduced to eight hours, and an hourly wage of twenty-five cents be paid. In the fifteen-day strike that ensued, public sympathy was, for the most part, on the side of the strikers. Using buggies, wagons, automobiles, and improvised vehicles, the citizens boycotted the street-cars. No violence occurred until October 8, when the companies attempted to run four cars under police guard with strike-breakers imported from the Middle West. Strikers attacked the cars at Galvez and Canal Streets and quickly put them out of commission, several men being injured in the disturbance. Street-car service was finally resumed with the work day fixed at ten hours, the hourly wage at twenty cents, and only such men as were necessary to operate the larger cars taken back into the company.
Another serious strike occurred in 1907, when 8000 dockworkers walked out on a strike which began when 'screwmen' demanded that the stowage of 160 bales of cotton should constitute a day's work for which they should be paid six dollars instead of the old pay of five dollars for the stowage of 250 bales. Numbers of strike-breakers were imported from outside cities. However, a few concessions were won by the strikers.
The year 1907 saw the completion of the magnificent publicly owned water purification and pumping plant which still serves the city. In 1908 another important step in municipal ownership was taken when the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad was constructed. Efficient and economical operation soon effected material reductions in former excessive switching and handling charges. Two large girls' schools, the Sophie B. Wright and John McDonogh High Schools, were built in 1911, costing $195,777 and $188,037 respectively. Crowded conditions which had prevailed for some time were greatly relieved. Warren Easton High School for boys was completed in 1913, at a cost of $311,000.
Radical changes were made in' the form of the city government in 1912. The aldermanic system was done away with and the commission form instituted.
A tropical hurricane of great intensity struck the city and vicinity on September 29, 1915. The wind attained a speed of from 80 to 110 miles per hour, while 8.36 inches of rain fell within 21 hours. The waters of Lake Pontchartrain overflowed into the city. During the succeeding fifteen days more than twenty-two inches of rain fell, seriously handicapping the drainage and sewerage systems. Property damage ran into the millions and scores were injured, but only one person was killed.
Shortly after the United States entered the World War several important military camps were established in New Orleans. The largest of these was located on the site of the old City Park racetrack,' where thousands of soldiers were quartered and trained. Various civic organizations led the citizenry in a patriotic and full-hearted response to the Government's appeal for money and military supplies. The influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919 was at its height when the Armistice was signed. Thousands were stricken -- at times the death toll reached one hundred daily.
In 1921 the New Orleans Inner-Harbor Navigation Canal, connecting Lake Pontchartrain with the Mississippi River, was completed at a cost approximating $20,000,000. This waterway is now an important link in the intracoastal canal system.
New Orleans Under Spanish Rule
By the Treaty of Fontainebleau, 1762, and the Treaty of Paris, 1763, Louis XV ceded New Orleans, along with the portion of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi River, to Spain. It was not until 1764 that the French officials were informed of the transaction and instructed to relinquish the Colony. For two more years the city remained abandoned by France and unclaimed by Spain. Indignation on the part of the citizenry against the transfer ran high, and was expressed in open resentment toward the Spanish commissioner, Don Antonio de Ulloa, who took possession of the Colony in 1766.
On October 28, 1768, a mass meeting of citizens, at which Ulloa's expulsion was demanded, was held in New Orleans. The Superior Council, acting upon the demands of the assembled populace, issued an order expelling the Spanish commandant, who, with his household, had retired to a ship lying at anchor in the river. During the night a band of insurgents carrying torches and flares cut the vessel loose from its mooring, and morning found the head of the government well on the way toward the Gulf of Mexico. Serious consideration was given a proposal to found a republic with a 'Protector' at its head, but fear of foreign intervention acted against the scheme.
For two years the Colony, the first in America to revolt against a European power, enjoyed freedom from foreign rule, but on July 24, 1769, the whole town was thrown into a tumult by news of the arrival at the mouth of the river of twenty-four Spanish men-of-war and twenty-six hundred soldiers under the command of Spain's most illustrious general, Count Alexander O'Reilly. No opposition was made upon the arrival of the flotilla in August, and O'Reilly took formal possession on August 18, replacing the French flag in the Place d'Armes with the flag of Spain. Shortly afterward, twelve leaders of the October revolt were imprisoned, six being executed for their participation in the bloodless rebellion.
Changes in government were made, and the French law was abolished and supplanted by the law in force in other Spanish colonies. The Executive Department consisted of a governor assisted by an intendant, auditor of war, auditor of the intendancy, comptroller, and various minor officials. Both civil and military powers were vested in the Governor, who appointed commandants in the same capacity for each parish or district. The Superior Council of the French régime was replaced by a legislative and quasi-administrative council called the Cabildo, which was composed of six perpetual regidors, two alcaldes, an attorney-general syndic, and a clerk. Its judicial function was limited to the jurisdiction of appeals from the alcaldes courts set up in New Orleans and the chief towns of the province. For lack of a legislative body, laws came either directly from Spain, the Captain-General of Cuba, the Audencia Habana (Cuban administrative council), or from the Governor himself, who, at the outset of his term, promulgated a list of laws in an inaugural address, the bando de buen gobierno. Centralization of power in the hands of a few officials, lack of a legislative body, and bureaucracy continued under Spanish rule to characterize the government of the Colony.
O'Reilly, before his departure in 1770, relieved the commerce of the Colony to some extent. Its trade had been confined, since Ulloa's administration, to six ports of Spain. Trade had also been forbidden with any but Spanish vessels owned and commanded by the King's subjects. Don Luis de Unzaga, Governor in 1772, tolerantly ignored the forbidden trade with the British, which had grown considerably, and without which the commerce of the Province would have suffered greatly. In 1774 the estimated value of Louisiana commerce was $600,000, of which only $15,000 passed through legitimate Spanish channels.
With the outbreak of the American Revolution, Spanish officials became involved, conniving with the revolting colonists in the war against England. American agents were permitted to establish bases in the city, through which they supplied the Atlantic colonies with munitions and supplies. Most active in this work was Oliver Pollock, a merchant granted freedom of trade in New Orleans and Louisiana in return for the shipload of flour he had placed at O'Reilly's disposal in 1769, when the Spanish general was hard pressed in supplying his troops with provisions. By advancing supplies and credit totaling $300,000 to the revolting colonists during the Revolution, Pollock played an important part in the success of the American cause.
Large numbers of French settlers and free Indians, who had refused to take the oath of allegiance to England after West Florida had been ceded to that country in 1763, moved to New Orleans or elsewhere in the vicinity. Under Don Bernardo de Galvez, son of the Viceroy of Spain and Governor of Louisiana, an expedition was permitted to be fitted out in New Orleans and sent against Fort Bute, an English settlement in the Manchac country. The fort was captured, and British territory as far north as Natchez was terrorized by the expedition.
As a result of these and other acts, Great Britain declared war against Spain in 1779, whereupon Galvez, with an army of militia, Indians, Negroes, and volunteers of every character, took advantage of the opportunity to make a series of successful raids against the enemy at Baton Rouge, Natchez, Manchac, Mobile, and Pensacola.
In 1788 the city was almost completely destroyed by a great fire. Tapers lighted in observances of Good Friday of that year ignited the curtains of the Nunez house on Chartres Street. Swept by a strong south wind, the conflagration spread through the town, consuming 856 houses and laying waste four-fifths of the city. While New Orleans was being rebuilt, most of the inhabitants were forced to seek refuge among the planters along the river.
The year 1794 was notable. The first newspaper in Louisiana, Le Moniteur de la Louisiane, appeared on the streets of New Orleans; Étienne de Boré, a sugar-cane planter, successfully granulated sugar; Governor Carondelet authorized construction of a canal from Bayou St. John to the city ramparts, and the new St. Louis Church, not yet a cathedral, was dedicated. A most disastrous occurrence, however, was a fire that razed 212 of the buildings erected after the Great Fire of 1788.
On October 28, 1768, a mass meeting of citizens, at which Ulloa's expulsion was demanded, was held in New Orleans. The Superior Council, acting upon the demands of the assembled populace, issued an order expelling the Spanish commandant, who, with his household, had retired to a ship lying at anchor in the river. During the night a band of insurgents carrying torches and flares cut the vessel loose from its mooring, and morning found the head of the government well on the way toward the Gulf of Mexico. Serious consideration was given a proposal to found a republic with a 'Protector' at its head, but fear of foreign intervention acted against the scheme.
For two years the Colony, the first in America to revolt against a European power, enjoyed freedom from foreign rule, but on July 24, 1769, the whole town was thrown into a tumult by news of the arrival at the mouth of the river of twenty-four Spanish men-of-war and twenty-six hundred soldiers under the command of Spain's most illustrious general, Count Alexander O'Reilly. No opposition was made upon the arrival of the flotilla in August, and O'Reilly took formal possession on August 18, replacing the French flag in the Place d'Armes with the flag of Spain. Shortly afterward, twelve leaders of the October revolt were imprisoned, six being executed for their participation in the bloodless rebellion.
Changes in government were made, and the French law was abolished and supplanted by the law in force in other Spanish colonies. The Executive Department consisted of a governor assisted by an intendant, auditor of war, auditor of the intendancy, comptroller, and various minor officials. Both civil and military powers were vested in the Governor, who appointed commandants in the same capacity for each parish or district. The Superior Council of the French régime was replaced by a legislative and quasi-administrative council called the Cabildo, which was composed of six perpetual regidors, two alcaldes, an attorney-general syndic, and a clerk. Its judicial function was limited to the jurisdiction of appeals from the alcaldes courts set up in New Orleans and the chief towns of the province. For lack of a legislative body, laws came either directly from Spain, the Captain-General of Cuba, the Audencia Habana (Cuban administrative council), or from the Governor himself, who, at the outset of his term, promulgated a list of laws in an inaugural address, the bando de buen gobierno. Centralization of power in the hands of a few officials, lack of a legislative body, and bureaucracy continued under Spanish rule to characterize the government of the Colony.
O'Reilly, before his departure in 1770, relieved the commerce of the Colony to some extent. Its trade had been confined, since Ulloa's administration, to six ports of Spain. Trade had also been forbidden with any but Spanish vessels owned and commanded by the King's subjects. Don Luis de Unzaga, Governor in 1772, tolerantly ignored the forbidden trade with the British, which had grown considerably, and without which the commerce of the Province would have suffered greatly. In 1774 the estimated value of Louisiana commerce was $600,000, of which only $15,000 passed through legitimate Spanish channels.
With the outbreak of the American Revolution, Spanish officials became involved, conniving with the revolting colonists in the war against England. American agents were permitted to establish bases in the city, through which they supplied the Atlantic colonies with munitions and supplies. Most active in this work was Oliver Pollock, a merchant granted freedom of trade in New Orleans and Louisiana in return for the shipload of flour he had placed at O'Reilly's disposal in 1769, when the Spanish general was hard pressed in supplying his troops with provisions. By advancing supplies and credit totaling $300,000 to the revolting colonists during the Revolution, Pollock played an important part in the success of the American cause.
Large numbers of French settlers and free Indians, who had refused to take the oath of allegiance to England after West Florida had been ceded to that country in 1763, moved to New Orleans or elsewhere in the vicinity. Under Don Bernardo de Galvez, son of the Viceroy of Spain and Governor of Louisiana, an expedition was permitted to be fitted out in New Orleans and sent against Fort Bute, an English settlement in the Manchac country. The fort was captured, and British territory as far north as Natchez was terrorized by the expedition.
As a result of these and other acts, Great Britain declared war against Spain in 1779, whereupon Galvez, with an army of militia, Indians, Negroes, and volunteers of every character, took advantage of the opportunity to make a series of successful raids against the enemy at Baton Rouge, Natchez, Manchac, Mobile, and Pensacola.
In 1788 the city was almost completely destroyed by a great fire. Tapers lighted in observances of Good Friday of that year ignited the curtains of the Nunez house on Chartres Street. Swept by a strong south wind, the conflagration spread through the town, consuming 856 houses and laying waste four-fifths of the city. While New Orleans was being rebuilt, most of the inhabitants were forced to seek refuge among the planters along the river.
The year 1794 was notable. The first newspaper in Louisiana, Le Moniteur de la Louisiane, appeared on the streets of New Orleans; Étienne de Boré, a sugar-cane planter, successfully granulated sugar; Governor Carondelet authorized construction of a canal from Bayou St. John to the city ramparts, and the new St. Louis Church, not yet a cathedral, was dedicated. A most disastrous occurrence, however, was a fire that razed 212 of the buildings erected after the Great Fire of 1788.
New Orleans Topography
The average elevation of the city, which is below the highwater levels of both the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, is but one foot above mean Gulf level. The highest natural formations in the city, about fifteen feet above mean Gulf level, are the strips of land adjacent to the river, the natural levees which confine the water to the channel during ordinary and all but the highest stages of the river.
The greater portion of the city would suffer from floods every year were it not for the surrounding artificial levee system. Levees constructed along the river and the Pontchartrain lake-front, across the swamps and along the waterways are all interconnected, thus enclosing completely the builtup section of the city, which is drained by means of canals and pumping stations. The levees along the river average about 23 feet and those along the lake-front and across the swamps and marshes about nine feet above mean Gulf level. Approximately thirty-nine per cent of the total land area of New Orleans is enclosed within levees. The unprotected sixty-one per cent is the peninsula and lands which lie along Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne and extend northeastward from Micheaud to the Rigolets Pass. This area, for the most part subject to overflow by high tides from the Gulf, consists of delta fingers, coastal islands and ridges of low elevation, and intervening coastal marshes.
There are several navigable waterways within the municipal limits of the city, all connecting with Lake Pontchartrain. The New Orleans Navigation Canal begins at South Rampart Street at the edge of the business district and runs northward, entering the lake near the northwestern corner of the city. Farther east, the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, commonly known as the 'Industrial Canal,' provides a channel five and one half miles long, with a depth of thirty feet and a width of three hundred feet, connecting the river and the lake. Bayou St. John, formerly a navigable stream, begins at Lafitte Avenue and Jefferson Davis Parkway and runs northward to the lake. Other navigable waters include Chef Menteur Pass, Lake St. Catherine, and a number of small passes and canals in the marsh area northeast of the built-up section of the city; the Mississippi River, Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne, Rigolets Pass, and Bayou Bienvenue, all navigable, form part of the boundaries.
Lake Pontchartrain on the north, one of the largest lakes in the United States, is approximately forty-one miles long and twenty-five miles wide and comprises an area of 635 square miles. Of this area 146 square miles are included within the boundary of New Orleans.
The greater portion of the city would suffer from floods every year were it not for the surrounding artificial levee system. Levees constructed along the river and the Pontchartrain lake-front, across the swamps and along the waterways are all interconnected, thus enclosing completely the builtup section of the city, which is drained by means of canals and pumping stations. The levees along the river average about 23 feet and those along the lake-front and across the swamps and marshes about nine feet above mean Gulf level. Approximately thirty-nine per cent of the total land area of New Orleans is enclosed within levees. The unprotected sixty-one per cent is the peninsula and lands which lie along Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne and extend northeastward from Micheaud to the Rigolets Pass. This area, for the most part subject to overflow by high tides from the Gulf, consists of delta fingers, coastal islands and ridges of low elevation, and intervening coastal marshes.
There are several navigable waterways within the municipal limits of the city, all connecting with Lake Pontchartrain. The New Orleans Navigation Canal begins at South Rampart Street at the edge of the business district and runs northward, entering the lake near the northwestern corner of the city. Farther east, the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, commonly known as the 'Industrial Canal,' provides a channel five and one half miles long, with a depth of thirty feet and a width of three hundred feet, connecting the river and the lake. Bayou St. John, formerly a navigable stream, begins at Lafitte Avenue and Jefferson Davis Parkway and runs northward to the lake. Other navigable waters include Chef Menteur Pass, Lake St. Catherine, and a number of small passes and canals in the marsh area northeast of the built-up section of the city; the Mississippi River, Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne, Rigolets Pass, and Bayou Bienvenue, all navigable, form part of the boundaries.
Lake Pontchartrain on the north, one of the largest lakes in the United States, is approximately forty-one miles long and twenty-five miles wide and comprises an area of 635 square miles. Of this area 146 square miles are included within the boundary of New Orleans.
New Orleans Natural Setting Geography
Surrounded by swamps and low-lying delta lands, New Orleans proper (29° 56′ North Latitude; 90° 84′ West Longitude) is an urban oasis lying in a dike-enclosed area between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 miles from the mouth of the river. The city and parish boundaries are coterminous, New Orleans being the fourth largest city in land area (365 square miles, of which 166 square miles are water) in the United States. The boundary is very irregular; its total length is 115 miles. On the north lie Lake Pontchartrain and Rigolets Pass; on the east, Lake Borgne and St. Bernard Parish; on the south, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and Jefferson Parishes; and on the west, Jefferson Parish. The Mississippi forms part of the boundary on the east, south, and west. The greatest distance within the city limits is thirty-four and a half miles from northeast to southwest; the distance between the river and the lake varies between five and eight miles.
Although the built-up section occupies only a small proportion of this large area, the city has expanded to a considerable extent beyond its original limits (the present Vieux Carré). Extension has been made both upstream and downstream and northward to Lake Pontchartrain; a strip of territory (Algiers) on the west bank of the river has also been annexed.
The popular name, 'Crescent City,' is derived from the fact that the site of the original town was on a sharp bend of the river.
Although the built-up section occupies only a small proportion of this large area, the city has expanded to a considerable extent beyond its original limits (the present Vieux Carré). Extension has been made both upstream and downstream and northward to Lake Pontchartrain; a strip of territory (Algiers) on the west bank of the river has also been annexed.
The popular name, 'Crescent City,' is derived from the fact that the site of the original town was on a sharp bend of the river.
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