cover image Discovering Louisiana

Discovering Louisiana

C. C. Lockwood. Louisiana State University Press, $39.95 (150pp) ISBN 978-0-8071-1335-6

The state boasts 49 scenic rivers and six champion trees, including the nation's largest bald cypress (53 feet in circumference). Though its highest point, Driskill Mountain, is only 535 feet above sea level, Louisiana has plenty of rugged terrain. As Lockwood, author-photographer of The Gulf Coast, explores the natural history of Louisiana, he finds treasures galore in its varied landforms, colorful vegetation and diverse wildlife. His account of journeys by canoe and on foot is amplified by dramatic photographs of sparkling creeks and muddy bayous, sandy bluffs and vast shorelines, forested hills in the north and wildlife at the oil rigs. In the marshes, deer have wider hooves than elsewhere, the better to move in soggy soils. Both the coast and diversified forests are in jeopardy due to erosion and monoculture tree farming. Lockwood gives the reader a grand tour of Louisiana's wild places. (September 30)