In Louisiana: The Legacy of a Parish Boss Lives On

Beyond New Orleans, the Mississippi River winds southward for a hundred miles toward the Gulf of Mexico. The marsh and swampland through which it flows is Plaquemines Parish, La.

The parish is narrow and looks a bit like the toe of boot-shaped Louisiana being dipped into the gulf. Its highest points are the spines of levees that hold back the river and salt marshes from the 10% of the parish that is dry land. The main highway, Louisiana Route 23, hugging the river's west bank, runs past wooden stands where home-grown oranges are sold...

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