It’s no secret that the early-19th-century European colonial powers liked planting their settlements along the Mississippi River, but they did not do so for the magnificent views. They chose the river because it was the best commercial artery on the continent.
As 225 notes in a feature from the current issue, the powerful waterway transported lumber and furs from Canada and tobacco, sugar and other crops from Louisiana via ships to France, Spain, England and other colonies.
The river remains a significant commercial artery to this day, and the Greater Baton Rouge Port Authority, located in Port Allen, provides companies river access and related amenities when they don’t have their own.
“We’re an intermodal hub” for commerce, Karen St. Cyr, a spokesperson for the port, explains to a group of teens and their leaders visiting the facility one summer morning.
The 19 students from Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church Foundation’s Summer Youth Enrichment, a career development program, have come to see what the port does and how it provides jobs and attracts industry to the area.
Touring folks through the port is one of St. Cyr’s responsibilities, arranged for any group with a few clicks on the port’s website. She has welcomed everyone from elementary schoolchildren to Rotary clubs, but she concedes that port security has been vastly tightened since 9/11. Fishermen can no longer cast a line from the port’s levee, bikers can’t ride on the port’s roadways, and port visitors can only leave their touring bus at a single specified stop. Read the full feature.
