Aerial.America.S03E01.Louisiana
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00:00There's no other place like Louisiana, a vast landscape of water and light, home to the
00:11delta of the big, muddy Mississippi, and the capital of jazz, a city of great celebration
00:20and terrifying devastation, where entire city blocks have been wiped off the map,
00:27and dark forces inspired the best-selling chronicles of a vampire.
00:34Area Louisiana explores the stark contradictions of this southern state. It's a nature lovers
00:43paradise, where the state bird has made a surprising comeback, but also a place where
00:50giant industry is leaving lasting scars. It was from here that a spicy sauce ventured
00:58out to conquer the globe, and where battles of the Civil War have not been forgotten.
01:09With a million acre marsh that's disappearing at amazing speed, and giant walls of steel
01:15engineered to hold back the next great surge, this is Louisiana.
01:39It would be hard to imagine Louisiana without its sparkling, pulsating soul, New Orleans.
02:08It's a mecca for the culturally curious, a melting pot of sounds and flavors. It was
02:15here where Chef Emeril Lagasse, inspired by local Creole and Cajun spices, launched his
02:21food empire, and where a one-time bootlegger named Pat O'Brien disguised the taste of cheap
02:29rum with fruit juice and sugar to create New Orleans' famous hurricane drink, still served
02:35right here at O'Brien's popular Courtyard Bar. But this city isn't just a place to party.
02:45It also has a dark edge, even in daylight. And hurricanes aren't the only threat. New
02:56Orleans has one of the highest murder rates in America, and a colorful history of criminal
03:01enterprise. One of the first American mafia families got their start on the city's waterfront,
03:08extracting protection money from dock workers and other laborers. But there's a unique twist
03:14on just about everything in New Orleans. Around the time that trumpeter Louis Armstrong was
03:20getting his start playing on riverboats like this one, a serial killer called the Axeman
03:26is said to have vowed that he would spare potential victims if he found them listening
03:30to jazz. Even burying the dead here is unconventional. This is St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. With half
03:41of the city below sea level, underground cemeteries aren't an option. In the 1700s, French settlers
03:49started burying their dead in tombs like these, a practice that's still carried on
03:54today. It's almost a city of its own, with multi-story crypts, some designed to hold
04:02entire families. Many illustrious names have been laid to rest here, including Marie Laveau,
04:11a Creole hairdresser whose uncanny powers of divination earned her the title Queen of
04:17Voodoo. No one has captured New Orleans' dark undercurrents better than author Anne
04:26Rice in her best-selling Vampire Chronicles. Rice grew up in this city and later lived
04:33here in this 47,000 square foot Italianate mansion on Napoleon Street. It was originally
04:40built in 1865 as a boarding school. It's one of the many Grand Victorian homes that
04:47comprise the Garden District. Rice has captured the sweetness of this city just as well as
04:53she has its dark edge.
04:55I returned to New Orleans, and as soon as I smelled the air, I knew I was home, one
05:01of her characters says. The scent of jasmine and roses. I walked the streets, savoring
05:08that long-lost perfume.
05:14One reason so many different people have called New Orleans home over the centuries is that
05:19this city has welcomed just about anyone. Even before the Civil War, a community of
05:25freed African slaves thrived here, in this neighborhood called Treme. It's home to Saint
05:32Augustine Catholic Church. Built in 1842 by free people of color, it opened its doors
05:39to blacks and whites, who each raced to buy pews in the church for their own communities.
05:46In the end, the famous War of the Pews was won by blacks who purchased three for every
05:51one bought by whites, and designated many of their seats for the use of slaves, making
05:56Saint Augustine the most integrated congregation in the country.
06:02Jazz great Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. He was the grandson of African
06:08slaves. His legacy is honored at Armstrong Park, next to the very site where the city's
06:14early jazz fests were held, Congo Square. It was in this square that West African slaves
06:21once gathered to play music and dance.
06:26Whether here in Treme, or down in the French Quarter, New Orleans is nothing if not a
06:31reflection of America itself, a rich blend of cultures and traditions.
06:45But just outside the city limits begins a very different world. From New Orleans, all
06:53the way to the Texas border, and south to the Gulf of Mexico, lies a remarkable landscape.
07:01Millions of acres of watery marshes, deltas, and swamps. They're home to flocks of white
07:08ekers, and wet forests of bald cypress. These unique trees have resin in their trunks that
07:15enables them to fend off rot and thrive in water.
07:22This is one of the richest ecosystems on the planet, the prowling ground of North America's
07:28largest reptile. There are an estimated 2 million American alligators in this state.
07:35The largest one ever recorded here was more than 19 feet long.
07:42Southern Louisiana may be a natural paradise, but that's just part of the story.
07:51Underneath this multi-million acre marsh is a vast, hidden infrastructure that keeps America
07:57running. Sixty-eight thousand miles of invisible pipeline, moving oil and natural gas to and
08:04from drilling rigs, ships, pumping stations, and refineries. Sometimes they rise above
08:11the surface.
08:15This giant storage facility is part of the LOOP, short for Louisiana Offshore Oil Port.
08:21It lies in the middle of the marsh, more than 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The LOOP
08:27is the largest point of entry for foreign oil in the U.S. Each day, 1.4 million barrels
08:34of crude from supertankers offshore are pumped through here to the country's refineries.
08:41From here, pipelines fan out like veins across southern Louisiana, underground and underwater.
08:50It's possible to travel right across them and never know they're there.
08:58But not all of Louisiana's oil infrastructure is hidden from view.
09:04South of the LOOP's storage facility lies Port Fouchon, at the very southern tip of
09:10the state. There are no permanent residents here, but it is a critical nerve center of
09:19the oil industry.
09:23Louisiana's underwater oil fields were first tapped in the 1940s. Today, there are 3,500
09:30drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, employing 55,000 workers. Keeping these men
09:36and machines working 24-7 requires a giant repair shop, and that's the role of Port Fouchon.
09:45Drilling platforms are the tallest offshore structures in the world, but even they need
09:50an occasional overhaul. High up on this 30-year-old rig called the Hercules 204, a crew repairs
09:57a helipad. Nets along the edge help keep the men safe. An average of seven rig workers
10:04die in the Gulf of Mexico each year. Hundreds more are injured. The recent blowout of a
10:11drilling rig known as the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 men in a single day.
10:20But Port Fouchon is much more than a repair facility. It's also a giant distribution hub.
10:28An estimated 270 support vessels steam into and out of the port each day, around the clock,
10:36hauling the food, water, fuel, and heavy equipment necessary to keep the Gulf's drilling rigs
10:41and crews working.
10:46Louisiana's oil industry accounts for 16% of the state's GDP, and that wouldn't be possible
10:53without some of the largest private air fleets in the world.
11:01Every day, Gulf helicopter pilots log 2,000 flights to carry 10,000 oil workers to and
11:07from offshore rigs. That's as much air traffic as there is at New York City's three airports
11:14combined.
11:19Offshore rig crews typically work in two-week shifts, commuting by helicopter twice a month.
11:25This one is ferrying a specialized diver out to make repairs.
11:37Without helicopters, crossing this coastal area can be a challenge, especially by car.
11:44When there's not enough solid land for roads, the only option is to build over the swamp.
11:51Before new causeways are completed, they can look like roads to nowhere.
11:58But there is one very fast way to speed across this marsh—airboat. These flat-bottomed vessels
12:06are so prevalent here, they've become symbols of Louisiana.
12:11Powered by aircraft engines, their noise can be deafening. With a tidal shoreline of
12:18nearly 8,000 miles, it's easy to get lost. These twisting inlets have confused ship pilots
12:28for centuries, and Louisiana's first settlers were no exception.
12:36French explorers first discovered the Louisiana coast after traveling down the Mississippi
12:45from the Great Lakes in 1682. They claimed and named the area Louisiana after their king,
12:52Louis XIV. Soon after, France sent settlers to start a colony. They searched but couldn't
13:00find the mouth of the Mississippi in this enormous patchwork of land and water, so they
13:04headed on and settled in what's now Texas instead.
13:09But on Mardi Gras Day, 1699, a second group of French settlers finally located the mouth
13:15of the Great River.
13:21These days, GPS guides 6,000 ocean vessels a year from around the world right into the
13:27mouth of the Mississippi. A single bulk carrier like this one can be loaded with more than
13:33100,000 cubic meters of grain, which will be exported to countries like Egypt and China.
13:40This port at New Orleans is part of the biggest grain and soybean export hub in the U.S. today.
13:46In the early 19th century, cotton and sugar were Louisiana's top crops.
13:55They were grown here on plantations that lined Louisiana's famous River Road, which follows
14:01the Mississippi from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
14:06When it was constructed in 1839, the Oak Alley Mansion was set at the end of a double row
14:12of 28 oak trees leading from the river to the house. Today, this avenue of great trees
14:18is popular with tourists. And Hollywood, Interview with a Vampire, and Primary Colors were both
14:26filmed here.
14:29It's not planting season yet, but sugar cane continues to be grown in great quantities
14:34along River Road today. In the early 1800s, almost half the sugar consumed in the U.S.
14:42was Louisiana sugar.
14:45This vast estate, known as Evergreen, was built on sugar cane profits.
14:51With 37 carefully preserved buildings, it's considered one of the most intact plantations
14:56in the South.
14:59In the early 19th century, the estate's owner, Pierre Becquenel, spent so much money remodeling
15:04his family home that he went bankrupt and had to sell the place.
15:09But with sugar so profitable, Becquenel was soon able to buy back the estate and the plantation
15:16slaves.
15:21They lived here, in these simple cabins.
15:25Great profits from sugar would not have been possible without slave labor. It was back-breaking
15:31work. And in 1811, slaves in this parish rose up, the largest slave revolt ever to take
15:39place in the U.S.
15:42Some 500 slaves marched downriver towards New Orleans, but were quickly attacked by
15:47a militia of planters.
15:49Many of the slaves fled into nearby swamps. Most were shot, and others were hanged.
15:59In Louisiana, the Civil War battles that brought an end to slavery are still being relived
16:05today.
16:09Smoke from cannon fire rises over Port Hudson.
16:14In May 1863, while Major General Ulysses S. Grant was attacking Vicksburg, more Union
16:20forces gathered here, hoping to seize control of one of the last Confederate strongholds
16:26on the Mississippi River.
16:28The little-known Battle of Port Hudson was an important turning point in the Civil War.
16:36Every year, 500 men and women gather here from across the South.
16:45They are passionate re-enactors, who live in period tents before the battle begins.
16:53Most are Louisiana natives, some even descendants of the Confederate soldiers who survived the
16:59siege.
17:03On May 23rd, more than 30,000 Union troops arrived to take the fort.
17:09Those in red uniforms were from an elite fighting unit called the Zouaves, the Green Berets
17:16of the day.
17:18Despite being outnumbered, the Confederates fought hard.
17:24For a captivated crowd, these re-enactors try their best to capture each important turn
17:29of the siege.
17:32Each authentic cannon can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
17:39Each uniform runs into the hundreds.
17:43Over just one weekend, they play out, step-by-step, a battle that lasted more than six weeks.
17:53Once the Union troops cut off supplies, Port Hudson's defenders ran out of food and were
17:58forced to eat their own horses, and even rats, to survive.
18:05On July 9th, 1863, after hearing of the fall of Vicksburg, those who were left finally
18:10laid down their arms and surrendered.
18:13But by then, both sides had suffered huge casualties, with thousands dead or wounded.
18:21Just south of the battlefield lies the Port Hudson National Cemetery, containing the graves
18:32of nearly 4,000 Union soldiers.
18:36The Confederate dead weren't buried here in tidy rows.
18:40Their bodies were left in the trenches where they fell.
18:46The victory at Port Hudson finally gave the Union forces control of the entire Mississippi.
18:52But the Civil War wasn't the first time that battles had been waged to control traffic
18:56and trade on this river.
19:04Arriving in New Orleans, the Harvest Legend, a 45,000-ton bulk carrier, prepares to make
19:10a 135-degree turn against the current.
19:16Before these giant ships even enter the mouth of the Mississippi, they're required to have
19:20a licensed local river pilot on board to guide them upriver.
19:26These pilots know best how to navigate the Mississippi's every twist and turn, especially
19:32this one at Algiers Point.
19:36The powerful currents that race around this sharp bend, just feet from the city, make
19:41Algiers Point the most treacherous spot on the river for big ships.
19:47It was here in 1996 where the Liberian-registered MV Brightfield, fully loaded with grain, lost
19:53engine power and slammed into New Orleans' Riverwalk Marketplace.
19:58Sixty-two people were injured.
20:03For millennia, the Mississippi has flowed past Algiers Point, depositing sediment on
20:08the opposite bank and building up a natural levee shaped like a crescent, inspiring New
20:15Orleans' nickname, Crescent City.
20:19The city's strategic location allowed it to control all river traffic and trade heading
20:24up and down the Mississippi.
20:27But it wasn't just France and the U.S. that fought to own this lucrative gateway.
20:32The French may have founded New Orleans in 1718, but they later ceded it to Spain.
20:40Working for the Spanish, French architect Don Gilberto Guimard designed the St. Louis
20:45Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in the U.S. and a New Orleans landmark.
20:51On the left side of the St. Louis stands the Cabildo, or Council, Spain's former seat
20:57of government.
20:59In 1803, the Spanish returned New Orleans back to France, and 20 days later, France
21:06turned around and sold all of the Louisiana Territory to the U.S. for $15 million.
21:13On December 20, 1803, the famous Louisiana Purchase was made official inside the Cabildo.
21:22But the struggle for this city wasn't quite over yet.
21:26Louisiana might have lost its new territory if it wasn't for this man, General Andrew
21:31Jackson.
21:33Before becoming president, he was known as the Hero of New Orleans.
21:41Nearly 40 years after American independence, Britain sent troops to try and wrestle New
21:45Orleans out of the hands of the United States.
21:49Four miles southeast of the city, ships passed by the site called Chalmette, where Jackson
21:55assembled a ragtag army of a few thousand militia, Haitian slaves, pirates, and settlers.
22:02Cannons still line the battleground.
22:06On January 8, 1815, Jackson's army was ready to defend the city against 8,000 British troops.
22:14The Battle of New Orleans lasted just a few hours.
22:18When the smoke cleared, 2,000 British soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing.
22:24While Jackson and his men escaped with less than a hundred casualties and full control
22:29of the city.
22:32This marble obelisk was completed in 1908 to mark the site of the last conflict fought
22:38on the U.S. mainland against a foreign nation.
22:42Jackson has been a hero in this town ever since.
22:49Much has changed along the banks of the Mississippi River since the days of steamboats and slavery.
22:55Vast fields of cotton and sugarcane have been replaced with new industries and futuristic-looking
23:02landscapes like this one.
23:05This red lake is what's known as a tailings pond.
23:09At first, it looks like southern red clay, but it's actually bauxite, a toxic byproduct
23:15of making rolled aluminum foil.
23:19This pond contains 120 million cubic yards of it, more than the earth that was removed
23:25to build the Suez Canal.
23:29The best way to grasp the size of these enormous facilities is to see them from the air.
23:35This one is a holding tank for phosphogypsum, the byproduct of a nearby fertilizer plant.
23:42These facilities lie in a vast industrial corridor known as Cancer Alley.
23:48It stretches 85 miles, from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, and is home to more than 130
23:56industrial plants.
24:01Cancer rates in Louisiana are some of the highest in the nation.
24:05Some scientists say that's due largely to releases of toxic materials from industries
24:10along this stretch of river.
24:15The biggest plant of them all is this one, just north of Baton Rouge, the second-largest
24:21oil refinery in America.
24:24The ExxonMobil facility was built in 1909 on 225 acres of cotton fields.
24:32From an array of holding tanks, 500,000 barrels of crude a day travel through pipelines into
24:38these distillation columns.
24:41Inside these superheated towers, oil separates into different components, which are then
24:46streamed to the production of an incredible range of products, gas, jet fuel, milk cartons,
24:52diapers, and lubricant.
24:57These white clouds are just water vapor.
25:00But below are black lagoons filled with toxic wastewater, a byproduct of refining crude.
25:09Refineries pump oxygen into the ponds to feed natural microbes that help neutralize
25:13the sludge.
25:15But millions of pounds of chemicals from this refinery still make it into the surrounding
25:20environment each year.
25:24What makes this refinery unique is that it's just a stone's throw from the Louisiana Statehouse.
25:31Legislators look out over their biggest taxpayer.
25:34ExxonMobil alone pays $100 million a year into Louisiana's coffers.
25:43Baton Rouge has been the state capital since 1849.
25:48Its first statehouse still stands on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi.
25:53Mark Twain frequently passed this spot as a ship captain in the 1850s and called the
25:58building and its medieval facade a monstrosity.
26:04In 1930, Louisiana's Governor Huey P. Long, also known as the Kingfish, decided that Louisiana
26:11needed a more impressive statehouse.
26:14The charismatic Long got the project funded right in the middle of the Great Depression.
26:21Finished in 29 months, this Art Deco-style skyscraper rises 450 feet, making it the tallest
26:28state capital in the U.S.
26:31The grand staircase at its entrance features 50 steps, one for every state in the Union.
26:41The Capitol building was just one of many ambitious projects Long undertook as governor.
26:48Tackling the state's antiquated infrastructure, he ordered the construction of nearly 16,000
26:54miles of roads and highways, and he built more than 100 bridges, including the Huey
27:01P. Long Bridge that crosses the Mississippi at Baton Rouge.
27:08Its mile-long span sits just over 100 feet above the water, not quite high enough for
27:14giant freighters to pass underneath.
27:18Legend has it that Long did that on purpose to keep larger ships from unloading their
27:23cargo further north so that Louisiana could maintain its hold on shipping.
27:31Even today, freight heading upriver has to be transferred first onto barges at Baton
27:36Rouge.
27:41One of Long's greatest legacies was increasing the size of LSU, Louisiana State University,
27:47in Baton Rouge, by doubling the faculty and tripling the number of students.
27:53LSU's student body is now close to 30,000.
27:59Among its graduates, professional basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, musician Stephen
28:05Stills, and former vice president Hubert Humphrey.
28:11Today it's quiet over Tiger Stadium, but with 92,000 seats for fans, the roar can be
28:17deafening.
28:21It's a frightening venue for visiting teams, so much so it's nicknamed Death Valley.
28:29But Huey P. Long's work was cut short.
28:32On the evening of September 8, 1935, inside a corridor of the Statehouse, a man named
28:38Carl Weiss, the son-in-law of a political opponent, greeted Long with a pistol and a
28:44fatal shot before being gunned down himself by Long's bodyguards.
28:50At least that's the official story.
28:53Some claim that it was the bodyguards themselves that killed Long and set up Weiss.
29:01Huey P. Long is buried here, in a park just outside the Statehouse.
29:08Had Long's killer lived and been convicted, chances are he would have done time here,
29:15at Louisiana's most notorious prison, a place known as The Farm.
29:29Imagine a prison for violent offenders that's surrounded not by perimeter walls, but by
29:35dense forest, river, and swamp.
29:39This is Angola, the largest maximum security prison in the United States today.
29:47Located on 18,000 acres, it's bigger than the island of Manhattan, and most of it is
29:53covered by fields of corn, soybeans, and cotton, which is why Angola is also known
30:00as The Farm.
30:04It was once a pre-Civil War plantation, named for the African country where many of its
30:09slaves were captured and forcibly transported to the U.S.
30:14For much of its history, hard physical labor has been used to maintain order at the prison.
30:21Forty hours a week, most of Angola's 5,000 convicts toil beneath the Louisiana sun, all
30:27under the watchful eye of armed guards on horseback.
30:34Another method of control is Camp J, solitary, a place rarely seen by outsiders, especially
30:43from above.
30:44A few hours a week, prisoners can leave their cells, but must remain alone inside chain
30:50link cages.
30:54In an earlier time, getting sent to solitary meant a trip to the infamous Red Hat cell
30:59block.
31:01It was built in 1933, after Angola's bloodiest escape, led by Charlie Fraser, an outlaw who
31:08ran with Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde.
31:13Red Hat's windows have only bars, which made punishment here during the winter particularly
31:19harsh.
31:22But the toughest place to be at Angola is Death Row.
31:29It's a place that's inspired some of Hollywood's most notorious prison movies, Dead Man Walking,
31:35The Green Mile, and Monster's Ball.
31:40Until recently, Angola was America's bloodiest prison.
31:45In 1995 alone, there were 800 violent attacks among inmates.
31:51That's when Warden Burl Kane took over, and things began to change.
31:56The warden made Christianity a dominating focus.
32:00He built new chapels, offers Bible classes, over 400 a month, and plays Christian radio
32:07all day long.
32:09At a new prison seminary, inmates can even become ministers, and are encouraged to preach
32:14to other prisoners.
32:17Kane says he's just trying to restore hope to a group that has none.
32:22With an average sentence length of 92 years, 9 out of 10 prisoners will die here.
32:30Another of the warden's programs allows inmates to make their own wooden coffins.
32:37When their final day comes, each prisoner is given a dignified funeral procession.
32:42With a hand-carved hearse and a cortege of singing prisoners bearing them away.
32:50Very few inmates have ever succeeded in escaping from Angola.
32:55Dense swamps line one side of the prison, and the big muddy circles the other.
33:01Not an easy place to make a run for.
33:07But that doesn't stop hunters from building weekend escapes in this swampy land.
33:13Living so close to the river comes with tremendous risk.
33:17Before the Army Corps of Engineers began trying to control the flow of the river, the big
33:22muddy routinely flooded its banks each year, and has gradually shifted course over time.
33:31Sometimes entire curves of the river are simply lopped off.
33:36When the water finds a more direct route south, that's what happened here.
33:41This bow-shaped body of water used to be a curve in the Mississippi River.
33:46But 400 years ago, the river shifted course, cutting off this curve and turning it into
33:52a lake.
33:54It's now known as False River.
33:57Routinely stocked with striped bass, it's a haven for sportsmen.
34:05Oxbow Lakes aren't the only odd shapes in this watershed.
34:14A pattern of strange lines carved into a Louisiana swamp, perfectly visible from the air.
34:22They look like the spokes of giant wheels, the markings of an ancient society.
34:32In fact, they are 100-year-old scars made by loggers.
34:39At the turn of the 20th century, the lack of roads and frequent floods made it hard
34:43to extract trees from Louisiana's vast, watery forests.
34:47So loggers, or swampers as they were called, carved canals through the marsh.
34:54Then they'd fan out, cut all the nearby trees, and drag them back to the boats so they could
35:00be towed to the mills.
35:03These deep, dragging scars have never healed.
35:08But soon they, and vast stretches of southeastern Louisiana, could disappear forever.
35:15Six thousand years ago, this area was still just seawater.
35:20Then over millennia, the mud and sediment that flowed out of the Mississippi River gradually
35:25built up a vast stretch of land, reaching into the Gulf of Mexico.
35:31But while the Mississippi may have created southeastern Louisiana naturally over thousands
35:36of years, human intervention is now causing it to disappear at a terrifying speed.
35:45Over the past 80 years, the state has lost nearly 2,000 square miles of shoreline to
35:51erosion, an area equivalent in size to the state of Delaware.
35:58Deltas erode naturally from storms and tidal forces.
36:03But man-made shipping channels like this one speed up that rate of erosion.
36:09Fast-flowing water pulls mud and sediment right out into the Gulf of Mexico.
36:16That's why the government is working to trap sediment before it disappears.
36:21At the end of this long, wide shipping channel, environmental engineers have constructed a
36:25series of narrow islands that fan out from the mouth of the channel.
36:30From the air, they look like branches of a tree.
36:35It's a project known as the Jaws.
36:39These islands should grow over time as they trap sediment flowing out of the mouth of
36:44the channel.
36:46This project alone is expected to create 2,000 acres of new land, and it's just one
36:51of many anti-erosion projects along Louisiana's coast.
36:56If they're not successful, scientists believe that by 2050, 700 more square miles of delta
37:03could disappear, leaving the open ocean at New Orleans' doorstep.
37:12In the 18th century, freedom-seeking refugees from Acadia, or what's now Canada, arrived
37:18in these coastal bayous.
37:21Their descendants, known as Cajuns, are famous for their unique blend of peppery spices.
37:27And Louisiana's Avery Island is home to one spicy sauce that's conquered the globe.
37:35In this brick factory, the McElhaney family runs a $100 million a year business, turning
37:42chili peppers, salt, and other seasonings into Tabasco sauce.
37:47But the McElhaney's didn't come to Avery Island for chilis.
37:51Two hundred years ago, they came here to raise sugar cane, only to discover they were sitting
37:56on buried treasure.
37:59Their circular island was actually the top of a giant dome of salt.
38:06They started harvesting the salt, an operation that's still active today.
38:14Sixteen hundred feet underground, miners detonate and collect pure rock salt, and then load
38:20it on river barges for shipment up the Mississippi.
38:24During the Civil War, Avery Island was a target of the Union Army, since salt was used in
38:30gunpowder.
38:32The McElhaney's fled, and when they returned, they found their salt mines flooded, and the
38:37sugar cane fields burned.
38:42But they noticed that red pepper plants were flourishing.
38:46Being something of a gourmet, Edmund McElhaney allowed the peppers to age and ferment so
38:52he could make a spicy sauce.
38:55In 1868, he sent samples to food distributors in small cologne bottles, hoping his hot pepper
39:01condiment was marketable.
39:04He called it Tabasco.
39:07Now it's sold in more than one hundred countries.
39:11These days, most of Tabasco's peppers come from Mexico, but every bottle of the sauce
39:16is still filled at this factory on Avery Island.
39:21And there's more to this place than salt and pepper.
39:26By 1892, Edward Avery McElhaney, the son of Tabasco's founder, was concerned that the
39:32high demand for feathered women's hats was driving Louisiana's snowy egret to extinction.
39:40He waded into the swamp, caught eight young egrets, and raised them himself in a rookery
39:45next to his house.
39:47It was Louisiana's first wildlife preserve.
39:52Today, it's called Bird City, a nesting spot for 20,000 birds, including snowy and great
39:59egrets, blue herons, wood ducks, and geese.
40:05Back in the early 19th century, it was Louisiana's birds that first inspired one of America's
40:10most famous naturalists.
40:15In 1821, 36 years old at the time, John James Audubon arrived here at Oakley Plantation
40:23to tutor Miss Eliza Peary, the daughter of Oakley's owners.
40:28The plantation's distinctive porches were designed in a West Indy style, with elaborate
40:33jalousies to keep them cool in Louisiana's hot summer.
40:39Audubon spent only four months here, but was inspired by the estate's magnolia trees and
40:44the many warblers and thrushes that flew among their branches.
40:49It was on his afternoon strolls through these grounds that he began painting portraits of
40:54birds.
40:55When he left, he carried with him 32 drawings he'd made, the start of a career that would
41:02make him America's best-known painter of birds and other wildlife, and inspire the creation
41:08of the Audubon Society.
41:17Birds have thrived in Louisiana's coastal wetlands for millennia, but today this ecosystem
41:24is threatened, and with it, Louisiana's state bird, the brown pelican.
41:32These plunge-diving, fish-eating birds used to be in great abundance along the state's
41:36coastal marshes, but in 1963, there wasn't a single one left.
41:43Pelicans had become a victim of the chemical pesticide DDT.
41:50State biologists swung into action, relocating 50 young pelicans here from Florida and repeating
41:56the introductions for 12 years.
42:02Today, the brown pelican is off the endangered species list.
42:07They're breeding on their own, up and down the islands along the coast.
42:14But there are now new threats to Louisiana's birds and other wildlife.
42:20Every year, millions of gallons of oil are released off Louisiana's Gulf Coast.
42:25The recent explosion of the Deepwater Horizon alone released a total of 185 million gallons.
42:33Waves of crude hit the pelican and spoonbill rookeries, tar balls washed up on the beach.
42:40Cleanup crews search for and remove oil deposits along Grand Isle.
42:46Thanks to their efforts, the Louisiana coast is bouncing back after one of the worst oil
42:51spills on record here.
42:56Resiliency in the face of human and natural disasters is a trademark of Louisiana.
43:07And the best place to see it on display is back here in New Orleans.
43:14From the air, sparkling lights stretch as far as the eye can see.
43:19But on the night of August 29, 2005, there wasn't a single bulb burning.
43:26The city's electric grid had been knocked out, and a hurricane threatened to wipe New Orleans off the map.
43:42In a Louisiana field stand reminders of the vulnerability of this state to natural disaster.
43:49These are just a few hundred of the remaining FEMA trailers that were sent to house temporarily
43:55the thousands of residents who fled their homes after one of the most destructive hurricanes
44:00that ever hit the United States.
44:03Ninety-two thousand of these trailers were distributed after Hurricane Katrina.
44:09Now empty, those in this field will soon be auctioned off.
44:15By August 2005, there was no city in America as vulnerable as New Orleans.
44:23It was literally surrounded by water, but without adequate barriers to keep that water
44:28out in the event of catastrophe.
44:32To the north, the vast Lake Pontchartrain, a giant body of salt water crossed by the
44:38second longest causeway in the world.
44:43On all other sides, the big muddy Mississippi.
44:47Water has even been known to bubble up under city streets.
44:50Many of them lie below sea level.
44:54From above, sites that became headline news in August 2005 after Katrina came ashore appear
45:01amazingly unchanged by the storm.
45:05The iconic Superdome now stands on dry ground and once again hosts home games of the New
45:11Orleans Saints and concerts of major entertainers.
45:15But in 2005, 30,000 Katrina survivors, with nowhere else to turn, flooded into the dome,
45:23seeking a refuge of last resort.
45:27Commuters have returned to the Crescent City connection.
45:30It was across this bridge that hundreds fled on foot after the storm subsided, hoping finally
45:35to get out of town, but they were quickly turned back by a wall of armed policemen.
45:41Many claimed it was an act of racism and that the police were only trying to keep New Orleans
45:46African American evacuees out of one of the city's primarily white suburbs.
45:53But not everything here has returned to normal.
45:57In the neighborhoods of the Ninth Ward, evidence of Katrina's terrifying force remains clearly
46:03visible.
46:05Foundations still lie bare after 20 feet of hurricane floodwater surged from the Gulf,
46:10leaving the entire neighborhood underwater.
46:14Many who once lived here have never returned.
46:21After Katrina, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers set out to storm-proof the city.
46:27They began construction on a 1.8-mile-long crescent-shaped surge barrier across Lake
46:33Bourne.
46:37Lake Bourne lies east of New Orleans.
46:40Within hours after Hurricane Katrina came ashore, a wall of water primarily from the
46:45lake filled city canals, and then broke through floodwalls, rushing into the lower Ninth Ward
46:54and nearby communities, wiping houses right off their foundations.
47:02To try and keep that from happening again, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been
47:07building a flood barrier that spans the lake.
47:11It's part of the largest civil works project in the Corps' history.
47:16This much concrete hasn't been poured continuously in the United States since the construction
47:20of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s.
47:25Rising 26 feet above the water, the barrier is built to keep surges from the Gulf of Mexico
47:30from reaching New Orleans.
47:36South of the city, another giant project is underway.
47:41It's much more than just a barrier.
47:44If another Katrina-sized storm were to hit, floodwaters would need to be funneled out
47:49of the city.
47:51That's why the Army Corps has chosen this spot to construct a giant pumping station.
47:58The largest drainage pump station in the world, it took more than 3 million man-hours and
48:0418 million pounds of rebar to build.
48:07That's as much steel as it takes to build 30 747 airplanes.
48:13When the next tropical storm hits, this facility will be able to pump 855,000 gallons of water
48:19per second out of the city.
48:23These projects are part of a 350-mile long system of levees and floodgates that the U.S.
48:28government hopes will storm-proof New Orleans.
48:37Meanwhile, one section of the Ninth Ward is bouncing back in typically colorful New Orleans
48:43style.
48:45These homes were the brainchild of actor Brad Pitt.
48:49After visiting this devastated community, he vowed to help.
48:54His Make It Right Foundation brought together architects from around the world to design
48:58and build dozens of eco-friendly, flood-resistant houses so families from the Lower Ninth Ward
49:04can return home with dignity.
49:07Powered by solar energy, no two of these homes are the same.
49:13The Foundation is also helping rebuild streets and gardens.
49:19In a city where music is king, it's not surprising that one of the first and biggest post-Katrina
49:25projects was to help displaced musicians.
49:29In the Upper Ninth Ward, natives Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marcellus, together with
49:34Habitat for Humanity, built Musician's Village.
49:39More than 70 new houses clustered around a new community center.
49:45Since it was built, this artist community has helped raise spirits and hope, and inspired
49:51others to return and rebuild in the Ninth Ward and other hard-hit neighborhoods.
49:57Musicians in New Orleans are leading the charge.
50:05From the creatures that soar over its marshes, to the men and women who drive its economy,
50:20these are the passionate souls that keep Louisiana's spirit alive.