Eye of the River

Eye of the River. Riverfront. , French explorer Pierre Le Moyne D'Iberville founded Baton Rouge during an expedition in 1698 after discovering a large red pole on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Named "Le Baton Rouge" by the French, the red pole marked the boundary between the indigenous Houma and Bayougoula tribes., . Baton Rouge developed along the Mississippi River because of the waterway's potential to become a major commercial corridor. , . The average water flow of the Mississippi River is 470,000 cubic feet per second. This flow increases after extended periods of heavy rain in the region. , . In 2011, an extensive rain event in the Ohio River basin sent near record amounts of water down the Mississippi River. The river stage, or height, at Baton Rouge during the mississippi river flood of 2011 reached 45 feet, just a few feet short of the highest stage ever recorded - 47.26 feet during the Flood of 1927. , . The Lower Mississippi River is bounded by high bluffs as far south as Baton Rouge. Man-made levees along the river's lower course are also lined with oxbow lakes and swamps, with marshes prevalent closer to the Gulf of Mexico.