The U.S. Senate earlier this month passed a bill authorizing the Department of Interior to study whether a national park would be feasible in lower Plaquemines Parish. Historians and others in Plaquemines have for years marketed a proposal to create a National Park Service-run park highlighting natural elements along the Mississippi River, from the marshes to Head of Passes, along with two historic military sites near Buras.
Read our 2009 story about the park plan.
Members of Congress, including U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., have pushed legislation authorizing the study during the past five years. Plaquemines officials pushed the idea hard after Hurricane Katrina, fearing that the devastation from the storm would lead the federal government to cut off funding for projects in the lower end of the parish.
The park idea, they said, would bolster Plaquemines' economy by bringing tourists to see the lower Mississippi. National Park Service involvement also could help preserve the parish-owned Fort Jackson and the privately owned Fort St. Philip, on the river's east bank.
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