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Spanning Texas to Florida, the Gulf Coast is one of America’s most distinct regions. This book, comprised of poems, essays, journal entries, and information on the area’s natural features, reveals the region’s remarkable richness. With stops in such uniquely southern locales as Texas’s Neches River Bottom, Mississippi’s Pascagoula, and Louisiana’s Bayou Dorcheat, the book introduces dynamic past and present inhabitants of the area, including Choctaw Indians, fur traders, cotton farmers, and city kids. Readers also encounter wild creatures such as rattlesnakes, alligators, mosquitoes, panthers, manatees, and whooping cranes. Literary selections by Zora Neale Hurston, Barry Hannah, E. O. Wilson, Joseph Bruchac, John James Audubon, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and other writers with ties to the Gulf Coast pay tribute to the region’s strong storytelling tradition. Maps and 30 black-and-white illustrations are included.