Calcasieu

The Calcasieu River flows south through the forests and prairies of western Louisiana to a broad lake and the Gulf of Mexico. Its name is associated with an Atakapa leader remembered as Crying Eagle. Atakapa communities lived along the river and its lakes, forming one of several groups whose country lay among the waterways of the Louisiana coast. The river descends from the wooded interior into a lowland of marshes and interconnected waters near the sea.