This bayou was rebuilt as a drainage machine. Through the middle of the twentieth century long reaches of White Oak were straightened and lined with concrete on the reasoning that flooding is solved by moving water downstream faster — which works for the reach you armor and worsens the problem for everyone below it. Later projects have reversed the logic, cutting detention basins and letting sections return to a soft, vegetated channel, so a drive along it now passes both eras of flood control within a few miles.
Getting there
29.7920, -95.4200
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
