Grand Isle, Louisiana, is a barrier island formed by the changing Mississippi River, originally a sandbar connected to mainland marshes until the river shifted to its present course about 600 years ago and erosion severed that link. Wind, waves, littoral drift, and hurricanes have continually reshaped the island, eroding its western end, building up its eastern end, and at times requiring stone jetties; among the worst storms were the deadly 1893 hurricane, which killed almost 2,000 people on the Louisiana coast, and Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which pushed the beach and dunes back over the island and buried the coastal highway in sand up to three feet deep. Grand Isle has long been closely tied to the marshes behind it and across Barataria Bay, whose warm, organic-rich waters support abundant plankton, marine life, shorebirds, dune grasses, oaks, oleander, migratory birds, and marsh creatures. Before 1700 the island was treeless, low and inconspicuous, though Indian hunters probably visited it and may have dropped the acorns that became its oak ridge. Early settlers, granted large tracts by the Spanish government, built palmetto-thatched huts and were drawn by the island's abundant life, route to New Orleans, and sheltered ridge suited to agriculture. By the mid-1800s Grand Isle supported four sugar plantations, and nearby Grand Terre Island held Fort Livingston, Louisiana's only coastal fort. After the Civil War, Fort Livingston was abandoned and plantation life ended, giving way to small farms and French Creole houses among the oaks; farmers used modern methods to grow vegetables for sale in New Orleans, while farmers and fishermen together reshaped the island into an attractive community. In the later 1800s, beaches, breezes, oaks, and oleander made Grand Isle a resort for people escaping city heat and yellow fever, but the 1893 hurricane destroyed the plantation buildings and hotels. In the late 1940s the petroleum industry rapidly transformed the island, and by 1960 telephones, electricity, automobiles, indoor plumbing, and weather stations had arrived as newer American values began replacing older French ways. By 1975 Louisiana's oil and gas industry accounted for one quarter of total national production, offshore installations had increased marine life, Grand Isle had become one of the top ten fishing areas for commercial and sport fishing, commercial landings reached almost 90 million dollars, and each summer as many as 50,000 people came for the Tarpon Rodeo. Grand Isle remained the only beach resort along Louisiana's 300-mile coastline.