Bald cypress trees and swamps are iconic symbols of south Louisiana that evolved along with the rivers and bayous of the region. Seasonal variation in water levels allows cypress to germinate in low water and grow, and over time they mature into larger trees that dominate species less tolerant of long flooding. Although often described as a hardwood, bald cypress is actually a conifer in the family Cupressacaceae, which also includes junipers and redwoods. Like redwoods, cypress can live a long time and reach fantastic sizes, and before largescale logging south Louisiana and the Atchafalaya Basin contained large stands of giant cypress. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these dense, insect-resistant old-growth trees were heavily harvested from swamps and bayous for construction materials and fuel, helping build Louisiana homes, businesses, and furniture and supporting industry in the early years of statehood. Even before peak harvesting, many trees near navigable waterways, plantation sugar mills, and urban centers had already been cut. Mechanical methods including small-gauge railroad tracks, steamboats repurposed for the timber trade, and steam-powered winches that drug felled trees across and out of the swamps drove the boom between 1870 and 1920, when most giant cypress trees were logged from the Atchafalaya Basin. Logs were assembled into rafts and carried by steamboat to sawmills along Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya River, and around 1890 steam-powered, mass-production equipment was installed. By 1909, ten mills operated on the Teche alone, with the largest two near its confluence with the lower Atchafalaya in Patterson. Today bald cypress trees are protected in Louisiana, but only a few scattered old-growth stands remain. Regeneration in the swampy Atchafalaya Floodway is very poor because altered water cycles have changed the historic natural flow. Most visible trees are second-growth stands less than a century old, yet they remain vital to the region’s cultural and natural landscape by contributing to folklore, providing habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife, and serving as stronger natural buffers for hurricanes and floods than bottomland hardwood forests.