Atchafalaya Summary and Analysis

The Control of Nature is an historical nonfiction novel published in 1989. Events occur on a backdrop of geological time that spans eons. John McPhee tells stories about the lives and happenings of residents, non-residents, scientists, engineers and government bureaucracies in conflict with various forces of nature. He explores each region as an investigative reporter to meet and interview participants, witnesses and experts. Money, power, conflict and accidental death and destruction pervade the work. Nature and acts of God seem to get in the way of man's plans. McPhee sympathetically reveals that man causes his own disorder and destructive actions on nature and a natural order of things.

A navigation lock on the right bank of the Mississippi River lowers ships thirty-three feet down to the Atchafalaya River. From there ships can sail to the west or south. The lock is located...