Prologue : history, nature, and a forgotten sea
Part one. Estuaries, and the lie of the land and sea : aborigines and colonizing Europeans. Mounds
A most important river, and a "magnificent" bay
Part two. Sea and sky : American debuts in the nineteenth century. Manifest destiny
The wild fish that tamed the coast
Birds of a feather, shot together
Part three. Preludes to the future. From bayside to beachside
Oil and the Texas toe dip
Oil and the Louisiana plunge
Islands, shifting sands of time
Part four. Saturation and loss : post-1945. The growth coast
Florida worry, Texas slurry
Epilogue : a success story amid so much else.