Levee Levee A levee (), dike, dyke, embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels. It is usually earthen and often parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines. Speakers of American English (notably in the Midwest and Deep South), use the word "levee", from the French word "levée" (from the feminine past participle of the French verb "lever", "to raise"). It originated in New Orleans a few years after the city's founding in 1718 and was later adopted by English speakers. The
Platte River buffalo herds as they migrated from north to south and back. Before 1870, herds of several hundred thousand bison (buffalo) periodically migrated across the Platte in following seasonal grazing. The animals often waded or swam across the Platte. The first-known European to see the Platte was the French explorer Étienne de Veniard, sieur de Bourgmont in 1714, who named it the "Nebraskier", after its Oto name, meaning "flat water". The French later applied the French word "plate" (meaning flat, and pronounced "plat", or "platte") to the river. Occupied by various Indian tribes for part of each year, the Platte River