Louisiana was named by French explorer Robert de LaSalle
for Louis XIV, King of France.
The first four Acadian families arrived in Louisiana in April
1764.
The city of Natchitoches, founded in 1714, is the oldest
permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase.
The Louisiana Purchase encompasses all or part of 13 U.S.
states.
Tangipahoa is the only town known founded by a woman, Ms.
Rhoda Holly Singleton Mixon.
The nation's oldest community theater is Le Petit Theatre
du Vieux Carre, dating from 1919.
The first bottler of Coca-Cola, Joseph Biedenharn, lived
in Monroe.
Delta Airlines got its start in Monroe.
Southern University is the largest predominantly black university
in the nation.
Baton Rouge was the site of the only American Revolution
battle outside the Thirteen Colonies.
Winn Parish was the only Louisiana parish that did not secede
from the Union.
After the Louisiana Purchase, the formal transfer of Louisiana
was made at the Cabildo in New Orleans.
P.B.S. Pinchback, the nation's first black governor, was
Louisiana's governor during the Reconstruction Period.
The Battle of New Orleans was actually fought at nearby Chalmette
on January 8, 1815.
Bogalusa is a derivative of Native American words for "black
water."
Opelousas is a derivative of Native American words for "black
leg."
Ponchatoula is a derivative of Native American words for
"falling hair."
Every letter of the alphabet - with the exception of "x"
- begins the name of at least one Louisiana city.
Louisiana was admitted to the Union on April 30, 1812.
Grambling State University's former football coach Eddie
Robinson has more wins than any coach in college football history.
Geography
Louisiana - shaped like a boot with the toe pointing eastward
- is bordered by Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas,and the Gulf of
Mexico.
Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. divided into parishes,
not counties.
The Tunica Swamp near St. Francisville boasts the nation's
largest bald cypress trees.
Louisiana has the largest variety of plant and animal species
of any of the Gulf states.
Orleans Parish, at five feet below sea level, is the lowest
point in Louisiana.
Driskill Mountain in Bienville Parish, at 535 feet above
sea level, is the highest point in Louisiana.
The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, a 24.2-mile bridge connecting
Mandeville and New Orleans, is the longest overspan bridge in
the world.
Louisiana has 6.5 million acres of wetlands, the highest
acreage among U.S. states.
Redwing, in West Carroll Parish, has a cherry tree that sprouts
from a cedar tree trunk.
The Feliciana Parishes - Spanish for "happy land"
- were once part of Spanish West Florida.
Natural Resources and Products
Louisiana is the top producer of crawfish, alligators and
shallots in the U.S.
Louisiana is the nation's top producer of salt, with 24 percent
of total U.S. production.
There are over 117,000 oyster reefs in Louisiana waters.
The salt mine at Avery Island, discovered in 1862, is the
oldest in the Western Hemisphere.
The Tabasco hot sauce company at Avery Island holds the second-oldest
food trademark in the U.S. Patent Office.
The nation's first sulfur deposit was discovered in Calcasieu
Parish in 1869.
Steen's Syrup Mill, which produces sugarcane syrup, is the
world's largest syrup plant.
The Domino's Sugar refinery near New Orleans is the largest
in the U.S.
America's oldest rice mill is the Konrico Co. plant, which
opened in 1912 in New Iberia.
St. James Parish is the only place in the world where perique
tobacco is grown. Perique is an aromatic tobacco mixed with other
tobaccos for pipe smoking, and only 30 to 40 barrels of the tobacco
is produced annually.
The world's largest manufacturer of ties is Wemco, Inc.,
in New Orleans.
Architecture
The African House at Melrose Plantation, near Natchitoches,
is the only example of Congo architecture on the North American
continent.
Louisiana's State Capitol Building (Baton Rouge) is 450 feet
high and the tallest in the U.S.
The Louisiana Superdome (New Orleans) is the largest enclosed
stadium in the world.
Most of the buildings in New Orleans' French Quarter are
actually Spanish in architecture.
The Lake Charles Charpentier District's Victorian-era homes
are examples of what's called "Lake Charles architecture."
A rare example of Gothic architecture can be found at the
Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge. It was designed by James Harrison
Dakin and completed in 1850.
Attractions
The American Rose Center, a research center in Shreveport,
boasts 20,000 rose bushes.
The world's most complete collection of camellias is at the
Jungle Gardens in Avery Island.
The Louisiana Memorial to peace in Lake Charles is home to
more than 5,000 purple martins.
Louisiana hosts more than 400 festivals annually.
Napoleon's death mask belongs to the Louisiana State Museum
and is on display at the Cabildo in New Orleans.
The world's largest heliport is in Morgan City.
Louisiana has 12 state historic sites and 15 state parks.
The former U.S. Mint building in New Orleans houses the New
Orleans Jazz Museum, Carnival Exhibit and Historical Center.
The St. Charles Avenue streetcar line, which has operated
in New Orleans since 1835, is the oldest continuously operating
line in the world.
The U.S.S. Kidd in Baton Rouge is the only ship on exhibit
in wartime camouflage paint.
Nottoway Plantation near White Castle is the largest plantation
home in the South.
A marble pole near Logansport at the Louisiana/Texas border
once marked the boundary between the U.S. and the Republic of
Texas. That pole is the only standing international boundary
marker of its type in the U.S.
Louisiana: Did you know?