Louisiana

The city built by the Mound Builders at Poverty Point in about 1800 BC covers more than 400 acres.  It's the oldest site of its size in the Western Hemisphere.

Poverty Point

The Louisiana area was traded back and forth between the French and Spanish for much of the 1700s, ending with France.  By 1803, Napoleon was strapped for cash and agreed to Pres. Jefferson's proposal to buy their territory: most of western North America.

In 1812, the first steamboat arrived in New Orleans, coming from Pittsburgh.  By 1840, New Orleans had become the US's 2nd largest port city, after NYC.  Among the new arrivals were Germans, Irish, European Jews, and African slaves.

There are 204 salt domes in LA.  In the early 1900s, salt mines opened on some of them, notably Avery Island, the oldest salt mine in the Western Hemisphere.  Today LA is still #1 in US salt production.

Avery Island salt dome

The Atchafalaya Swamp is the largest wilderness swamp in the US.

At New Orleans, the Mississippi River is 15' above sea level, while most of New Orleans is below sea level.  The natural bedrock under New Orleans is more than 70' down, beneath mud, sand and silt.

LA is 2nd only to Florida in its average number of days of thunderstorms each year (60 days in LA).

The capitol building in Baton Rouge is, at 34 stories, the tallest state capitol in the US.

Louisiana capitol

LA is divided into parishes, rather than counties or boroughs.

LA is the only state whose civil law is not based on English common law.  Most sources say it's based on the Napoleonic Code, though some say it's based on Roman law, just as the Napoleonic Code is.

LA produces 20% of the US's sugar, harvesting 10,000,000 tons of sugar cane each year.  LA is second only to North Carolina in growing sweet potatoes.  LA is #1 in the US in shrimp fishing.

LA is 2nd largest producer in the US of sulfur, and is one of the US's largest producers of oil and natural gas.

The Port of New Orleans, with 22 miles of loading/unloading facilities, is the world's longest continuous cargo complex.

LA has one of the most diverse populations in the US, including Cajuns, Creoles, blacks from Africa and the Caribbean, Islenos (descendants of Canary Islanders), Hispanics, Natives, Asians, Irish, Germans, and Italians (by the 1850s, LA had the largest Italian population in the US).

Shreveport was named for Capt. Henry Shreve who, in 1832, broke up a 160-mile logjam in the Red River.  It took him 5 years to clear a narrow passageway and 40 more to open the river completely.