Welcome to TheseUnitedStates - Louisiana

Louisiana, our 18th state, was admitted to the Union April 30, 1812.   The 2000 census has Louisiana's population at 4,468,976, ranking  22nd in the US.  With a total area of  51,840 square miles, the state ranks 31st  in size.  Louisiana's capital is Baton Rouge; New Orleans is its largest city.

Useful Internet Links for Louisiana:

Official Website of Louisiana  

http://www.louisiana.gov/

Travel and Tourism Department  

http://www.louisianatravel.com/

Call toll free  1-800-677-4082

Pick a Homepage - Louisiana

Congress.org - Louisiana Elected Officials

Louisiana Weather from Weather.com

National Park Service Sites in Louisiana

Louisiana News from USA Today

Louisiana fun facts:

Louisiana State Bird:  Eastern Brown Pelican

Louisiana State Flower:  Magnolia

Louisiana State Motto:  Union, justice, and confidence

Louisiana State Song:  Give Me Louisiana

Louisiana State Tree:  Cypress

Nickname:  Pelican State

The geographic center of Louisiana lies in Avoyelles Parish, three miles SE of Marksville.  At 535 feet, Driskill Mountain, north of the town of Liberty Hill, is the state's highest point.  The name Louisiana was bestowed on the territory by Sieur de La Salle, for the French King Louis XIV.

Brief History:  Caddo, Tunica, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Chawash peoples lived in the region at the time of European contact.  Europeans Cabeza de Vaca and Panfilo de Narvaez first visited in 1530.  The region was claimed for France by the explorer La Salle in 1682.  The first permanent settlement was established in 1699 by the French at Biloxi, now in Mississippi.  France ceded the region to Spain in 1762, took it back 38 years later, then sold it to the US in 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase.  During the American Revolution, Spanish Louisiana aided the Americans.  Louisiana was the scene of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.  

Louisiana Creoles are descendants of early French and/or Spanish settlers.  About 4,000 Acadians, French settlers in Nova Scotia, were forcibly relocated by the British to Louisiana in 1755 (an event commemorated in Longfellow's "Evangeline") and settled near Bayou Teche; their descendants became known as Cajuns.  Another group, the Islenos, were descendants of Canary Islanders brought to Louisiana by a Spanish governor in 1770.  Traces of Spanish and French survive in local dialects, cuisine and culture.

Famous Louisiana attractions include Mardi Gras, the French Quarter, Superdome, Dixieland jazz, Aquarium of the Americas, Audubon Zoo & Gardens, all in New Orleans; Battle of New Orleans site; Longfellow-Evangeline Memorial Park, St. Martinville; Kent House Museum, Alexandria; Hodges Gardens, Natchitoches; the long toll causeway over Lake Pontchartrain; and the USS Kidd Memorial, Baton Rouge.

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