Louisiana Trivia & Tidbits - Page 16

Looking for Louisiana trivia? Try our list Louisiana little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Evangeline Parish (pop. 34,500) was named in tribute to Evangeline, the young Acadian settler made famous by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

first appeared: 5/13/2001

Gospel great Mahalia Jackson, born in 1911 in New Orleans, is credited with revitalizing African-American religious music. She performed for American presidents, and sang—at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—right before his I Have a Dream speech in 1963.

first appeared: 5/6/2001

Kenner was first known as Cannes Brulee, which is French for “Burnt Canes.” French explorers in 1718 wrote “Cannes Brulee” on maps after they saw natives burning cane, which still grows in Kenner, to drive out wild game.

first appeared: 4/29/2001

Eddie Robinson, former football coach at Grambling State University in Grambling (pop. 5,641), retired in 1997 after amassing 408 career wins—earning him the title of “Winningest Collegiate Football Coach.”

first appeared: 4/22/2001

Edward Douglass White, the ninth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was born in 1845 near Thibodaux (pop. 14,000). He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1894 by President Grover Cleveland and elevated to chief justice by President William H. Taft in 1910.

first appeared: 4/15/2001

Gov. Murphy James “Mike” Foster Jr. has historical ties to the office he holds. His grandfather, Murphy James Foster, served as governor of Louisiana from 1892 to 1900.

first appeared: 4/8/2001

The Louisiana Iris is the state’s wildflower, said to be the most magnificent of its species. It grows mainly in damp, marshy locations in Louisiana’s coastal areas and grows to 6-feet-tall.

first appeared: 4/1/2001

The Conrad Rice Mill, founded in New Iberia (pop. 32,300) in 1914 by P.A. Conrad, is the oldest rice mill in America and still is in operation.

first appeared: 3/25/2001

The golden spike, commemorating the completion of the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Railroad, was driven in on July 12, 1884, in Bossier City by Julia “Pansy” Rule. Rule was the first woman given this honor at the completion of a railroad.

first appeared: 3/18/2001

Winnsboro (pop. 5,755) is designated the “Stars and Stripes Capital of Louisiana,” because of its extraordinary patriotism. On July Fourth, Veteran’s Day, and Memorial Day, about 350 American flags donated by surviving families of war veterans wave proudly throughout town.

first appeared: 3/11/2001

Fort Humbug Memorial Park got its name from a Civil War ruse. Confederate soldiers placed charred logs along the river to look like cannons, a ploy that “humbugged” Union scouts into believing the fort, near Shreveport, was well-armed.

first appeared: 3/4/2001

The state’s nickname is the Pelican State in honor of its official bird—the Brown Pelican, a native to the shores of Louisiana.

first appeared: 2/25/2001

The first Protestant church in Louisiana was established in New Orleans in 1805. Parishioners, answering an ad in the Louisiana Gazette, voted for Episcopal as their denomination.

first appeared: 2/18/2001

John McKeithen, in 1968, became the first Louisiana governor in the 20th century to be elected to two consecutive terms.

first appeared: 2/11/2001

Rayne (pop. 8,502) has the only cemetery in America facing north-south instead of east-west. St. Joseph’s Cemetery is recognized in Ripley’s Believe it or Not!, and locals say the grave-digger may have misunderstood the instructions.

first appeared: 2/4/2001

—Sulphur was first produced in Louisiana in 1869. That, along with oil discovered in 1901, restored the state’s economy, which had been hard hit by the Civil War.

first appeared: 1/28/2001

Jefferson Parish is considered New Orleans’ first suburb. Established in 1825 and named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, it commemorates his role in the 1803 purchase of the Louisiana Territory.

first appeared: 1/21/2001

Arna Bontemps, an African American author, was born in 1902 in Alexandria (pop. 49,188). The Arna Bontemps African American museum and Cultural Arts Center, the first African American Museum in Louisiana, is housed in his childhood home.

first appeared: 1/14/2001

In 1682, explorer Robert Cavalier erected a cross at the mouth of the Mississippi River upon descending it from the Great Lakes, thereby claiming the territory for Louis XIV of France, for whom Louisiana is named.

first appeared: 1/7/2001

Lecompte was named after an 1850s racehorse from a local plantation. But before a sign painter inadvertently inserted a "p," in the name, the town (pop. 1,592) was Lecomte.

first appeared: 12/31/2000

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