Louisiana Trivia & Tidbits - Page 2

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

—Heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey (1908-2008), who implanted the first partial artificial heart in 1966, was born in Lake Charles (pop. 71,757). He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal last year for a lifetime of achievement in medicine.

first appeared: 1/11/2009

—The official state meat pie is the Natchitoches Meat Pie, adopted in 2003, and originally made by the Natchitoches Indians. A mixture of ground beef, ground pork, onions, peppers and garlic is placed in dough and deep fried.

first appeared: 12/29/2008

—The Museum of the American Cocktail in the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans highlights 200 years of mixed drink history with a collection of rare spirits, books, Prohibition-era literature and music, vintage cocktail shakers, glassware, tools and gadgets.

first appeared: 11/30/2008

—In the 1950s, New Orleans was a major port of entry for bananas shipped from Central and South America, and restaurateur Owen Edward Brennan of Brennan’s restaurant challenged his chef to include the fruit in a dish. Chef Paul Blange created the now-famous flamed dessert Bananas Foster, made with bananas and rum and served over vanilla ice cream. Brennan named the dessert for his friend and civic leader Richard Foster.

first appeared: 11/16/2008

—In 1959, the state designated Breaux Bridge (pop. 7,281) as the official “Crawfish Capital of the World” because of its crawfish farming industry and cuisine. The dish, crawfish étouffée, is a local creation.

first appeared: 11/2/2008

—The Abita Springs (pop. 1,957) Pavilion, built in 1888, is a reminder of the town’s history when the touted medicinal powers of the water attracted visitors. The raised octagonal pavilion remains a popular gathering spot for community events.

first appeared: 10/5/2008

—The state’s oldest record store is Floyd’s Record Store in Ville Platte (pop. 8,145). Opened by Floyd Soileau in 1956, the store is known for its large collection of authentic Cajun, zydeco and swamp pop music, as well as 1950s recordings.

first appeared: 9/21/2008

—On more than a mile of boardwalks through Tickfaw State Park in Springfield (pop. 395), visitors can stroll through four ecosystems and experience the sights and sounds of a cypress and tupelo swamp, a bottomland hardwood forest, a mixed pine and hardwood forest and the Tickfaw River.

first appeared: 9/7/2008

—The Ma Canfield’s Café in Gibsland (pop. 1,119), where outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow ate their last meal in 1934, now is the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum and exhibits weapons from their death car, photographs and other artifacts.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

—The state ranked first in the nation in personal income growth in 2007 with a gain of 10.5 percent. Personal income rose 6.2 percent nationwide last year.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

—Brent Christner, a microbiologist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, was among a team of researchers who discovered airborne bacteria that could be used to produce rain in drought-stricken regions of the world. The “precipitation bacteria” encourage ice crystals to form around them and the crystals then shower rain below.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

—Alligator meat pies, gator burgers and other gator fare are on the menu each fall at the Alligator Festival in Luling (pop. 11,512), held since 1980 by the Rotary Club of St. Charles Parish.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

—Hebert’s Specialty Meats in Maurice (pop. 642) has earned a reputation for its turducken, a stuffed chicken inside a stuffed duck inside a turkey, with each deboned bird separated by cornbread stuffing and pork dressing. Hebert’s began making turduckens in 1985 when a local farmer brought in his own birds and asked that they be prepared in this style.

first appeared: 6/29/2008

—The state produces more than 90 percent of the nation’s crawfish crop. Crawfish farmers and commercial fishermen harvest between 75 million and 105 million pounds of crawfish each year.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

—In 1941, the DeRidder (pop. 9,808) USO was built for and used exclusively by the United Service Organizations as a “home away from home” for the military. Today, the building is the DeRidder War Memorial Civic Center and houses displays that commemorate the DeRidder Army Air Base, Camp Polk and the USO.

first appeared: 6/1/2008

—Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Leon Barmore, who coached the Lady Techsters at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston (pop. 20,546), had a .869 winning percentage, the best in women’s college basketball history when he retired in 2002. Barmore was born in 1944 in Ruston.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

—St. Raphael Cemetery in Point Pleasant in Iberville Parish (pop. 33,320) dates to the 1800s and is the final resting place of the parish’s native son, Paul O. Hebert, a Confederate Army general who served as governor of the state from 1853 to 1856.

first appeared: 5/4/2008

—The state’s first rails-to-trails conversion is Tammany Trace, a 31-mile recreational trail that winds its way through five communities: Covington (pop. 8,432), Abita Springs (pop. 1,957), Mandeville (pop. 10,489), Lacombe (pop. 7,518) and Slidell (pop. 25,695).

first appeared: 3/9/2008

—Dan Storper of New Orleans founded Putumayo World Music in 1993. The independent label chronicles “feel good” music from around the world and distributes its CDs in more than 100 countries.

first appeared: 2/24/2008

—Rep. Bobby Jindal, 36, was elected governor of Louisiana last October and is the first Indian-American to lead a U.S. state. Born in Baton Rouge to parents from India, Jindal’s given name is Piyush, but he adopted “Bobby” after the youngest son on The Brady Bunch television show.

first appeared: 2/10/2008

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