Louisiana Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

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

The American Cem-etery in Natchitoches (pop. 17,865) has marked graves from 1797 and others dating to at least 50 years earlier. It is believed to be the oldest cemetery in the region that became the Louisiana Purchase.

first appeared: 12/19/2004

Pianist Van Cliburn, born in 1934 in Shreveport, won the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow in 1958 and returned to a hero’s welcome with a New York City ticker-tape parade.

first appeared: 12/5/2004

A pioneer in reforestation, Henry Hardtner established the Urania Lumber Co. in Urania (pop. 700) in the 1890s.

first appeared: 11/21/2004

Construction began in 1834 on the mansion at Rosedown Plantation at St. Francisville (pop. 1,712). Today, the cotton plantation is a state historic site.

first appeared: 11/7/2004

In 1870, a worker discovered natural gas while digging a water well for a Shreveport ice plant. The gas, used to light the plant, is the first known commercial use of natural gas in the state.

first appeared: 10/24/2004

The nation’s top high school basketball scorer, Greg Procell, scored 6,702 points during his 180-game career from 1966 to 1970 for Ebarb High School in Noble (pop. 259). He averaged 46.7 points per game during his senior year.

first appeared: 10/10/2004

The 1835 Old U.S. Mint in New Orleans is the only mint that produced currency for both the U.S. and Confederate governments.

first appeared: 10/3/2004

In 1699, explorer Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville named Baton Rouge, which means “red stick,” after seeing a pole stained with animal blood to mark the boundaries of native tribes.

first appeared: 9/19/2004

One of the nation’s first female publishers of a daily metropolitan newspaper was Eliza Jane Poitevent, who became publisher of The Picayune in New Orleans in 1876 after the death of her husband.

first appeared: 9/12/2004

Buggies were the main transportation until the 1950s in Church Point (pop. 4,756), nicknamed “Buggy Capital USA.” The town rolls out its buggies during a June Buggy Festival.

first appeared: 9/5/2004

Twenty-five species of frogs keep things hopping at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans.

first appeared: 8/29/2004

The nation’s first opera house, the French Opera House, opened in 1859 in New Orleans. The elegant building, destroyed by a 1919 fire, offered screened-in box seating for pregnant women, ladies in mourning and “ladies of the evening.”

first appeared: 8/22/2004

The Angola Prison Rodeo, with Louisiana State Prison inmates as competitors, began in 1965 and is the nation’s oldest continuously running prison rodeo.

first appeared: 8/15/2004

The state adopted the alligator, a resident of the swamps and lowlands, as its official reptile in 1983.

first appeared: 8/8/2004

Before 1896, Springhill (pop. 5,439) was known as Barefoot because so many of the settlement’s sawmill workers wore no shoes.

first appeared: 8/1/2004

Gulf Refining Co. built the world’s first offshore well in 1911 over Caddo Lake near Oil City (pop. 1,219).

first appeared: 7/25/2004

The state’s first female governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, 61, took the oath of office twice on Jan. 12, 2004, once in English and once in French.

first appeared: 7/18/2004

Country music singer Tim McGraw scores with Little Leaguers in Rayville (pop. 4,234), where he built a sports complex and holds Swampstock, an annual fund-raiser. McGraw was born in 1967 in nearby Delhi (pop. 3,066).

first appeared: 7/11/2004

From 1954 to 1986, “Mr. Charlie,” the nickname of a submersible drilling rig, drilled hundreds of offshore wells. Today, the rig is displayed at the International Petroleum Museum & Exposition in Morgan City (pop. 12,703).

first appeared: 6/27/2004

The McNeill Street Pumping Station in Shreveport was the last known steam-powered water plant in the nation when its steam engines were retired in 1980.

first appeared: 6/20/2004

jump to page: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18

newspaper partner login create account

Recent

Popular

Recipes

Below are the most recent American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile recipes:

Relish

Spry

Below are the most recent articles from our Relish sister site. Click on the "Spry" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.

Below are the most recent articles from our Spry sister site. Click on the "Relish" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.