10 Things You Didn’t Know About Louisiana

Everyone thinks they know Louisiana but we bet there is something on this list of 10 that you weren’t aware of.  Louisiana has a rich, complex history that is fascinating to learn about. How many did you know out of 10?

  1. While all of Louisiana may be known for its crawfish, Breaux Bridge reigns as king of crustaceans. The city is called the “Crawfish Capital of the World” and has been proving it for over 50 years with its annual Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival. The Crawfish Festival has also become one of the largest gatherings of world famous Cajun musicians. All weekend long you can hear the sound of authentic Cajun, Zydeco and Swamp Pop music rising from the festival. Whether your musical taste is Cajun or Creole, you can witness over 30 bands perform over the three day event if you think you have the stamina. It’s a perfect opportunity to see our musical tradition passed from generation to generation. Watch the Cajun dance contests, and if you’re brave, join in. There’s no better way to learn. There are even Cajun music workshops held in the heritage tent.

    2. The first bottler of Coca-Cola, Joseph Biedenharn, lived in Monroe, where he purchased a small bottling plant to produce the drink.  The plant is now a museum and can be toured year round.  Young and old can connect to the gracious life of his daughter Emy-Lou through guided tours of the house. The rooms are exhibited as they were lived in, reflecting the eclectic taste of a well-traveled woman. In the furnishings and accessories, one will see Emy-Lou’s love of music, nature and family.  Guests will enjoy the beauty of rare furniture and antiques featured in the library, music, dining, breakfast and living rooms. The bedrooms display crystal chandeliers, high tester beds, and artistic accessories highlighting Emy-Lou’s European singing career.

    3. Louisiana was named in honor of King Louis XIV, the King of France from 1643-1715.

    4. Until about 1890, City Park in New Orleans was a favorite dueling spot for Creole people. They would gather at the “Dueling Oaks” with a pistol, saber or colichemarde (long sword) and fight with their opponents.  New Orleans City Park lost approximately 2,000 trees after Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures, but the Dueling Oak still stands where Dueling Oaks Drive meets Dreyfous Drive between the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden and the New Orleans Museum of Art. At one point, there was a placard that explained the tree’s historical significance, but it’s no longer there.  Originally, there were two “dueling oaks,” but one was lost in a hurricane in 1949. In the 1800s, men would defend their pride and honor by dueling each other under the oaks at what is now City Park but then was a normally quiet spot secluded from the rest of the city. Some of the city’s most notable figures who participated in duels in City Park include U.S. Congressman Emile LaSere and Bernard de Marigny, a nobleman and president of the Louisiana Senate in 1822-23. Many of the disputes between parties were either reconciled before the duel or after one party sustained a minor injury. Dueling deaths were reported, however. In 1805, Micajah Green Lewis, Gov. William C.C. Claiborne’s private secretary and brother-in-law, was killed by Robert Sterry, a Claiborne opponent. By 1890, dueling was outlawed.

    5. In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million dollars, nearly doubling the size of the country.  The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 brought into the United States about 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France, thereby doubling the size of the young republic. What was known at the time as the Louisiana Territory stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north. Part or all of 15 states were eventually created from the land deal, which is considered one of the most important achievements of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency.

    6. Just because it’s called the “French Quarter” doesn’t mean that being in New Orleans’ famous neighborhood is like strolling through a Parisian city. Most of the buildings today were influenced by Spanish architecture after a fire in 1794 destroyed most of the French colonial architecture.  The fire started on December 8, 1794. The fire area stretched across 212 buildings, including the royal jail.[1] It spared the Mississippi River front buildings. Among the buildings spared were the Customs House, the tobacco warehouses, the Governor’s Building, the Royal Hospital, and the Ursulines Convent. Despite widespread fire damage, the St. Louis Cathedral was not destroyed but was dedicated just 2 weeks later, on December 23, 1794.

    7. Louisiana is the only state that still acts under Napoleonic code, which derives from the original French emperor’s civil code. It was drafted by a commission of four eminent jurists and entered into force on 21 March 1804.  The Code, with its stress on clearly written and accessible law, was a major step in replacing the previous patchwork of feudal laws. Historian Robert Holtman regards it as one of the few documents that have influenced the whole world. The Napoleonic Code was not the first legal code to be established in a European country with a civil legal system; it was preceded by the Codex Maximilianeus bavaricus civilis (Bavaria, 1756), the Allgemeines Landrecht (Prussia, 1794), and the West Galician Code (Galicia, then part of Austria, 1797). It was, however,the first modern legal code to be adopted with a pan-European scope, and it strongly influenced the law of many of the countries formed during and after the Napoleonic Wars.  The Napoleonic Code influenced developing countries outside Europe, especially in the Middle East, attempting to modernize their countries through legal reforms.

    8. The town of Jean Lafitte was once a hideaway for pirates. It was also named after the French-born Louisiana pirate of the same name. The Barataria region was originally home to Native Americans, whose shell middens and ceremonial mounds are still found along the bayous. Shortly after the founding of New Orleans in 1718, the French explored the area and established Barataria Bay as a harbor for large vessels on the Gulf Coast.  By the 1730s, early colonists used the area’s virgin forests of cypress and oak trees for ship construction. Canals were dug between the Mississippi River and bayous to transport lumber, and logging persisted until the last sawmill closed in 1929. Meanwhile, plantation owners cultivated the land for sugar and rice production, and the area was an important supplier of fish, game and furs.  The name “Barataria” first appeared on French maps in 1729 and means dishonesty at sea. In 1808, brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte organized a group of smugglers and privateers and set up headquarters in the barrier island of Grand Terre. They were known to use Indian shell middens for storehouses and sold merchandise to merchants and plantation owners. During the War of 1812, the brothers joined Andrew Jackson to defend the City of New Orleans and were given pardons for their service. The bayou communities grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as residents harvested shrimp, crabs, oysters and fish from the estuaries. Forests were logged, moss was harvested for filling mattresses and furniture, and mink, muskrats and alligators were trapped for skin and fur. The diverse cultures of the early French and Spanish settlers were later joined by Croatians, who were followed by Filipino and Chinese.

    9. There are almost half as many alligators as there are people in Louisiana.  Louisiana alligator hunters currently harvest more than 28,000 wild alligators, and farmers harvest more than 280,000 farm-raised alligators annually. Raw meat and hide values are estimated at more than $11 million for wild harvest and more than $46 million for farm harvest. (Note these values consist of raw meat and hides only and do not reflect hide values after tanning and product manufacturing, values associated with jobs, tourism, economy, etc. or egg values.)

    10. The first opera in the United States was performed in New Orleans in 1796.  The date of the very first staging of opera in the Crescent City cannot be firmly established and seems forever lost to music historians.  But it can safely be stated that since 1796, in the final decade of the Spanish colonial era, New Orleans has had operatic performances on almost a yearly basis.  What is also significant is that, with few exceptions throughout the nineteenth century, each year the city hosted a resident company which was engaged for its principal theatre and which could be depended upon for performances throughout an established operatic season.  The Théâtre St. Pierre, on St. Peter street between Royal and Bourbon, opened in October 1792.  Louis Alexandre Henry had purchased the land the previous year and built the theatre, which featured plays, comedies and vaudeville.  It was there, on May 22,1796, that the first documented staging of an opera in New Orleans, André Ernest Grétry’s Sylvain, took place.  The St. Pierre closed in 1803 and the Théâtre St. Philippe, at St. Philip and Royal streets, opened January 30, 1808 with the American premiere of Etienne Nicholas Méhul’s Une Folie.  During the first third of the nineteenth century there was slow yearly growth as various theatres opened (and in some cases closed) and the repertoire was expanded to include, in addition to the popular light scores of Grétry, Méhul, Nicolo Isouard, Nicholas Dalayrac and François Boieldieu, works by Italian composers such as Giovanni Paisiello’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Luigi Cherubini’s Les Deux Journées.

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Israel Looking to Louisiana for Drilling Expertise

Israel may be looking to Louisiana companies for help extracting natural gas found in the Mediterranean Sea.

Gov. John Bel Edwards met with Israel’s energy minister Yuval Steinitz in Jerusalem Sunday (Oct. 28) to discuss how Louisiana companies could assist Israel with removing the natural gas. The governor said he wants Israel to be energy independent, which would make the small country less dependent on its neighbors in the Middle East.

“They’re looking for experience and expertise and, of course, we’ve been doing that in Louisiana for a long time,” Edwards said.

Edwards is currently visiting Israel to map out the details. Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, who is in Israel with the governor, said the meeting with Israeli energy officials was meant to establish a relationship that will hopefully lead to a follow up meeting. Energy executives already operating in Israel are also scheduled to chat with the governor and others from Louisiana Thursday, according to a press release.

“We have some opportunities for Louisiana companies to potentially catch the eye of Israel,” Dardenne said.

The meeting with Israel’s energy minister is part of a week long-trade mission Edwards is taking to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Edwards is expected to meet with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday, according to a press release sent by the governor’s staff.

Before the business meetings began, Edwards and his wife, Donna, took in some religious sites and tourist attractions on the trip. The governor and first lady visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance center, and attended mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians recognize as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

“It is a tremendous opportunity for me and Donna, as practicing Catholic Christians, to come over and actually see the places we’ve been reading about and studying about and praying about all of our lives,” Edwards said.

International business relations hasn’t always been easy for Louisianan politicians.  Dealings are often fraught with controversy. Just in January, the NEw Orleans city council caused major backlash with it’s Pro-Palestinian stance. They faced a torrent of criticism for its decision to unanimously approve a resolution pushed by the New Orleans Palestinian Solidarity Committee that critics say is an effort to marginalize Israel.

The language of the resolution, which the Palestinian Solidarity Committee said was drafted in cooperation with Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell’s council office after several meetings with her, does not specifically mention Israel. But it does resolve to create a committee to “review direct investments and contracts for inclusion on, or removal from, the city’s list of corporate securities and contractual partners.”

Mayor Mitch Landrieu, in a statement later Friday, said the resolution was “ill advised, gratuitous and does not reflect the policy of the city of New Orleans.” He also said his administration won’t change contracting policies.

A spokeswoman for the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, Caitrin Gladow, said the resolution’s language is consistent with a movement known as Boycott, Divest and Sanctions, or BDS, which she said has been used to advance anti-Israel causes. She described the movement as divisive and opposed to the goals of the organization, which believes in “a two-state solution.”

The local Jewish Federation was also sharply critical of the council’s decision to suspend the rules to add the resolution to the agenda, which didn’t give the Jewish Federation time to review the resolution and assemble opposition to speak at Thursday’s meeting.

One of the New Orleans Palestinian Solidarity Committee members specifically mentioned Middle East politics ahead of the council vote, saying the City Council shouldn’t invest in companies such as Caterpillar because its equipment has been used to bulldoze the homes of Palestinians. In an interview, The Palestinian Solidarity Committee’s Tabitha Mustafa, said that the resolution isn’t aimed at Israel specifically.

“There’s no effort to marginalize Israel, but there’s certainly an effort to make sure that the city is not contracting with companies or institutions that violate human rights,” Mustafa said. “If Israel is one of those countries,” she added, then the city should divest.

The association with the BDS movement is what’s prompting much of the backlash against the council’s action, including from U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, state Sen. Conrad Appel, both Republicans, and the Anti-Defamation League. Cassidy said in a statement Friday that the resolution “is rooted in anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel.

“This measure stands in solidarity with a Palestinian government that routinely sponsors and encourages terrorism,” Cassidy said. “I hope the council recognizes their error and reverses this misguided decision.”

It’s not clear that council members realized how controversial the resolution would become. City Councilwoman Susan Guidry said during the meeting that she didn’t have time to review the resolution and understand its implications. On Friday, Councilwoman Stacy Head, who co-sponsored the resolution, also said she didn’t fully grasp the reaction that started unfolding late Thursday.

“When I saw it early this week, I naively thought it was yet another example of the Council’s historical pattern of putting forward feel-good resolutions, which have no legal effect,” Head said in a statement. “I took the resolution’s language at face value without understanding its intent. My co-sponsorship should not be taken as a slight to the Jewish community in New Orleans, which continues to contribute so much to our city.”

In his statement, Landrieu said his administration “has been and will remain committed to human rights both in New Orleans and across the globe.” He said since the council’s vote he’s “heard a variety of concerns from a cross-section of constituents about the potential impact of this resolution on our community.”

Cantrell spokesman David Winkler-Schmit said the resolution came as the result of the Welcoming Cities effort. In 2015, Cantrell pushed through a resolution to officially designate New Orleans as a place open to immigrants and non-English speakers.

“There is absolutely no intention on the part of the mayor-elect to be a part of any process that would be considered anti-Israel,” Winkler-Schmit said, adding that resolutions do not have the power of law and only mark the potential starting point in the process to draft an ordinance. He did not indicate any such ordinance was planned.

The Anti-Defamation League agreed, issuing a statement criticizing the process.

“The Council’s adoption of this resolution without any public notice or the opportunity to promote alternative views was both a deep disappointment and a one-sided, undemocratic process,” the group said. “Although this measure does not reference BDS or Israel, it is clear from video of the hearing what supporters for this controversial measure thought it was about.”

City Councilman Jason Williams, whom the Palestinian Solidarity Committee said introduced the resolution, sought to portray the resolution as similar to past efforts to encourage governments to divest from South Africa to protest apartheid. But pro-Israel critics have cautioned against aligning anti-apartheid movements with the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions effort.

“South African apartheid rigidly enforced racial laws,” Benjamin Pogrund, the author of a book investigating accusations of apartheid in Israel, wrote in the New York Times in March. “Israel is not remotely comparable.”

Williams issued a statement Friday afternoon.

“My support of this measure was not, and is not, intended to in any way be reflective of either an anti-Israel or pro-BDS sentiment,” Williams said. “Any process or examining committee will be locally rooted and made up of New Orleanians from every walk of life.”

Max Geller, a member of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee and the Jewish Voice for Peace, disagrees. He said he thinks the apartheid description is apt, and he questioned why the Jewish Federation released a statement that described BDS as having “inherently anti-Semitic components” and “designed to challenge Israel’s economic viability and very right to exist.”

“I don’t understand what the Jewish Federation is so afraid of. If their position is that Israel isn’t committing Israeli human rights abuses, they have nothing to worry about,” Geller said. He described the City Council’s resolution as a broad effort among several different causes in the city to target countries and companies that engage in human rights abuses, including Honduras.

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9 Hidden Gem Restaurants in Louisiana

Louisiana has always been known for their good food whether its home cooked or made in different restaurants. One thing people coming from out of town may not know is that some of their best restaurant meals are located off the beaten path. These amazing restaurants in Louisiana are favorites for locals and are absolutely worth the drive if you are coming from out of town for a visit. This article, on onlyinyourstate.com knew exactly where to go when looking for the best of the best in Louisiana. So gas up the car and get ready for a mouthwateringly good meal you won’t soon forget.

  1. Anchors Up Grill

Located in Cameron, this family owned and operated joint has everything from po’boys to juicy burgers. The atmosphere is comfortable and casual, and the food will dazzle your tastebuds. Address: 465 Marshall St., Cameron, LA 70631

 

  1. Cafe Bouchee

Featuring mouthwatering daily specials, you can’t go wrong with anything on the menu at Cafe Bouchee. Whether you stop by for lunch or dinner, you’re sure to have a memorable experience here. Address: 1103 Cleveland St., Franklinton, LA 70438

  1. BubbaQue’s

For finger-licking good BBQ, you have to head over to BubbaQue’s. Low and slow is the motto here, and all of their sides are made fresh every day. With two locations in Louisiana, you’re never too far away from some amazing BBQ.
Addresses:
6503 Coliseum Blvd., Alexandria, LA 71303
11275 Lake Charles Hwy., Leesville, LA 71446

  1. The Cabin

Housed in nearly 200-year-old slave dwelling on the Monroe Plantation, this phenomenal restaurant is certainly one-of-a-kind. The interior is decorated with antique farm equipment and the original cypress roof can still be seen from the inside. The menu features all of your favorite Cajun and Creole dishes, and their gumbo is out of this world, so be sure to get a cup! Address: 5405 Highway 44, Gonzales, LA 70737

  1. Cher Amie’s Seafood Restaurant

From seafood platters to burgers and steaks, there’s something for everyone on the menu at Cher Amie’s. Their stuffed soft shell crab is a local favorite, so give it a try! Address: 15628 W Main St., Cut Off, LA 70345

  1. Grayson’s Bar-B-Que

Locals will tell you Grayson’s has the best BBQ around, and they’re not wrong. This no-frills BBQ joint is absolutely worth the drive, and after one bite you’ll become a customer for life. Address: 5849 US-71, Clarence, LA 71414

  1. Bayou Lagniappe

Don’t let the outside appearance fool you – inside this unassuming building is some of the most mouthwatering seafood you’ll ever taste. Whether you dine or take out, you’re going to love the food here. Address: 102 Bowman St., Berwick, LA 70342

  1. Leeville Seafood Restaurant

Located at the tip of the boot in Golden Meadow, this no-frills seafood restaurant is the perfect pit-stop on your way to Grand Isle. Fresh, delicious seafood seasoned to perfection and delivered with phenomenal customer service… what more could you ask for? Address: 24203 Hwy. 1, Golden Meadow, LA 70357

  1. Suire’s Grocery

For a taste of true Cajun cuisine, swing by Suire’s Grocery. From fried alligator to gumbo, these home-cooked meals will amaze you. It may be off the beaten path, but this hidden gem is too good to pass up if you’re in the area. Address: 13923 La Hwy. 35, Kaplan, LA 70548

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Officials Attempt to Increase Brown Pelicans

Louisiana is called the Pelican State, and now its officials are designing two projects to shore up coastal islands with an eye to improving nesting grounds for the namesake bird. Louisiana got more than $148 million following 2010’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill to improve coastal rookeries. The projects would aid Rabbit Island in southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish and fill an area around Queen Bess Island in Barataria Bay that’s turned to open water.

 

The Queen Bess site has particular significance for the brown pelican, Louisiana’s state bird. It’s where scientists released young pelicans in 1968 to restore the population after it was devastated by the insecticide DDT.  The insecticide caused pelicans and other large birds to lay eggs with thin shells, meaning the parents would smash the eggs long before chicks would hatch.  At the time, scientists didn’t know much about how to reintroduce birds, so they chose chicks between 8 and 12 weeks old – strong enough to make the trip but too young to have their flight feathers yet. Scientists would bring the birds fish twice a day until they were old enough to fly, biologist Todd Baker said.  Three years later, in 1971, the birds released on Queen Bess Island returned to lay 11 nests – the first in a decade. The U.S. banned DDT the following year.

 

All told, Louisiana relocated 767 pelican chicks through 1976, and the population continued to grow such that the birds were removed from the endangered species list in 2009. But officials now say pelicans are steadily losing Louisiana nesting sites. Some leave for Texas. Those that stay in Louisiana often must make do with less ideal nesting grounds, like coastal habitats where the ridges aren’t as high, Baker said.  The oil spill also damaged the population. State officials don’t have an exact number, but about a quarter of the dead birds collected from the disaster were pelicans. About 1,000 birds of all types were killed just on Queen Bess Island, where many pelicans nest, Baker said.

 

The rebuilding is a balancing act for scientists, who must rebuild enough land to expand the nesting grounds without making the island so large and high that predators move in, Baker said. The birds seek to avoid predators by laying their eggs on islands.  “As many drive along Louisiana’s coastal region and see the pelican flying above, it is easy to take for granted their great abundance,” Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Jack Montoucet wrote in a statement. “The job now is to make certain the species continues to flourish.”

Louisiana seems to have made conservation of wildlife a priority over the last decade.  In the heart of Cajun country, a wilderness preservation group and an oil company are trying to strike a balance between conservation and commerce. That is the goal of the Cypress Island Preserve, one of the nation’s largest and most important wading-bird rookeries and the site of a handful of oil and gas wells, three miles from Breaux Bridge on the western edge of the Atchafalaya Basin in southwestern Louisiana.

The rookery took root in ancient wetlands that exist today mostly because Texaco held on to the parcel for nearly a century. Much of the land has been deeded to the Nature Conservancy of Louisiana, with the latest donation in March.

The bird colony, which roosts in the preserve’s Lake Martin, is being closely watched. Since wading birds are at the top of the food chain, said Dr. Bruce Fleury, a visiting instructor in ecology and evolutionary biology at Tulane University, the birds ”are the canary in the coal mine for the wetland habitat.”

The viability of the rookery and its hardwood ecosystem will depend on how well the birds and other wildlife fare with oil and gas wells for neighbors, with the commotion of growing numbers of tourists, with stagnating water and with the anger of neighboring farmers who say the birds look at their crawfish ponds as all-you-can-eat buffets.

The habitat of Cypress Island — not a natural island, but named for its stand of cypress — has mostly thrived. Starting in the 1970’s, bird populations there boomed with the rise in nearby crawfish farming, Dr. Fleury said. The rookery appears to have held an average of 15,000 birds since 1996, said Dr. Thomas Michot, a wildlife biologist with the National Wetlands Research Center, part of the federal Interior Department. Researchers suspect that the number may have dropped recently and will begin a new count in August.

Preserving Cypress Island is crucial to stemming the decline of the Lower Mississippi Valley ecosystem, said Dr. Keith Ouchley, executive director of the state’s Nature Conservancy. Cypress Island is ”one of the last remaining large blocks of hardwood forest” in an area from southern Illinois to the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Dr. Ouchley said.

On a recent visit, 10,000 to 20,000 or so little blue herons, great blue herons, cattle egrets, snowy egrets, tricolored herons, black-crowned night herons and yellow-crowned night herons filled spindly buttonbush branches, just yards from the preserve’s heavily traveled road. They were joined by 100 or so pairs of gaudily pink roseate spoonbills. Great egrets nested above the fray in stout tupelo cypress boughs.

The lake area supports other wildlife, including 1,800 to 2,000 alligators that float at the edges of the roosts, ready to snap up wayward hatchlings. Migratory songbirds nest in the spring and refuel in the fall in the dense woods, Dr. Ouchley said. Two hundred species have been identified, including warblers, vireos, flycatchers, gnatcatchers, grosbeaks and buntings.

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Top Museums in Louisiana

Museums have a way of sparking the imagination, painting pictures of the past, forcing us to think in ways we haven’t before.  Typically, an experience at a good museum will shift our perception, enlighten us, open our minds. Louisiana is home to many good museums of all types but we have compiled a list of the best.

 

  1. The National World War II Museum, New Orleans, LA
    This epic museum is in the Central Business District in New Orleans and as so host’s tourists from all over the world. It is no wonder that this museum has continued to expand and incorporate groundbreaking attractions such as Tom Hanks’ “Beyond All Boundaries,” which incorporates a 4D tour of the war with first-person encounters. Speaking of first person encounters, actual veterans of the war are often stationed around the vast levels of memorabilia from the war and are happy to share their own experience with visiting guests. You can also catch a ride back in time at BB’s Stage Door Canteen where acts such as The Vic-Tones, celebrate the music of the 1940s. Other attractions include “The Road to Tokyo: Pacific Theatre Galleries,” the John E. Kushner Restoration Pavilion, U.S. Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center, and many more attractions all about World War II.

 

  1. LSU Rural Life Museum, Baton Rouge, LA
    Dedicated to preserving the lifestyles of 18th and 19th century rural Louisiana, the Louisiana State University Rural Life Museum is truly a trip back in time. This mostly outdoor museum, hosts a variety of activities all around the property utilizing the largest collection of architecture and artifacts from that period. Volunteers can be seen making cuisine such as homemade sausage, doing blacksmith work, or displaying cultural dances of the time. Three distinct areas make up the museum. The Exhibit Barn is where hundreds of artifacts from these periods are set out for display for each guest to view. The Plantation Quarters has a setup of an entire plantation property including the blacksmith shop, sugar house, and grist mill that are all authentically furnished to display the true nature of life on a plantation in the 19th century. Lastly, Louisiana Folk Architecture displays the various cultures that settled in Louisiana back in the day as the various architectural styles, such as shotgun, Acadian, and dogtrot houses, are in full view to enjoy.

 

  1. Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA
    As one of the top art museums in central Louisiana, the Alexandria Museum of Art hosts some of the best exhibits in the state. Current exhibitions include “Tierce: Artists of Louisiana Francophone Culture,” which celebrates the rich French connection that thrives in the state till this very day. Artists of French heritage are on display as well as pieces by French artists themselves. More exhibits include “Beyond Mammy,” “Jezebel,” and “Sapphire: Reclaiming Images of Black Women,” and “Faculty & Friends: Reminiscing,” which highlights 13 artists who have had strong ties to the museum in its 40-year history. Come celebrate the brilliant local and international art displays as well as yearly competitions at this central Louisiana museum.

 

Click here for a full list of the top Louisiana museums.

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8 Reasons Living in Louisiana Spoils You for Life

Living in Louisiana is truly something special and one of a kind. From New Orleans, to Lafayette, to Lake Charles and Shreveport, the rich culture and interesting history is undeniably fascination. So fascinating in fact, that people come from all over the world to try our food, dance at our festivals, and get a taste of the Cajun culture that is unlike any other.

In this article, written in onlyinyourstate.com, they say it best when by stating, “Louisiana is the best, right? The Bayou State has a way of getting into your soul and spoiling you for life. From the amazing community to the abundance of history around us, we are pretty lucky to live in such an amazing state.”

For those of us who have grown up in Louisiana or have grown to call it home, the list of why living in Louisiana spoils you for life could be endless but a few of the reasons are:

  1. We take southern hospitality to new levels.
  2. Our food is unparalleled.
  3. The scenery is amazing.
  4. We support creative types.
  5. Our music.
  6. We’re surrounded by history.
  7. Our state parks are pretty incredible too.

Can you guess what number 8 is? Click here to find out the answer.

What are some of the ways that living in Louisiana has spoiled you?

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