Louisiana: The Pelican State
Geography and Industry
While it's true that there are swamps in Louisiana, and bayous, and cays, and crocodiles, there is a lot more to the Cajun state than hurricanes, hoodoos, and humidity.
For example, Louisiana is a leading agricultural producer. They grow an amazing amount of food: corn, pecans, soybeans, hay, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, rice, cotton, and strawberries. Also, fishing is a very important industry in Louisiana. Oysters, shrimp, and crayfish are all plentiful in Louisiana's waters, and figure prominently in local (Cajun) cuisine.
Like its neighbors Texas and Oklahoma, Louisiana has large deposits of crude oil (petroleum) and natural gas. Most of Louisiana's oil deposits are offshore, and the state has a thriving oil industry that includes large refineries that turn crude oil into motor oil and gas. These refineries and the rest of the oil industry employ large parts of Louisiana's population.
Timber (mostly pine forests) covers over half of the state. As a result, lumber and paper are also very important exports from Louisiana.
Louisiana has hundreds of small offshore islands, and the mighty Mississippi completes its 2,000-plus-mile journey across the continent and flows into the Gulf of Mexico in southern Louisiana. The coastal region is very rainy, fitting the stereotype of a swampy Louisiana made up of little other than marshes. There are large lagoons made up of standing fresh water. The largest of these is Lake Pontchartrain, which is the lake on the banks of which the city of New Orleans was built.
Speaking of New Orleans, it is one of the most colorful and distinctive cities in America. The birthplace of jazz and blues music, and home to Cajun cuisine, New Orleans is a very popular tourist attraction, especially during the early spring, which is Mardi Gras season. “Mardi Gras” is French for “Fat Tuesday,” and it takes place in the famous French Quarter of the city. It is a tradition that has been ongoing in New Orleans since 1838!
Central, western, and northern Louisiana are a little like the French bayou country. Central Louisiana is full of pine forests and prairies, and northern Louisiana is very hilly. Baton Rouge, the state capital, is located in central Louisiana.
ALL ABOUT Louisiana
CAPITAL: Baton Rouge
LARGEST CITY: New Orleans
POPULATION: 4,468,976 (2000 Census)
STATE BIRD: Eastern Brown Pelican
STATE TREE: Cypress
STATE FLOWER: Magnolia
STATE MOTTO: “Union, Justice, and Confidence”
STATEHOOD: April 30, 1812
POSTAL ABBREVIATION: LA
History
Louisiana was originally the home of such Native American tribes as the Choctaw, Natchez, and Caddo. The Spanish were the first Europeans to visit the region, but established no lasting presence. In 1682 Robert de La Salle came south down the Mississippi to its mouth in what is now Louisiana, and claimed all of the lands drained by the river for France. The lands on the western side of the Mississippi were named Louisiana in honor of La Salle's king, Louis XIV of France.
New Orleans was founded in 1718. It quickly became the largest and most important city in French Louisiana. After the English took the French Canadian province of Acadia, thousands of French-speaking Acadians moved down the Mississippi and settled in French Louisiana. Today, there are as many as 500,000 of their descendants living in southern Mississippi, southern Louisiana, and eastern Texas.
After the United States acquired all of Louisiana in 1803, settlers poured into the area from the neighboring southern states and territories. The Louisiana territory entered the Union as the state of Louisiana in 1812, the same year that the United States fought its second war with England.
At the time that the Civil War broke out, there were more slaves than free people living in the state. Louisiana seceded in 1861. Because of its location next to the mouth of the Mississippi, Louisiana saw much fighting, especially along the Mississippi River. New Orleans was captured by Union forces in early 1862, and the entire river was under Union control by July 1863, when the last Confederate fortress on the river (Vicksburg) surrendered.
WORDS TO KNOW
A bayou is a small slow-moving stream or creek usually found in low-lying areas.
When France lost its Canadian colony of Acadia to the English, the English forced many of the Acadian settlers to leave. Thousands of these settlers moved to the other major French holding in North America: the Louisiana bayou country around New Orleans. Since they moved there nearly 300 years ago, the name “Acadian” has been corrupted to “Cajun.”
Fun Facts
CRAYFISH
Crayfish are freshwater lobsters. They are smaller than their oceangoing cousins, and are highly prized by Cajun cooks. Nearly 100 percent of all crayfish caught and eaten in the United States are caught in Louisiana!
Life in LA
Louisiana has been the hangout for two different kinds of critters that both start with the letter P. One critter is historical, and the other is still there today! First, connect the dots. Then, break the “First to Last” and the “Vowel Switch” codes to learn about these Louisiana residents.
