The Nifty Fifty: Louisiana

Louisiana is a state in the southern region of the United States with the abbreviation LA. Louisiana became the 15th state on April 30, 1812, making the state 212 years old, as of April, 2024. The name Louisiana was first given to the territory surrounding the drainage basin of the Mississippi River in 1683 in honor of Louis XIV of France. The Louisiana territory was eventually purchased by the United States and the southernmost portion of the territory became the state of Louisiana.

Louisiana is the 31st largest state and the 25th most populous; the capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge and its demonym is Louisianian. Louisiana is bordered by the states of Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.

The motto of the state of Louisiana is Union, Justice, Confidence.

The nickname of Louisiana is The Pelican State; the brown pelican is Louisiana’s state bird and it appears on the state’s flag, seal, official state painting, and the Louisiana quarter.

The landscape of Louisiana is filled with pine, hardwood, and cypress forests, as well as prairies, marshlands, and bayous.

Louisiana is known for its Cajun and Creole culture and its unique food, for popularizing jazz and blues music, for producing some of the most oysters and crayfish, for inventing Tabasco sauce, and for having the longest continuous bridge over water. Louisiana is one of only two states that do not have counties, but Louisiana is the only US state that is divided into parishes. Louisiana’s land also possess some materials such as aluminum, germanium, manganese, titanium dioxide, Louisiana opal, marcasite, barite, calcite, jasper, hematite, selenite, and halite (salt).

On September 12, 1909, Lawrence Nathanial Brooks was born in Norwood, Louisiana. In 1940, Brooks was drafted into the army at 31 years old. Brooks was discharged in 1941 after serving a year of mandatory service, but he rejoined the army after the attack on Pearl Harbor, serving in the Pacific Theater until 1945; Brooks received awards including an Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, and WWII Victory Medal. After serving in the military, Brooks worked as a forklift operator in New Orleans until his retirement. Brooks was the oldest living man in the United States and the oldest known living American World War II veteran, until he sadly passed away in January of 2022 at the age of 112.

During World War II, a small boat company in New Orleans known as Higgins Industries was responsible for inventing the Higgins Boat. These amphibious boats were capable of delivering masses of men and equipment safely from ship to shore without the need of an established harbor. Andrew Jackson Higgins, the owner of Higgins Industries, initially struggled with getting the military’s attention, but his superior product eventually won him large government contracts, allowing his company to expand dramatically. Higgins boats were used in every major American amphibious operation in the European and Pacific theaters during World War II, including the D-Day landings in Normandy.

On April 17, 1863, the Battle of Vermillion Bayou occurred in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. The battle was fought between Union and Confederate troops. The units involved on the Union side were the XIX Corps; the 13th, 24th, and 25th Connecticut Infantry; the 1st Louisiana Cavalry; the 22nd and 26th Maine Infantry; the 2nd Massachusetts Battery Light Artillery and 52nd Massachusetts Infantry; the 6th, 91st, 131st, and 156th New York Infantry; and the 1st and 2nd United States Battery Artillery. The only unit involved on the Confederate side was the Army of Western Louisiana. Confederate troops under the command of Major General Richard Taylor crossed a bridge over Vermillion Bayou. The Confederates burned the bridge to slow the pursuing Union troops under the command of Major General Nathaniel Banks, and once the Union troops came within sight of the bridge, an exchange of artillery fire ensued. Taylor, knowing he was outnumbered, withdrew from the location, causing the battle to conclude in a Union victory.

An interesting fact about Louisiana is that the city of Winnsboro, Louisiana, calls itself the Stars and Stripes Capital of Louisiana, and it has even been named one of the most patriotic cities in America. Winnsboro has been known to fly 350 flags along Louisiana Highway 15 on special occasions.

A strange fact about Louisiana is that the state apparently has the only north-south facing cemetery in the United States. Cemeteries are traditionally east-west facing with the graves facing east, so that the deceased will be ready to meet Jesus during his second coming. The mistake was realized too late, and now the Saint John’s Cemetery in Rayne, Louisiana, is permanently perpendicular to the rest of the cemeteries in the United States.

What fact about Louisiana most interests you?