re: What obscure piece of Louisiana history do you know?

This is my favorite thread of all time, but I have nothing to contribute that hasn't been mentioned.

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ETA: also, Parish comes from our past history when we were governed by the French and Spanish. The word is derived from the Old French word paroisee meaning "a dwelling abroad". Which is fitting since visiting Louisiana is like visiting another country (in a good way)

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I'm pretty sure it's because in the beginning each area was organized by the Catholic Church, which is known as a parish.

First African American elected mayor of a U.S. town: Pierre Caliste Landry, Donaldsonville, Louisiana.

The Trent Affair during the civil war in 1861 involving John Slidell almost started a war between the US, Britain, and France

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Former U. S Senator John Slidell of Louisiana and Former U. S Senator James Mason of Virginia were en route to France and Britain when officers of the San Jacinto boarded the British ship Trent and demanded these passengers. Slidell and Mason were removed and taken to Fort Warren in Boston. The resulting international incident almost sparked a war between Britain, France and the United States.

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LINK

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That's OK. Her daughter-in-law owns a flower shop in Natchez on Franklin st. I spoke to her at length , I know who lives in the old family home, I know why Alice faded into obscurity.

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Go on. I'm going to be in Natchez this week.

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Somewhere in cenla it rained fish

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Fishville?

LSU Indian Mounds are old...

"The 20 feet (6.1 m) tall mounds are thought to be more than 5,000 years old. That date would make them part of the oldest mound system in North America, Mesoamerica or South America and also means they predate the building of the Great Pyramids of Egypt."

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they predate the building of the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

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And are way easier to slide down on cardboard

Terry Bradshaw set the national high school javelin record when he was a student at Woodlawn H.S. in Shreveport. The record was previously held by Michael Landon (of Bonanza, Little House on the Prairw, etc.).

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Mark Twain really hated the Old State Capital Building...

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Yeah, he blamed the idea on Sir Walter Scott:

"Sir Walter Scott is probably responsible for the Capitol building; for it is not conceivable that this little sham castle would ever have been built if he had not run the people mad, a couple of generations ago, with his mediaeval romances. The South has not yet recovered from the debilitatting influence of his books. Admiration of his fantastic heroes and their grotesque "chivalry" doings and romantic juvenilities still survives here, in an atmosphere in which is already perceptible the wholesome and practical nineteenth-century smell of cotton-factories and locomotives; and traces of its inflated language and other windy humbuggeries survive along with it."

LC