Louisiana

C

Museums

Fine art collections are located in the major cities of Louisiana. A number of scientific, historical, and art museums are located on the campuses of the state universities and Tulane University. Exhibits devoted to state and regional history are housed in the Louisiana State Museum and in the Louisiana Historical Association’s Confederate Museum, both of which are in New Orleans, and in the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, at Shreveport. Also in New Orleans is the Louisiana Nature Center. The Marksville State Historic Site, at Marksville, includes a noted archaeological museum. There are arboretums in Ville Platte and Baton Rouge. Hundreds of museums, large and small, are found around the state.

D

Communications

There were 19 daily newspapers published in Louisiana in 2002. The region’s first newspaper was the French-language Moniteur de la Louisiane (“Louisiana Monitor”), founded in 1794 in New Orleans. The oldest paper in the state and the daily with the largest circulation is the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which dates from 1837. Other major Louisiana dailies include the Baton Rouge Advocate and the Shreveport Times.

The first commercial radio station in Louisiana, WWL, in New Orleans, was licensed in 1922. The first television station in the state was WDSU-TV, in New Orleans, which began broadcasting in 1948. In 2002 there were 63 AM and 101 FM radio stations and 32 television stations in the state.

E

Music

Louisiana’s rich musical heritage includes a strong European tradition of classical music and a wealth of Creole, Cajun, and black folk music. New Orleans has traditionally been a center of musical culture of many sorts. Around the turn of the 20th century, New Orleans became the center of the development of jazz and for several years was the focus of jazz music in the United States. Created largely by black musicians, this new form of music had its origins in the blues, spirituals, Creole songs, and French dances that were common to Louisiana. New Orleans bands and musicians carried jazz to other parts of the country and soon achieved both national and international fame. Of the many jazz styles that have developed since the early days of jazz, two have remained closely associated with New Orleans: Dixieland and the New Orleans style.

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VI

Recreation and Places of Interest

Louisiana’s parks and other recreational facilities attract hundreds of thousands of tourists to the state every year. A large number of the parks lie along water, and water sports are among the most popular forms of outdoor recreation in Louisiana. There is excellent fishing in Louisiana’s many freshwater streams and lakes and along the Gulf of Mexico. Wooded areas and coastal marshes offer fine opportunities to observe wildlife. Among the many interesting places to visit are the numerous units of the state park system. Privately owned sites open to the public include many of Louisiana’s beautiful mansions from what is called the antebellum period before the Civil War (1861-1865). The state’s chief tourist center, New Orleans, offers visitors many attractions of historic interest, as well as the atmosphere of a cosmopolitan city.

A

National Forest and National Parks

Kisatchie National Forest, the only national forest in Louisiana, covers 243,000 hectares (601,000 acres) in the north central part of the state. It has facilities for camping and a lake for swimming, fishing, and boating.

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve was established to preserve the rich natural resources and culture of Louisiana’s delta region. The park consists of four separate units: Acadian, which interprets the Acadian and Native American cultures of the area; the Barataria Preserve, near Marrero, which focuses on the natural and cultural history of the swamp and marshlands of the region; the Chalmette, near New Orleans, site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans; and the New Orleans unit, which tells of the history of the city. The Cane River Creole National Historical Park and Heritage Area, authorized in 1994, preserves buildings and landscapes associated with the development of Creole culture. New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, also authorized in 1994, educates visitors about jazz music as it evolved in New Orleans. Poverty Point National Monument, in northeast Louisiana, contains some of the largest Native American earthworks found on the continent, consisting of concentric ridges which may have been dwelling foundations surrounding a large central plaza. Arranged around the ridges are four ceremonial and burial mounds. Also in Louisiana is a portion of the Vicksburg National Military Park, site of the siege in 1863 that gave Union forces control of the Mississippi River during the Civil War (see Vicksburg, Campaign of).

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