Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge, city in the southeastern part of Louisiana, seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, and capital of the state. The city’s industrial development has been spurred by its strategic location at the head of deepwater navigation on the Mississippi River. Today its port on the Mississippi has facilities for handling both oceangoing vessels and river barges. Baton Rouge is a major petrochemicals-manufacturing center and also an important distribution point for the large quantities of soybeans and sugarcane produced nearby. The city is served by the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.

Baton Rouge is the seat of Louisiana State University (1853) and Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College (1880). Landmarks in the city include the 34-story State Capitol, built under orders of Louisiana governor Huey P. Long in 1932; the Old State Capitol, which dates back to 1849; and the Old Governor’s Mansion. Other attractions include the Rural Life Museum, which depicts Louisiana’s pre-industrial heritage; and the Nautical Historic Center, which features the USS Kidd, a destroyer that survived many battles, including a kamikaze attack, during World War II (1939-1945).

Situated in a region long inhabited by Native Americans of the Houma and Bayou Goula groups, the community was settled in 1719 by the French, who built a fort there to protect travelers venturing north from New Orleans. The city’s name, French for “red stick,” is said to commemorate a red cypress tree that marked the boundaries between the hunting grounds of two Native American tribes. Baton Rouge came under British control in 1763, but as a result of the First Battle of Baton Rouge (1779), during the American Revolution, the area passed to the Spanish. In 1800 France reacquired the region, and in 1803, when the French sold most of present-day Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase, Baton Rouge was claimed by Spain as part of West Florida. The residents of Baton Rouge rebelled against Spanish control, and as a result of the Second Battle of Baton Rouge (1810), the independent West Florida Republic was established. The republic, including Baton Rouge, became a territory of the United States later the same year.

Baton Rouge incorporated in 1817 and was made the capital of Louisiana in 1849. During the American Civil War, Louisiana joined the Confederacy, but Union forces captured Baton Rouge in 1862 and controlled the city until the end of the war. The state capital was relocated during the war, but Baton Rouge again became the capital in 1882. The city’s location on protected highlands above the Mississippi River encouraged industrial development. A refinery built in 1909 north of the city was the first of many such facilities, making the city a center for refining and petrochemical production.

Baton Rouge covers a land area of 199 sq km (77 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 18 m (60 ft). According to the 2000 census, blacks are 50 percent of the population, whites 45.7 percent, Asians 2.6 percent, and Native Americans 0.2 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders represent less than 0.1 percent of the population. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report race. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 1.7 percent of the people. Population 219,486 (1980); 219,531 (1990); 227,818 (2000); 222,064 (2005 estimate).