PORTAL:LOUISIANA

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The Louisiana Portal

Louisiana (French: Louisiane [lwizjan] ^ⓘ; Spanish: Luisiana [lwiˈsjana]; Louisiana Creole: Lwizyàn) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 20th in land area and the 25th in population, with roughly 4.6 million residents. Reflecting its French heritage, Louisiana is the only U.S. state with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are equivalent to counties, making it one of only two U.S. states not subdivided into counties (the other being Alaska and its boroughs). Baton Rouge is the state's capital, and New Orleans, a French Louisiana region, is its largest city with a population of about 383,000 people. Louisiana has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the south; a large part of its eastern boundary is demarcated by the Mississippi River.

Much of Louisiana's lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp. These contain a rich southern biota, including birds such as ibises and egrets, many species of tree frogs—such as the state recognized American green tree frog—and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. More elevated areas, particularly in the north, contain a wide variety of ecosystems such as tallgrass prairie, longleaf pine forest and wet savannas; these support an exceptionally large number of plant species, including many species of terrestrial orchids and carnivorous plants. Over half the state is forested.

Louisiana is situated at the confluence of the Mississippi river system and the Gulf of Mexico. Its location and biodiversity attracted various indigenous groups thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the 17th century. Louisiana has eighteen Native American tribes—the most of any southern state—of which four are federally recognized and ten are state recognized. The French claimed the territory in 1682, and it became the political, commercial, and population center of the larger colony of New France. After a brief period of Spanish rule, Louisiana was returned to France in 1801 before being purchased by the U.S. in 1803; it was admitted to the Union in 1812 as the 18th state. ( Full article...)

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Interstate 55 (I-55) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that spans 964.25 miles (1,551.81 km) from LaPlace, Louisiana, to Chicago, Illinois. Within the state of Louisiana, the highway travels 66 miles (106 km) from the national southern terminus at I-10 in LaPlace to the Mississippi state line north of Kentwood.

The route is located in the southeastern portion of Louisiana and parallels the older U.S. Highway 51 (US 51) corridor. While passing through the city of Hammond, I-55 intersects two of the state's major east–west routes, I-12 and US 190. It also serves the smaller city of Ponchatoula, as well as the towns of Amite City and Kentwood. ( Full article...)

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Hurricane Laura near peak intensity while approaching Louisiana late on August 26

Hurricane Laura was a deadly and destructive Category 4 hurricane that is tied with the 1856 Last Island hurricane and 2021's Hurricane Ida as the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana, as measured by maximum sustained winds. The twelfth named storm, fourth hurricane, and first major hurricane of the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Laura originated from a large tropical wave that moved off the West African coast on August 16 and became a tropical depression on August 20. Laura intensified into a tropical storm a day later, becoming the earliest twelfth named storm on record in the North Atlantic basin, forming eight days earlier than 1995's Hurricane Luis.

Laura first hit the Lesser Antilles and brushed Puerto Rico as a tropical storm, then moved across the island of Hispaniola, killing 31 people in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic. The storm then moved across the length of Cuba, prompting tropical storm warnings and the evacuation of more than 260,000 people there. Subsequently, the outer rainbands extended into the Florida Keys and South Florida. Laura then moved across the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening slowly at first, before a period of rapid intensification on August 26. That day, Laura became a major hurricane, and later attained its peak 1-minute sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h), making it a Category 4 hurricane. The approaching storm prompted the issuing of many warnings and watches for Louisiana, as well as the evacuation of many people. ( Full article...)

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The following are images from various Louisiana-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Mardi Gras Festival New Orleans 1921. (from Culture of Louisiana)
Image 2Map of the Fourche Maline and Marksville cultures (from History of Louisiana)
Image 3A young African American man in Morganza, 1938 (from Louisiana)
Image 4'Signing the Ordinance of Secession of Louisiana, January 26, 1861', oil on canvas painting, 1861 (from Louisiana)
Image 5French pirate Jean Lafitte, who operated in New Orleans, was born in Port-au-Prince around 1782. (from Louisiana)
Image 6 Gulf Intracoastal Waterway near New Orleans (from Louisiana)
Image 7 Saint-Domingue Creoles (from Louisiana)
Image 8National Rice Festival, Crowley, Louisiana, 1938 (from Louisiana)
Image 9Consolidated Bond of the State of Louisiana, issued 6. July 1892 (from Louisiana)
Image 10 Honey Island Swamp (from Louisiana)
Image 11Typical dishes of Louisiana Creole cuisine (from Louisiana)
Image 12Map of the Caddoan Mississippian culture and some important sites (from History of Louisiana)
Image 13Aerial view of Louisiana's wetland habitats (from Louisiana)
Image 14 Bogue Chitto State Park (from Louisiana)
Image 15Tabasco varieties produced in Louisiana (from Louisiana)
Image 16Map of New France (blue color) in 1750, before the French and Indian War (from History of Louisiana)
Image 17A streetcar on the St. Charles Avenue Line in New Orleans (from Louisiana)
Image 18Geographic map of Louisiana (from Louisiana)
Image 19 Troyville Earthworks, once the second tallest earthworks in North America (from Louisiana)
Image 20View of flooded New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (from Louisiana)
Image 21 Antioch Baptist Church in Shreveport (from Louisiana)
Image 22 Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, founder of the colony of Louisiana in New France. (from History of Louisiana)
Image 23Map of Louisiana in 1800 (from Louisiana)
Image 24 Free woman of color with mixed-race daughter; late 18th-century collage painting, New Orleans (from Louisiana)
Image 25El Museo de los Isleños (Isleño Museum) in Saint Bernard (from Louisiana)
Image 26 Poverty Point UNESCO site (from Louisiana)
Image 27Population density and low elevation coastal zones in the Mississippi River Delta. The Mississippi River Delta is especially vulnerable to sea level rise. (from Louisiana)
Image 28French Acadians, who came to be known as Cajuns, settled in southern Louisiana, especially along the banks of its major bayous. (from Louisiana)
Image 29Modern map of the United States overlapped with territory bought in the Louisiana Purchase (in white) (from History of Louisiana)
Image 30 Watson Brake, the oldest mound complex in North America (from Louisiana)
Image 31Louisiana Purchase, 1803 (from Louisiana)
Image 32The Louisiana Governor's Mansion (from Louisiana)
Image 33Spanish Louisiana in 1800 (from History of Louisiana)
Image 34The Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, the tallest state capitol building in the United States (from Louisiana)
Image 35Louisiana's flag during the American Civil War, in 1861 (from History of Louisiana)
Image 36 Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in New Orleans (from Louisiana)
Image 37Louisiana entrance sign off Interstate 20 in Madison Parish east of Tallulah (from Louisiana)
Image 38 Capture of New Orleans, April 1862, colored lithograph of engraving (from Louisiana)

Map of parishes in Louisiana by racial plurality, per the 2020 U.S. census

Legend

Non-Hispanic White

40–50%

50–60%

60–70%

70–80%

80–90%

90%+

Black or African American

40–50%

50–60%

60–70%

70–80%

(from Louisiana)

Image 40Cargo ship at the Port of New Orleans (from Louisiana)
Image 41Map of New France (blue color) in 1750, before the French and Indian War (from Louisiana)
Image 42Entrance to the Bald Eagle Nest Trail at South Toledo Bend State Park (from Louisiana)
Image 43Mardi Gras celebrations in the Spanish Town section of Baton Rouge (from Louisiana)
Image 44Watson Brake, the oldest mound complex in North America (from History of Louisiana)
Image 45 Caesars Superdome and Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. (from Louisiana)
Image 46Aerial view of Louisiana State University's flagship campus (from Louisiana)
Image 47Map showing the geographic extent of the Baytown, Coastal Troyville and Troyville cultures (from History of Louisiana)
Image 48 Treemap of the popular vote by parish, 2016 presidential election (from Louisiana)
Image 49 Louisiana pinesnake (from Louisiana)
Image 50A map showing the geographical extent of the Plaquemine cultural period and some of its major sites. (from History of Louisiana)
Image 51A field of yellow wildflowers in St. Bernard Parish (from Louisiana)
Image 52A map showing the extent of the Coles Creek cultural period and some important sites (from History of Louisiana)
Image 53Louisiana's population density (from Louisiana)

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... that Confederate troops under Colonel George Wythe Baylor disabled two Union tinclad gunboats on the Red River in Louisiana on May 5, 1864?
... that a Louisiana radio station went to a satellite-fed music format because it had more control than with its previous "18- and 20-year-old jocks"?
... that the pro-adoption documentary I Lived on Parker Avenue premiered at the Louisiana Governor's Mansion in 2018 at the invitation of Governor John Bel Edwards?
... that the owner of a Louisiana radio station was killed while in the process of putting it back on the air?
... that the 2023 election for sheriff in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, was rerun after an initial margin of one vote?
... that the 6th Louisiana Infantry Regiment began with 916 men and ended with 52?

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