Back to Louisiana!

What comes to mind when you hear, "Louisiana?"  Bayous, Spanish moss, New Orleans with Bourbon Street and Mardi Gras?  Louisiana is so much more!  In the April, 1930, issue of National Geographic Magazine, Mr. Ralph A. Graves exposes "Louisiana, Land of Perpetual Romance."  He does a good job of telling us the history, politics, agriculture, manufacturing, and culture of this most diverse State in America.  It is located on the Gulf of Mexico, shares borders with the States of Mississippi in the east, Arkansas in the north, and Texas in the west.  "Pirates and smugglers once haunted the peaceful waters of Contraband Bayou (near Lake Charles)" (p. 435).

Recently, my friend, Peggy, and I, passed through Louisiana, staying in New Orleans briefly, on our way from a fabulous driving trip to Florida, Texas, then home to Kentucky.  If I had to name a word for Louisiana, I would immediately say, "Water!"  It is everywhere!

Peggy at the Louisiana Welcome Center, June, 2013.  Note the wet pavement. It rained a lot there!

 How Louisiana entered the United States:  "I have given England a rival," said Napoleon when, in 1803, he signed the sales agreement transferring to the young American republic, for $15,000,000, an empire of 827,000 square miles, comprising the Louisiana Territory.  Only a little more than a twentieth part of that territory retains the original name, but what a share it represents in the wealth, the commerce, and the romance of the nation!" (p. 393).


Important agricultural products, manufacturing, and natural resources:  In 1930, Louisiana exported a large percentage of the sugar used in America.  In fact, the process for refining sugar cane into granulated sugar was invented there.  Rice was another prime product; this was not grown by hand, as it was in the Asian countries, it was all mechanized.  "From the time that the seed is sown until the cereal reaches the ultimate consumer, there is no need for rice, as grown, harvested, and milled in Louisiana, to be touched by human hands" (photo caption, p. 438).  There were incredibly large salt mines, multiple oil derricks, and natural gas wells.  For hundreds of years, the fur industry brought jobs to the trappers and their families and enriched the State.  Even alligators were trapped to sell their skins.  It's hard to believe that the State of Louisiana produced more furs than did the entire country of Canada, but it was true in 1930!  The shrimp industry was also prominent.  Crawfish and frogs were caught by nets.  Spanish moss: it was processed and the fibers were used in upholstering.

The Land:  The Louisiana political land divisions are called 'parishes,' corresponding to other states,' 'counties.'  Since most of New Orleans and surrounding land is below the level of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, levees had to be built to keep the area from flooding.  Another problem was the vast tonnage of silt daily deposited by the river as it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico.  These two problems have kept the Army Corps of Engineers busy for more than one hundred years now! They've done a great job: in 1930, New Orleans was the second busiest port in America.

Education:  Louisiana in 1930 had one of the lowest rates of literacy in the country.  Why?  The author analyzed that it might be due to the schedules of the schoolchildren.  In districts in which the children had to help harvest strawberries, they went to school from July to March.  When they were expected to help tan furs, they attended school from March to October.  I checked to see if they had improved this: the state started addressing this problem and, in 2003, a great improvement had been made.  Louisiana shared the 16% illiterate category with the States of Hawaii, Nevada, and New Mexico.  Texas, Florida, New York, and California had higher rates.  The lowest rates of 6% were in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and North Dakota. My beloved State of Kentucky also shared this problem with Louisiana and has also improved to the 12% illiterate category; 19 states are worse than Kentucky now (a notable improvement!). (Statistics from U.S. Department of Education, 2003).

Now for New Orleans!  "The whole country looks to New Orleans to preserve that carnival which has been and which continues to be the model for all such elaborate funmaking, parading, and joyous dancing elsewhere" (p. 475).

Not only is there a problem maintaining the levees because most of the city is lower than the Mississippi River, the city has to pump out the rain water. The tallest buildings of 1930 had wooden piles sunk into the mud/dirt below ground level. They were sinking into the mud!  "Apparently the limit of safety has been reached, and we are not apt to see here a race skyward for preeminence, such as is now being staged on rock-based Manhattan Island" (p. 474).  I will attest that this problem has been solved.

First view of the sweeping New Orleans skyline, June 2013.

Night skyline from our hotel room.  The pink light at center is the Superdome.

 Mr. Graves appraises the effect of New Orleans on travelers: "Few visitors who come under the spell of New Orleans are inclined to think of the city in terms of merchandise and manufacture.  Here one finds so much that is matchless in its mellowness that solid statistics are as a dull appendix to an absorbing volume of romance and adventure" (p. 478).

A beautiful old mansion in the Garden District.

The famous Bourbon Street is quiet except for delivery trucks in the morning.

Statue of Jackson, in Jackson Square, in front of St. Louis Cathedral.

The magnificent Cathedral of St. Louis, directly in front of Jackson Square, is on "the site selected 210 years ago (in 1720) by Bienville, founder of New Orleans, for the first place to worship in Louisiana" (p. 478).

Main altar inside St. Louis Cathedral.

Statue of the saintly King Louis of France close to rear entrance of Cathedral.

Peggy and I spent a long time leisurely walking the entire inside perimeter of the cathedral, admiring the stained glass windows, the architecture, and praying in the holy atmosphere. Parking is a big problem in the city, as you can imagine, but we started early and found a city parking lot directly across from the church.  Up some stairs in the parking lot is the river!  We sat on a bench in the sun, listening to a nearby street musician playing his trumpet, watching the parade of ships.

The Mighty Mississippi River swiftly passing New Orleans!

 Our author, Mr. Graves, concludes his fine (lengthy) article with a question.  "But why attempt to appraise or describe New Orleans?  Only a great engineer, a great architect, a great artist, a great philosopher could do the subject justice.  And the city is the concentrated spirit and substance of the State" (p. 482).  I rather agree!  Peggy and I were sad to leave the beautiful city but needed to resume our trip to Texas on Interstate-10.  (Please see this blog, June 17, 18 & 19, 2013, for a more detailed account of our time in New Orleans.)