Interesting Facts about Louisiana

• When the Bonnet Carre Spillway was completed, 6,000 goats were put to work keeping the grass down so that flood waters could flow without resistance.
• Shipwrecked explorer Marcos de Mena was wounded by the Indians and buried alive; a small airhole permitted him to breathe. After his followers were killed, he managed to wriggle out and make his way back to Mexico.
• Jean Lafitte and his pirate crew were pardoned as reward for their services in the War of 1812, but soon returned to their ways.
• Huey Long was noted for his brilliant mind and often spellbound his opponents with apt quotations from the Bible, Shakespeare, and innumerable other sources, related with his great eloquence.
• Membership in the Live Oak Society was limited to the trees themselves. There was a senior membership of trees 100 years old, and a junior group. The society died out with the death of its founder--a man, not a tree.
• The Indians painted a conspicuous tree bright red as a marker. The French called this tree "baton rouge" (red stick), giving the Louisiana capital its name.