50 Fun Facts About Baton Rouge

What does the French name 'le bâton rouge' mean in English?

It translated a native place name, Istrouma, for a painted pole that marked a boundary between tribal hunting grounds.

The 'red stick' that named the city was reportedly a pole how tall, adorned with fish bones?

Iberville's 1698-99 expedition up the Mississippi recorded the landmark.

Which French explorer led the 1698 expedition up the Mississippi that recorded the red stick?

His younger brother Bienville went on to found New Orleans in 1718.

In what year did European settlement of Baton Rouge begin with a French military and trading post?

The city was not incorporated until 1817.

From 1763 to 1783, Baton Rouge belonged to which British colony?

Britain got it from France after the Seven Years' War, then lost it to Spain in 1779.

Which Spanish commander captured Baton Rouge from the British in September 1779?

The victory cleared the lower Mississippi of British forces, and Galveston, Texas is named after him.

The rebels who stormed Baton Rouge's Spanish fort in 1810 declared a republic with its capital in which town?

The Republic of West Florida lasted about two and a half months before the US annexed it.

What design did the 1810 rebels' flag carry?

Melissa Johnson, wife of Major Isaac Johnson, sewed it; the design was later famous as the Bonnie Blue Flag.

In what year did the Louisiana legislature first designate Baton Rouge as the state capital?

Government left during the Civil War and Reconstruction and returned for good in 1882.

Who designed the Old Louisiana State Capitol, begun in 1847?

He gave it turrets, crenellations and stained glass, in Neo-Gothic style overlooking the Mississippi.

Which author mocked the Old State Capitol as a 'whitewashed castle, with turrets and things'?

The jab appears in Life on the Mississippi, where he blamed Sir Walter Scott's romances for the taste.

What has the Old Louisiana State Capitol housed since its 1994 reopening?

After burning twice under Union occupation, it was rebuilt in 1882 with a cast-iron spiral staircase and stained-glass dome, and reopened as a museum in 1994.

How tall is the current Louisiana State Capitol, the tallest capitol building in the US?

Its 34 storeys went up in about 14 months and cost $5 million.

In what year was the current State Capitol inaugurated?

Construction had started in December 1930 under Governor Huey Long.

Who shot Huey Long inside the State Capitol on September 8, 1935?

Long died two days later and is buried in front of the building beneath his own statue.

What was Huey Long's famous nickname?

His slogan was 'Every Man a King' and his Share Our Wealth plan promised every family a basic income.

On which floor of the State Capitol is the public observation deck?

It gives views of the city and the Mississippi River.

What was Baton Rouge's population at the 2020 census?

That made it Louisiana's second-most populous city, in a metro area of 870,569.

Which compass direction is in the name of the parish where Baton Rouge sits?

It is Louisiana's most populous parish, and in 2024 the state supreme court let the city of St. George secede from it.

Roughly how far is Baton Rouge from New Orleans?

It sits on the east bank of the Mississippi, about 56 feet above sea level.

Baton Rouge is the third-southernmost continental US capital, after Tallahassee and which?

Its climate is humid subtropical, and it ranks fifth on the list of wettest US cities.

About how much rain does Baton Rouge get in an average year?

Snow averages a tenth of an inch.

Which 2008 hurricane is described as the worst ever to hit the Baton Rouge area?

Three years earlier the city had absorbed as many as 200,000 people displaced by Katrina.

Where was Louisiana State University founded in 1860, before moving to Baton Rouge?

It began as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, hence the nickname 'Ole War Skule'.

Which future Union general was LSU's first superintendent?

He resigned when Louisiana seceded, then burned his way across Georgia.

In what year did LSU move to its current Baton Rouge campus?

The university had first relocated to the city in 1869; the Italian Renaissance campus came later.

What is the nickname of LSU's Tiger Stadium?

It holds 102,321 fans, and its noise once registered on a campus seismograph.

The LSU Campus Mounds on the northwest of campus are estimated to be how old?

They may be among the oldest human-made structures in the Americas.

The first Mike the Tiger was bought in 1936 with $750 raised by students from which zoo?

He was named after Mike Chambers, the athletic trainer who did most to bring him to campus.

Since the death of Mike VI in 2016, what has changed about LSU's live tiger on game days?

For decades his wheeled cage, topped by cheerleaders, rode through Tiger Stadium before kickoff.

Roughly what share of Baton Rouge's population is made up of LSU students?

LSU is also one of the city's biggest employers, with more than 5,000 academic staff.

Southern University, in the Scotlandville area of Baton Rouge, is the flagship of the nation's only what?

Its Human Jukebox marching band has played Super Bowls and presidential inaugurations.

In what year did Southern University move to Scotlandville, just north of Baton Rouge?

It had been chartered in New Orleans in 1880 as Southern University for Colored Students.

Southern University's Jaguars play which rival in the nationally televised Bayou Classic?

NBC has carried the game for more than 20 years.

Where does the Port of Greater Baton Rouge rank among US ports by tonnage?

It is the farthest-upstream Mississippi port that can take Panamax ships; deep-draft vessels cannot clear the old Huey Long Bridge.

Which company runs the giant Baton Rouge refinery, one of the largest in the US?

In the mid-2020s it ranked about fifth-largest in the US and tenth-largest in the world.

Which chicken-finger chain opened its first restaurant, 'The Mothership', near LSU's North Gate in 1996?

Founder Todd Graves named it after his yellow Labrador.

Which billboard giant is headquartered in Baton Rouge?

Other local headquarters include Piccadilly Restaurants, Marucci Sports and BBQGuys.

The 1862 Confederate attempt to retake Baton Rouge was led by which former US vice president?

The Union held the city, though its commander Thomas Williams was killed in the fighting.

Which Confederate ironclad was set on fire by her own crew after engine failure during the 1862 battle?

She had been the great hope for breaking the Union river blockade.

The 1953 Baton Rouge bus boycott, a model for Montgomery, was led by which minister?

Martin Luther King Jr. phoned him for advice on running a carpool system two years later.

How long did the 1953 Baton Rouge bus boycott last?

It ended with Ordinance 251, a compromise that kept segregation but seated Black riders from the rear forward.

The USS Kidd, a museum ship in Baton Rouge since 1982, is what class of destroyer?

She is named for Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd, killed on the bridge of USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.

The destroyer moored at Baton Rouge shares a name with which pirate, whom her crew adopted as mascot?

They painted him on the smokestack and earned the nickname 'Pirate of the Atlantic & Pacific'.

What is unusual about how the USS Kidd is moored on the Mississippi at Baton Rouge?

The river level swings roughly 40 feet a year, so the ship rests in a cradle when the water is low.

Which military building complex in Baton Rouge was completed in 1822?

The buildings later housed LSU and now hold state offices next to the Capitol.

Which of these is an official nickname of Baton Rouge?

'Red Stick' and simply 'B.R.' are the others.

The Louisiana Art and Science Museum in Baton Rouge contains a planetarium named after whom?

The Shaw Center, opened in 2005, houses the LSU Museum of Art and the Manship Theatre nearby.

In 2017 Baton Rouge's Forward Arts became the first team from the South to win which competition?

It is the international youth poetry slam.

The red pole seen by French explorers in 1698 marked the hunting boundary between the Bayagoula and which tribe?

The native name for the high banks, Istrouma, also meant 'red stick', and the bluff there was the first natural high ground upriver from the Mississippi delta.