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74-476: The modern highways Texas 21 (along with Texas OSR ) and Louisiana 6 roughly follow the original route of the trail. Alonso de León , Spanish governor of Coahuila , established the corridor for what became El Camino Real de Tierra Afuera in multiple expeditions to East Texas between 1686 and 1690 to find and destroy a French fort near Lavaca Bay , established by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle on what de León considered to be Spanish lands. The route

148-682: A slave rebellion that started during the French Revolution of Saint-Domingue in 1791. Over the next decade, thousands of refugees landed in Louisiana from the island, including Europeans, Creoles, and Africans, some of the latter brought in by each free group. They greatly increased the French-speaking population in New Orleans and Louisiana, as well as the number of Africans, and the slaves reinforced African culture in

222-618: A Spanish expedition led by Pánfilo de Narváez located the mouth of the Mississippi River. In 1542, Hernando de Soto 's expedition skirted to the north and west of the state (encountering Caddo and Tunica groups) and then followed the Mississippi River down to the Gulf of Mexico in 1543. Spanish interest in Louisiana faded away for a century and a half. In the late 17th century, French and French Canadian expeditions, which included sovereign, religious and commercial aims, established

296-609: A comprehensive management plan. 30°18′03″N 97°44′06″W  /  30.30077°N 97.73510°W  / 30.30077; -97.73510 Texas State Highway 21 State Highway 21 ( SH 21 ) runs from the Texas - Louisiana boundary east of San Augustine to San Marcos in east and central Texas. SH 21 mostly follows the alignment of the Old San Antonio Road and the El Camino Real , except for

370-551: A foothold on the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. With its first settlements, France laid claim to a vast region of North America and set out to establish a commercial empire and French nation stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. In 1682, the French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle named the region Louisiana to honor King Louis XIV of France. The first permanent settlement, Fort Maurepas (now Ocean Springs, Mississippi ),

444-558: A growing town. This became a pattern repeated in New Orleans and other places, although the commodity crop in the south was primarily sugar cane. Louisiana's French settlements contributed to further exploration and outposts, concentrated along the banks of the Mississippi and its major tributaries, from Louisiana to as far north as the region called the Illinois Country , around present-day St. Louis, Missouri . The latter

518-505: 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

592-606: A special envoy to Napoleon, to assist in obtaining New Orleans for the United States. Jefferson also raised the authorized expenditure to $ 10   million. However, on April 11, 1803, French foreign minister Talleyrand surprised Livingston by asking how much the United States was prepared to pay for the entirety of Louisiana, not just New Orleans and the surrounding area (as Livingston's instructions covered). Monroe agreed with Livingston that Napoleon might withdraw this offer at any time (leaving them with no ability to obtain

666-530: A war or the loss of a single American life, and set a precedent for the purchase of territory. It opened the way for the eventual expansion of the United States across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. Shortly after the United States took possession, the area was divided into two territories along the 33rd parallel north on March 26, 1804, thereby organizing the Territory of Orleans to the south and

740-689: 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

814-542: Is a 4.170-mile (6.711 km) long business route that runs through Nacogdoches in eastern Texas. The route was formed from an old section of SH 21, when the main highway was re-routed onto Loop 224 and US 59 on October 25, 2018. The entire route is in Nacogdoches , Nacogdoches County . Louisiana Louisiana (French: Louisiane [lwizjan] ; Spanish: Luisiana [lwiˈsjana] ; Louisiana Creole : Lwizyàn )

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888-642: Is a Latin suffix that can refer to "information relating to a particular individual, subject, or place." Thus, roughly, Louis + ana carries the idea of "related to Louis." Once part of the French colonial empire , the Louisiana Territory stretched from present-day Mobile Bay to just north of the present-day Canada–United States border , including a small part of what are now the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan . The area of Louisiana

962-550: Is estimated to have had a population of more than 20,000. The Plaquemine culture is considered ancestral to the historic Natchez and Taensa peoples, whose descendants encountered Europeans in the colonial era. By 1000 in the northwestern part of the state, the Fourche Maline culture had evolved into the Caddoan Mississippian culture. The Caddoan Mississippians occupied a large territory, including what

1036-981: Is now eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, northeast Texas , and northwest Louisiana. Archaeological evidence has demonstrated that the cultural continuity is unbroken from prehistory to the present. The Caddo and related Caddo-language speakers in prehistoric times and at first European contact were the direct ancestors of the modern Caddo Nation of Oklahoma of today. Significant Caddoan Mississippian archaeological sites in Louisiana include Belcher Mound Site in Caddo Parish and Gahagan Mounds Site in Red River Parish. Many current place names in Louisiana, including Atchafalaya , Natchitouches (now spelled Natchitoches ), Caddo, Houma , Tangipahoa , and Avoyel (as Avoyelles ), are transliterations of those used in various Native American languages. The first European explorers to visit Louisiana came in 1528 when

1110-559: Is strong evidence of a growing cultural and political complexity. Many Coles Creek sites were erected over earlier Woodland period mortuary mounds. Scholars have speculated that emerging elites were symbolically and physically appropriating dead ancestors to emphasize and project their own authority. The Mississippian period in Louisiana was when the Plaquemine and the Caddoan Mississippian cultures developed, and

1184-585: Is the place of origin of the Mound Builders culture during the Middle Archaic period , in the 4th millennium BC . The sites of Caney and Frenchman's Bend have been securely dated to 5600–5000 BP (about 3700–3100 BC), demonstrating that seasonal hunter-gatherers from around this time organized to build complex earthwork constructions in what is now northern Louisiana. The Watson Brake site near present-day Monroe has an eleven-mound complex; it

1258-524: 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

1332-683: The Du Maine and the Aurore , arrived in New Orleans carrying more than 500 black slaves coming from Africa. Previous slaves in Louisiana had been transported from French colonies in the West Indies. By the end of 1721, New Orleans counted 1,256 inhabitants, of whom about half were slaves. In 1724, the French government issued a law called the Code Noir ("Black Code" in English) which regulated

1406-693: The Gaines Ferry . Gaines sold the ferry in 1843 and at some point it began to be called Pendleton's Ferry. The ferry remained in service until being replaced by the Gaines-Pendleton Bridge in 1937. After crossing the river, the trail went through the Neutral Strip and Many, Louisiana , before ending at Natchitoches in modern Louisiana. The trail has a 2,500-mile length. For centuries, the Native Americans had used

1480-496: The Gonzales-St. Augustine Highway . There was proposed extension southward to Karnes City on February 18, 1918. On July 16, 1923, the terminus was shortened to Giddings , with the section south of there being cancelled. A spur, SH 21 Spur , was designated on March 19, 1930, from Milam to Hemphill . On August 1, 1930, this spur became part of SH 87 . On September 29, 1933, SH 21 was extended to Lockhart . On July 15, 1935,

1554-643: The Acadians, who became the ancestors of Louisiana's Cajuns . Spanish Canary Islanders, called Isleños , emigrated from the Canary Islands of Spain to Louisiana under the Spanish crown between 1778 and 1783. In 1800, France's Napoleon Bonaparte reacquired Louisiana from Spain in the Treaty of San Ildefonso , an arrangement kept secret for two years. Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville brought

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1628-659: The Crown's transfer of the Illinois Country 's governance from Canada to Louisiana—may have featured the broadest definition of Louisiana: all land claimed by France south of the Great Lakes between the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghenies . A generation later, trade conflicts between Canada and Louisiana led to a more defined boundary between the French colonies; in 1745, Louisiana governor general Vaudreuil set

1702-530: The SH 21 designation was extended along SH 80 and SH 142 to end at I-35 . SH 21 has two business routes . Business State Highway 21-H (Bus. SH 21-H) is a 1.362-mile (2.192 km) long business route that runs through Kurten in central Texas. The route was formed from an old section of SH 21 on February 28, 2002, when SH 21 proper was moved onto a new bypass around Kurten. Business State Highway 21-P (Bus. SH 21-P)

1776-618: The Seven Years' War (generally referred to in North America as the French and Indian War ). This included the lands along the Gulf Coast and north of Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River, which became known as British West Florida. The rest of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, as well as the "isle of New Orleans", had become a colony of Spain by the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762) . The transfer of power on either side of

1850-609: The Spanish "cimarron", meaning which means "fierce" or "unruly." In the late 18th century, the last Spanish governor of the Louisiana territory wrote: Truly, it is impossible for lower Louisiana to get along without slaves and with the use of slaves, the colony had been making great strides toward prosperity and wealth. When the United States purchased Louisiana in 1803, it was soon accepted that slaves could be brought to Louisiana as easily as they were brought to neighboring Mississippi , though it violated U.S. law to do so. Despite demands by United States Rep. James Hillhouse and by

1924-546: The United States acquired the territory in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, France and Spain jockeyed for control of New Orleans and the lands west of the Mississippi. In the 1720s, German immigrants settled along the Mississippi River, in a region referred to as the German Coast . France ceded most of its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain in 1763, in the aftermath of Britain's victory in

1998-403: The United States, was disturbed by Napoleon's plans to re-establish French colonies in North America. With the possession of New Orleans, Napoleon could close the Mississippi to U.S. commerce at any time. Jefferson authorized Robert R. Livingston , U.S. minister to France, to negotiate for the purchase of the city of New Orleans, portions of the east bank of the Mississippi, and free navigation of

2072-577: The United States. The payment was made in United States bonds , which Napoleon sold at face value to the Dutch firm of Hope and Company , and the British banking house of Baring , at a discount of 87 + 1 ⁄ 2 per each $ 100 unit. As a result, France received only $ 8,831,250 in cash for Louisiana. English banker Alexander Baring conferred with Marbois in Paris, shuttled to the United States to pick up

2146-478: The United States. The closure of this vital port to the United States caused anger and consternation. Commerce in the west was virtually blockaded. Historians believe the revocation of the right of deposit was prompted by abuses by the Americans, particularly smuggling, and not by French intrigues as was believed at the time. President Jefferson ignored public pressure for war with France, and appointed James Monroe

2220-715: The Upper South or transported to New Orleans and other coastal markets by ship in the coastwise slave trade . After sales in New Orleans, steamboats operating on the Mississippi transported slaves upstream to markets or plantation destinations at Natchez and Memphis. Unusually for a slave-state, Louisiana harbored escaped Filipino slaves from the Manila Galleons . The members of the Filipino community were then commonly referred to as Manila men, or Manilamen, and later Tagalas , as they were free when they created

2294-468: The Upper South to the Deep South, two thirds of them in the slave trade. Others were transported by their owners as slaveholders moved west for new lands. With changing agriculture in the Upper South as planters shifted from tobacco to less labor-intensive mixed agriculture, planters had excess laborers. Many sold slaves to traders to take to the Deep South. Slaves were driven by traders overland from

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2368-572: The West Indies, Germany, and Ireland. It experienced an agricultural boom, particularly in cotton and sugarcane, which were cultivated primarily by slaves from Africa. As a slave state, Louisiana was one of the original seven members of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War . Louisiana's unique French heritage is reflected in its toponyms, dialects, customs, demographics, and legal system. Relative to

2442-593: The biggest slave market in the United States, which contributed greatly to the economy of the city and of the state. New Orleans had become one of the wealthiest cities, and the third largest city, in the nation. The ban on the African slave trade and importation of slaves had increased demand in the domestic market. During the decades after the American Revolutionary War, more than one million enslaved African Americans underwent forced migration from

2516-406: The bonds, took them to Britain, and returned to France with the money—which Napoleon used to wage war against Baring's own country. When news of the purchase reached the United States, Jefferson was surprised. He had authorized the expenditure of $ 10   million for a port city, and instead received treaties committing the government to spend $ 15   million on a land package which would double

2590-527: The capitol and central Viceroyalty of New Spain —present day Mexico City —winding through Saltillo , Monterrey , Laredo (on the modern Texas border), San Antonio , and Nacogdoches , before reaching the Louisiana border at the Sabine River . The river crossing was a ferry, in use since around 1795, as the Chabanan Ferry. James Taylor Gaines purchased the ferry in 1819, and it became known as

2664-637: The city. Anglo-American officials initially made attempts to keep out the additional Creoles of color , but the Louisiana Creoles wanted to increase the Creole population: more than half of the refugees eventually settled in Louisiana, and the majority remained in New Orleans . Pierre Clément de Laussat ( Governor , 1803) said: "Saint-Domingue was, of all our colonies in the Antilles,

2738-403: The corridor to travel to their settlements. A section of the road called Camino Arriba by the Spanish became known as the Old San Antonio Road . The growth of towns such as Austin , Galveston , and Houston not on the original route, along with the building of railroads, changed the direction of travel and trade and the use of El Camino Real de los Tejas diminished. The historic trail ran from

2812-1015: The culture, the Atchafalaya Basin Mounds in St. Mary Parish, the Fitzhugh Mounds in Madison Parish, the Scott Place Mounds in Union Parish, and the Sims site in St. Charles Parish. Plaquemine culture was contemporaneous with the Middle Mississippian culture that is represented by its largest settlement, the Cahokia site in Illinois east of St. Louis, Missouri . At its peak Cahokia

2886-436: The desired New Orleans area), and that approval from President Jefferson might take months, so Livingston and Monroe decided to open negotiations immediately. By April 30, they closed a deal for the purchase of the entire Louisiana territory of 828,000 square miles (2,100,000 km ) for sixty million Francs (approximately $ 15   million). Part of this sum, $ 3.5   million, was used to forgive debts owed by France to

2960-737: The early 20th century. In 1915, the Texas Legislature appropriated $ 5,000 to survey and mark the route, and professional surveyor V. N. Zivley was commissioned to make the study. A few years later, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed granite milestones every 5 miles along the route to mark it. In October 2004, President George W. Bush signed into law El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. The National Park Service started planning for El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail in 2006 with

3034-784: The first platform mounds at ritual centers were constructed for the developing hereditary political and religious leadership. By 400 the Late Woodland period had begun with the Baytown culture , Troyville culture , and Coastal Troyville during the Baytown period and were succeeded by the Coles Creek cultures . Where the Baytown peoples built dispersed settlements, the Troyville people instead continued building major earthwork centers. Population increased dramatically and there

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3108-520: The first people in the area of Louisiana to make large amounts of pottery. These cultures lasted until 200 AD. The Middle Woodland period started in Louisiana with the Marksville culture in the southern and eastern part of the state, reaching across the Mississippi River to the east around Natchez, and the Fourche Maline culture in the northwestern part of the state. The Marksville culture

3182-540: The first two African slaves to Louisiana in 1708, transporting them from a French colony in the West Indies. In 1709, French financier Antoine Crozat obtained a monopoly of commerce in La Louisiane , which extended from the Gulf of Mexico to what is now Illinois . According to historian Hugh Thomas , "that concession allowed him to bring in a cargo of blacks from Africa every year". Starting in 1719, traders began to import slaves in higher numbers; two French ships,

3256-474: The influence of New England Federalists in national affairs. President Jefferson was an enthusiastic supporter of westward expansion, and held firm in his support for the treaty. Despite Federalist objections, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana treaty on October 20, 1803. By statute enacted on October 31, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson was authorized to take possession of the territories ceded by France and provide for initial governance. A transfer ceremony

3330-475: The interaction of whites (blancs) and blacks (noirs) in its colony of Louisiana (which was much larger than the current state of Louisiana). After the Sale of Louisiana , French Law survived in the Louisiana, such as the prohibition and outlaw of any cruel punishment. Fugitive slaves, called maroons , could easily hide in the backcountry of the bayous and survive in small settlements. The word "maroon" comes from

3404-528: The islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe to the French. Napoleon looked upon Louisiana as a depot for these sugar islands, and as a buffer to U.S. settlement. In October 1801 he sent a large military force to take back Saint-Domingue, then under control of Toussaint Louverture after the Haitian Revolution . When the army led by Napoleon's brother-in-law Leclerc was defeated, Napoleon decided to sell Louisiana. Thomas Jefferson , third president of

3478-502: The modern state of Louisiana. The French settlement had two purposes: to establish trade with the Spanish in Texas via the Old San Antonio Road, and to deter Spanish advances into Louisiana. The settlement soon became a flourishing river port and crossroads, giving rise to vast cotton kingdoms along the river that were worked by imported African slaves. Over time, planters developed large plantations and built fine homes in

3552-647: The northern and eastern bounds of his domain as the Wabash valley up to the mouth of the Vermilion River (near present-day Danville, Illinois ); from there, northwest to le Rocher on the Illinois River , and from there west to the mouth of the Rock River (at present day Rock Island, Illinois ). Thus, Vincennes and Peoria were the limit of Louisiana's reach; the outposts at Ouiatenon (on

3626-442: The oldest settlement of Asians in the United States in the village of Saint Malo, Louisiana , the inhabitants of which, even joined the United States in the War of 1812 against the British Empire while they were being led by the French-American Jean Lafitte . Spanish occupation of Louisiana lasted from 1769 to 1800. Beginning in the 1790s, waves of immigration took place from Saint-Domingue as refugees poured over following

3700-441: The one whose mentality and customs influenced Louisiana the most." When the United States won its independence from Great Britain in 1783, one of its major concerns was having a European power on its western boundary, and the need for unrestricted access to the Mississippi River. As American settlers pushed west, they found that the Appalachian Mountains provided a barrier to shipping goods eastward. The easiest way to ship produce

3774-559: The pamphleteer Thomas Paine to enforce existing federal law against slavery in the newly acquired territory, slavery prevailed because it was the source of great profits and the lowest-cost labor. At the start of the 19th century, Louisiana was a small producer of sugar with a relatively small number of slaves, compared to Saint-Domingue and the West Indies. It soon thereafter became a major sugar producer as new settlers arrived to develop plantations. William C. C. Claiborne , Louisiana's first United States governor, said African slave labor

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3848-462: The peoples adopted extensive maize agriculture, cultivating different strains of the plant by saving seeds, selecting for certain characteristics, etc. The Plaquemine culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana began in 1200 and continued to about 1600. Examples in Louisiana include the Medora site , the archaeological type site for the culture in West Baton Rouge Parish whose characteristics helped define

3922-404: The portion between Midway and Bryan , where the Old San Antonio Road took a more northerly route, and SH 21 follows a more direct route. That section of the Old San Antonio Road is served by Texas State Highway OSR . SH 21 was one of the original 25 routes proposed in Texas on June 21, 1917, along a route from the Louisiana state line east of St. Augustine to Gonzales , overlaid on top of

3996-585: The pressure for Anglicization , and in 1921, English was shortly made the sole language of instruction in Louisiana schools before a policy of multilingualism was revived in 1974. Louisiana has never had an official language, and the state constitution enumerates "the right of the people to preserve, foster, and promote their respective historic, linguistic, and cultural origins." Based on national averages, Louisiana frequently ranks low among U.S. states in terms of health, education, and development, with high rates of poverty and homicide . In 2018, Louisiana

4070-447: The rest of the southern U.S., Louisiana is multilingual and multicultural, reflecting an admixture of Louisiana French ( Cajun , Creole ), Spanish , French Canadian , Acadian , Saint-Domingue Creole , Native American , and West African cultures (generally the descendants of slaves stolen in the 18th century); more recent migrants include Filipinos and Vietnamese. In the post–Civil War environment , Anglo-Americans increased

4144-429: The river for U.S. commerce. Livingston was authorized to pay up to $ 2   million. An official transfer of Louisiana to French ownership had not yet taken place, and Napoleon's deal with the Spanish was a poorly kept secret on the frontier. On October 18, 1802, however, Juan Ventura Morales, acting intendant of Louisiana, made public the intention of Spain to revoke the right of deposit at New Orleans for all cargo from

4218-500: The river would be delayed until later in the decade. In 1765, during Spanish rule, several thousand Acadians from the French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia , New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island ) made their way to Louisiana after having been expelled from Acadia by the British government after the French and Indian War. They settled chiefly in the southwestern Louisiana region now called Acadiana . The governor Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga , eager to gain more settlers, welcomed

4292-418: The section from Giddings to Lockhart was cancelled, and SH 21 was rerouted though Lincoln, replacing part of SH OSR , and followed SH 44 to Giddings. On October 21, 1936, SH 21 Spur to Chireno was added. On May 18, 1937, the spur in Chireno became a loop, SH 21 Loop . On February 21, 1938, another SH 21 Spur to McMahan's Chapel was added. On April 19, 1938, the section of SH 21 from Lincoln to Giddings

4366-491: The size of the country. Jefferson's political opponents in the Federalist Party argued the Louisiana purchase was a worthless desert, and that the U.S. constitution did not provide for the acquisition of new land or negotiating treaties without the consent of the federal legislature. What really worried the opposition was the new states which would inevitably be carved from the Louisiana territory, strengthening western and southern interests in U.S. Congress , and further reducing

4440-419: 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

4514-451: The state. The city of modern–day Epps developed near it. The Poverty Point culture may have reached its peak around 1500 BC, making it the first complex culture, and possibly the first tribal culture in North America. It lasted until approximately 700 BC. The Poverty Point culture was followed by the Tchefuncte and Lake Cormorant cultures of the Tchula period , local manifestations of Early Woodland period . The Tchefuncte culture were

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4588-429: The territory in 1682, and it became the political, commercial, and population center of the larger colony of New France . From 1762 to 1801 Louisiana was under Spanish rule, briefly returning to French rule before being sold by Napoleon to the U.S. in 1803. It was admitted to the Union in 1812 as the 18th state. Following statehood, Louisiana saw an influx of settlers from the eastern U.S. as well as immigrants from

4662-403: The trail routes for trading between the Great Plains and Chihuahuan Desert regions and essentially created the road. El Camino Real de Los Tejas was first followed and marked by Spanish explorers and missionaries in the 1700s. It was one of several named El Camino Real , or "Royal Road", that connected the Spanish possessions in North America with Mexico City. Interest in the road revived in

4736-399: The upper Wabash near present-day Lafayette, Indiana ), Chicago, Fort Miamis (near present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana ), and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin , operated as dependencies of Canada. The settlement of Natchitoches (along the Red River in present-day northwest Louisiana) was established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis , making it the oldest permanent European settlement in

4810-421: Was built about 5400 BP (3500 BC). These discoveries overturned previous assumptions in archaeology that such complex mounds were built only by cultures of more settled peoples who were dependent on maize cultivation. The Hedgepeth Site in Lincoln Parish is more recent, dated to 5200–4500 BP (3300–2600 BC). Nearly 2,000 years later, Poverty Point was built; it is the largest and best-known Late Archaic site in

4884-417: Was cancelled, and SH 21 was extended to Bastrop, replacing part of SH OSR . On September 26, 1939, the section from Paige to Bastrop was cancelled, as it was already part of US 290 . The spur and loop became Loop 34 (Chireno) and Spur 35 (McMahan's Chapel). On August 2, 1943, the western terminus had been extended to end in San Marcos , along its current route, replacing part of SH OSR. On June 24, 2010,

4958-403: Was founded in 1699 by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville , a French military officer from New France . By then the French had also built a small fort at the mouth of the Mississippi at a settlement they named La Balise (or La Balize) , " seamark " in French. By 1721, they built a 62-foot (19 m) wooden lighthouse-type structure here to guide ships on the river. A royal ordinance of 1722—following

5032-422: Was held in New Orleans on November 29, 1803. Since the Louisiana territory had never officially been turned over to the French, the Spanish took down their flag, and the French raised theirs. The following day, General James Wilkinson accepted possession of New Orleans for the United States. The Louisiana Territory, purchased for less than three cents an acre, doubled the size of the United States overnight, without

5106-400: Was named after the Marksville Prehistoric Indian Site in Avoyelles Parish . These cultures were contemporaneous with the Hopewell cultures of present-day Ohio and Illinois , and participated in the Hopewell Exchange Network. Trade with peoples to the southwest brought the bow and arrow . The first burial mounds were built at this time. Political power began to be consolidated, as

5180-445: Was needed because white laborers "cannot be had in this unhealthy climate." Hugh Thomas wrote that Claiborne was unable to enforce the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, which the U.S. and Great Britain enacted in 1807. The United States continued to protect the domestic slave trade, including the coastwise trade—the transport of slaves by ship along the Atlantic Coast and to New Orleans and other Gulf ports. By 1840, New Orleans had

5254-437: Was ranked as the least healthy state in the country, with high levels of drug-related deaths . It also has had the highest homicide rate in the United States since at least the 1990s. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV , King of France from 1643 to 1715. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane . The suffix –ana (or –ane)

5328-515: Was refined in 1691-1692 by Domingo Terán de los Ríos , the first governor of Spanish Texas, in an effort to make better connections to the Spanish missions in East Texas. San Antonio de Bexar , founded in 1718, was the first of many communities built as way stations on the trail. After Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821, immigrants from the American colonies invited to Texas used

5402-463: Was settled by French colonists from Illinois. Initially, Mobile and then Biloxi served as the capital of La Louisiane. Recognizing the importance of the Mississippi River to trade and military interests, and wanting to protect the capital from severe coastal storms, France developed New Orleans from 1722 as the seat of civilian and military authority south of the Great Lakes. From then until

5476-558: Was to use a flatboat to float it down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the port of New Orleans, where goods could be put on ocean-going vessels. The problem with this route was that the Spanish owned both sides of the Mississippi below Natchez . Napoleon's ambitions in Louisiana involved the creation of a new empire centered on the Caribbean sugar trade . By the terms of the Treaty of Amiens of 1802, Great Britain returned control of

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