Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreveport, Louisiana is the third largest metropolitan city in the state of Louisiana, USA. It is located in Caddo Parish, and as of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 200,145. As of 2004, the population given by the U.S. Census Bureau was 198,675. Bossier City lies across the Red River in Bossier Parish and the Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Area population exceeds 390,000. Shreveport is the commercial and cultural center of the Ark-La-Tex, the area where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet. Some call it the "Gateway to East Texas", others claim that Shreveport sits on the border between the South and the West. Shreveport exercises a great pull over this region. A good example of this is that people in East Texas watch and donate money to the Louisiana Public Broadcasting Service because there is not a PBS station in northeast Texas. Many people in the community refer to the two cities of Shreveport and Bossier City, which are separated only by the Red River, as "Shreveport-Bossier".

History

The town was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company, a development corporation established to start a town at the meeting point of the Red River and the Texas Trail. The Red River was cleared (and made newly navigable) by Captain Henry Miller Shreve, who commanded the United States Army Corps of Engineers. An 180-mile long raft of debris had previously clogged passage by Shreve's riverboat, the Heliopolis, that was specially designed to remove river debris. In his honor the company and the village of Shreve Town were named. On March 20, 1839 the town was incorporated as "Shreveport." In 1871, it became a city.

Related Topics:
1836 - Shreve Town Company - Red River - Texas Trail - Henry Miller Shreve - United States Army Corps of Engineers - March 20 - 1839 - 1871

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Shreveport was originally contained within the boundaries of a section of land sold to the company by the indigenous Caddo Indians in the year of 1835. In 1838 Caddo Parish was made out of Natchitoches (pronounced "NACK-a-dish") Parish and Shreve Town became the parish seat. Shreveport remains the parish seat of Caddo Parish today.

Related Topics:
Caddo Indians - 1835 - 1838 - Natchitoches - Parish seat

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Originally the town was as large as 64 city blocks divided by eight streets running west from the Red River, and eight streets running South from Cross Bayou, one of its tributaries. Today the 64 block area is the city's central business district and is a National Register of Historic Places listed area.

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Shreveport and Bossier City have six historic districts and a plethora of NR listed landmarks. In fact, Shreveport is second only to New Orleans among Louisiana cities with many historic landmarks. In particular, the McNeill Street Pumping Station, an 1887 waterworks that is still in use, is a unique example of its type. Also located near Shreveport is Barksdale Air Force Base, opened in 1944 as Barksdale Army Air Field. It came into national attention recently when President George W. Bush was taken there during the September 11th attacks. It also came into national attention when B-52 bombers based from there participated in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Their attacks on fixed hard targets and the famed Iraqi Republican Guard Medina Division using state of the art JDAMs and other munitions marked a new era in U.S. air power where precision guided munitions were used more than "dumb" bombs with devastating effect. See Shock and Awe.

Related Topics:
New Orleans - McNeill Street Pumping Station - 1887 - Waterworks - Barksdale Air Force Base - 1944 - President - George W. Bush - September 11th attacks - B-52 - Operation Enduring Freedom - Operation Iraqi Freedom - Iraqi Republican Guard - Medina Division - JDAM - Shock and Awe

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The Red River, opened by Shreve in the 1830s, remained navigable until 1914 when disuse, owing to the rise of the railroad as the preferred means of transporting goods and people, allowed it to begin silting up. Not until the 1990s was navigation of the river again possible to Shreveport. Today the port of Shreveport-Bossier City is being developed once again as a shipping center.

Related Topics:
1830s - 1914 - Railroad - 1990s

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Shreveport was home to the Louisiana Hayride, a radio broadcast from the city's Municipal Auditorium that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 spawned the careers of the some of the greatest names in American music. The Hayride boasted names such as Hank Williams Sr., and Elvis Presley (who got his start at this venue).

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Softdisk, a software and Internet company, was founded in Shreveport in 1981 and published various disk magazines in the 1980s and 1990s. The founders of id Software worked there and lived in Shreveport in the early 1990s.

Related Topics:
Softdisk - 1981 - Disk magazine - 1980s - 1990s - Id Software

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Shreveport today is a very busy metro city, host to various riverboat casinos and second in Louisiana tourism only to New Orleans. Nearby Bossier City also is home to one of the only three horse racetracks in the state, Harrah's Louisiana Downs. The city boasts the world's largest rose garden, appropriately enough called The National Rose Garden. The Red River Revel is a yearly event featuring local music, food and entertainers and draws in hundreds of thousands of individuals from across the tri-state area. Other annual festivals include Mudbug Madness, a celebration of the crawfish, Holiday in Dixie, and the Louisiana State Fair. In May, 2005, the Louisiana Boardwalk, a 550,000 square foot (51,000 m²) shopping and entertainment complex, opened across the Red River in Bossier City, and features outlet shopping, several restaurants and nightclubs, a 14 screen movie theater, a bowling complex, two hotels, and a marina. A new convention center is also under construction in downtown Shreveport.

Related Topics:
Riverboat - Casino - The National Rose Garden - Red River Revel - Mudbug Madness - Crawfish - Holiday in Dixie - Louisiana State Fair - Louisiana Boardwalk

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Shreveport was largely unaffected by Hurricane Katrina. Since Shreveport is nearly 200 miles (320 km) inland, some have speculated that some New Orleans residents and businesses (and some from coastal areas in general) who want away from the coast completely in fear of further hurricanes may relocate to the northern part of the state, centered around Shreveport.

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