Baton Rouge Louisiana History & Facts

Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. On the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish. Since 2020, it has been the 99th-most-populous city in the United States and the second-largest city in Louisiana, after New Orleans. It is the 18th-most-populous state capital. At the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 tabulation, it had a population of 227,470; its consolidated population was 456,781 in 2020. It is the center of the Greater Baton Rouge area, Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area, with a population of 870,569 as of 2020, up from 802,484 in 2010.

The Baton Rouge area owes its historical importance to its strategic site upon the Istrouma Bluff, the first natural bluff upriver from the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. This allowed development of a business quarter safe from seasonal flooding. In addition, it built a levee system stretching from the bluff southward to protect the riverfront and low-lying agricultural areas. It is a culturally rich center, with settlement by immigrants from numerous European nations and African peoples brought to North America as slaves or indentured servants. It was ruled by seven different governments: French, British, and Spanish in the colonial era; the Republic of West Florida, as a United States territory and state, Confederate, and United States again since the end of the American Civil War.

Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, research, motion picture, and growing technology center of the American South. It is the location of Louisiana State University, the LSU System's flagship university and the state's largest institution of higher education. It is also the location of Southern University, the flagship institution of the Southern University System, the nation's only historically black college system. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge is the 10th-largest in the U.S. by tonnage shipped, and is the farthest upstream Mississippi River port capable of handling Panamax ships. Major corporations participating in the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area's economy include Lamar Advertising Company, BBQGuys, Marucci Sports, Piccadilly Restaurants, Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, ExxonMobil, Brown & Root, Shell Chemical Company and Dow Chemical Company.

Human habitation in the Baton Rouge area has been dated to 12000–6500 BC, based on evidence found along the Mississippi, Comite, and Amite rivers. Earthwork mounds were built by hunter-gatherer societies in the Middle Archaic period, from roughly the fourth millennium BC. The speakers of the Proto-Muskogean language divided into its descendant languages by about 1000 BC; and a cultural boundary between either side of Mobile Bay and the Black Warrior River began to appear between about 1200 BC and 500 BC, a period called the Middle "Gulf Formational Stage". The Eastern Muskogean language began to diversify internally in the first half of the first millennium AD.

Baton Rouge is on the banks of the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana's Florida Parishes region. The city is about 79 miles (127 km) from New Orleans, 126 miles (203 km) from Alexandria, 56 miles (90 km) from Lafayette and 250 miles (400 km) from Shreveport. It is also 173 miles (278 km) from Jackson, Mississippi and 272 miles (438 km) from Houston, Texas. Baton Rouge lies on a low elevation of 56 to a little over 62 feet above sea level. Its proximity to Greater New Orleans, Greater Jackson, and Greater Houston makes it a prominent transportation hub between the metropolitan regions.

Famous Peoples From Baton Rouge Louisiana

Randy Jackson

Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American musician, singer, record producer, entrepreneur, and television personality.

Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing bass guitar for an array of jazz, pop, rock, and R&B performers. He moved on to work in music production and in the A&R department at Columbia Records and MCA Records. Jackson is best known from his appearances as the longest-serving judge on American Idol and executive producer for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew.

In May 2020, Jackson was rehired as bassist for Journey following their sudden split with founding member Ross Valory. Jackson had previously filled the role on the band's 1986 album Raised on Radio and its tour.

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