Older Than Dirt Quiz:

Count all the ones that you remember, not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom:

1. Sweet cigarettes

2. Coffee shops with juke boxes

3. Home milk delivery in glass bottles

4. Party lines on the telephone

5. Newsreels before the movie

6. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (There were only 2 channels - if you were fortunate)

7. Peashooters

8. 33 rpm records

9. 45 RPM records

10. Hi-fi's

11. Metal ice trays with levers

12. Blue flashbulb

13. Cork popguns

14. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age If you remembered 11-14 = You're positively ancient!

I must be 'positively ancient' but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along!! Especially to all you're really OLD (but precious) friends....I just did!!!!!!!!!

Source: Email

White House, TN

White House Greenway

Motto: "Valuing Our Future While Protecting Our Heritage"

White House is a city in Robertson and Sumner counties in the United States state of Tennessee. The population was 7,220 at the 2000 census. According to the city website a special census was conducted in 2008 that placed the city population at 9,891 residents, with 3,587 households within the city limits. The population was 11,012 at the 2010 census which showed growth of 4,000 people from 2000 to 2010.

History

Settlers

The area that is now White House was purchased around 1828 by Richard Stone Wilks, a settler from Virginia. A trail running from Kentucky to Nashville, originally created by buffalo and Native Americans, cut through the area. This trail was originally known as the Louisville & Nashville Turnpike during the mid-19th century. In 1928, the trail was renamed US Highway 31W.

Naming the town

In the mid-19th century, the Carter, Thomas, and Hough Stagecoach Company traveled the L&N Turnpike carrying passengers. A typical stop along the way was a white, two-story house built by Richard Wilks in 1829. The house was a popular stop for lodging, food, and changing out horses. President Andrew Jackson was even heard to have stayed here during his travels between his home and the White House. During this time, houses were rarely painted white, particularly in this underdeveloped area. The stage coach drivers began to call this stop and the surrounding area White House.

Original White House torn down, building replaced

The monument for which the town was named was torn down in 1951 to make way for new development. However, in 1986, the community erected a replica of the original building. The reproduction, called the White House Inn Library and Museum, currently sits in the center of town next to the Fire Department. It contains the library, a museum with artifacts from the area's early years, and the city's Chamber of Commerce.

Growth and development

White House was incorporated in 1921. Currently, the young town is experiencing population growth, economic progress, and community development. The city is located north of Nashville within the greater Nashville region.

Geography

White House is located along Interstate 65 at the intersection of State Highway 76 and US Highway 31W. The town, as of 2007, covers eleven square miles and is situated about 22 miles (35 km) north of downtown Nashville, lying in both Robertson and Sumner Counties.

Government

The town's current mayor is Mike Arnold.

Education

Public schools

The city is split into two counties, and therefore has two public school districts. Sumner county public schools:

Harold B. Williams Elementary School (K-4)

White House Middle School (5-8)

White House High School (9-12)

Robertson county public schools:

Robert F. Woodall Elementary School (K-2)

White House Heritage Elementary School (3-6)

White House Heritage High School (7-12)

Trivia

The choir at the First Baptist Church of White House recorded back-up vocals for Alison Krauss in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

External links

Official City Website

Current City News

City News/Information

Browser Connection Newspaper Website

White House High School (Sumner County Schools)

White House Heritage High School (Robertson County Schools)

Source: Internet

Orlinda, TN

Orlinda is a city in Robertson County, Tennessee. The population was 594 at the 2000 census, at which time it was a town; the community became a city in February 2001. The City of Orlinda conducted its own, independent census 2007. The results of that census were submitted to the State of Tennessee which conducted a review and random sample before officially certifying the results, which it did in May, 2007. The 2010 U.S. Census results list Orlinda's current population at 859. The Mayor of Orlinda is Ricky Stark, and the City Manager is Kevin Breeding.

Source: Internet

Oak Ridge, TN

Seal

Nickname(s): The Atomic City, The Secret City

Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 29,330 at the 2010 census. The portion of the city located in Anderson County is included in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area, while the portion located in Roane County is included in the Harriman, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area; both of these areas are components of the Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette, TN Combined Statistical Area. Oak Ridge's nicknames include the Atomic City, the Secret City, the Ridge, and the City Behind the Fence.

Oak Ridge was established in 1942 as a production site for the Manhattan Project—the massive U.S. government operation that developed the atomic bomb. Scientific development still plays a crucial role in the city's economy and culture in general.

History

The earliest substantial occupation of the Oak Ridge area occurred during the Woodland period (c. 1000 BC–1000), although artifacts dating to the Paleo-Indian period have been found throughout the Clinch Valley. Two Woodland mound sites—the Crawford Farm Mounds and the Freels Farm Mounds—were uncovered in the 1930's as part of the Norris Basin salvage excavations. Both sites were located just southeast of the former Scarboro community. The Bull Bluff site, which was occupied during both the Woodland and Mississippian (c. 1000–1600) periods, was uncovered in the 1960's in anticipation of the construction of Melton Hill Dam. Bull Bluff is a cliff located immediately southeast of Haw Ridge, opposite Melton Hill Park. The Oak Ridge area was largely uninhabited by the time Euro-American explorers and settlers arrived in the late 18th century, although the Cherokee claimed the land as part of their hunting grounds.


Historical marker recalling the now-defunct community of Scarboro

In the 19th century, the Oak Ridge area saw the development of several rural farming communities, namely Edgemoor and Elza in the northeast, East Fork and Wheat in the southwest, Robertsville in the west, and Bethel and Scarboro in the southeast. The settlers who founded these communities first arrived in the late 1790's, when the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Holston, ceding what is now Anderson County to the United States.


George Jones Memorial Baptist Church, built by the residents of Wheat in 1901

According to local tradition, John Hendrix (1865–1915), an eccentric local resident regarded as a mystic, prophesied the establishment of Oak Ridge some 40 years before construction began. Upset by the death of his young daughter and the subsequent departure of his wife and remaining family, he became religious and told his neighbors he was seeing visions. When he described his visions, people thought he was insane; for this reason, he was institutionalized for a time. According to several published accounts, one vision that he described repeatedly was an uncannily accurate description of the city and production facilities that were built 28 years after his death. The version recalled by neighbors and relatives has been reported as follows:

In the woods, as I lay on the ground and looked up into the sky, there came to me a voice as loud and as sharp as thunder. The voice told me to sleep with my head on the ground for 40 nights and I would be shown visions of what the future holds for this land.... And I tell you, Bear Creek Valley someday will be filled with great buildings and factories, and they will help toward winning the greatest war that ever will be. And there will be a city on Black Oak Ridge and the center of authority will be on a spot middle-way between Sevier Tadlock's farm and Joe Pyatt's Place. A railroad spur will branch off the main L&N line, run down toward Robertsville and then branch off and turn toward Scarborough. Big engines will dig big ditches, and thousands of people will be running to and fro. They will be building things, and there will be great noise and confusion and the earth will shake. I've seen it. It's coming.

Starting in October 1942, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began acquiring the Oak Ridge area for the Manhattan Project. Unlike TVA's land acquisitions for Norris Dam—which were still fresh on the minds of many Anderson Countians—the Corps' "declaration of taking" was much more swift and final. Many residents came home to find eviction notices tacked to their doors. Most were given six weeks to evacuate, although several had as little as two weeks. Some were even forced out before they received compensation. By March 1943, the area's pre-Manhattan Project communities had been removed, and fences and checkpoints had been established. Anderson County lost one-seventh of its land and $391,000 in annual property tax revenue. The manner with which the Oak Ridge area was acquired created a tense, uneasy relationship between Oak Ridge and the surrounding towns that lasted throughout the Manhattan Project.

Manhattan Project


The Bethel Valley Checking Station

In 1942, the United States federal government chose the area as a site for developing materials for the Manhattan Project. Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves, military head of the Manhattan Project, liked the area for several reasons. Its relatively low population made acquisition affordable, yet the area was accessible by both highway and rail, and utilities such as water and electricity were readily available due to the recent completion of Norris Dam. Finally, the project location was established within a 17-mile-long (27 km) valley, and the valley itself was linear and partitioned by several ridges, providing natural protection against disasters between the four major industrial plants—so they wouldn't blow up "like firecrackers on a string."


Workers leaving the Manhattan Project's Y-12 plant at shift changing time, 1945 (US government photo by Ed Westcott)

The location and low population also helped keep the town a secret, though the population of the settlement grew from about 3,000 in 1942 to about 75,000 in 1945, and the K-25 uranium-separating facility by itself covered 44 acres (18 ha) and was the largest building in the world at that time. The name "Oak Ridge" was chosen for the settlement in 1943 from among suggestions submitted by project employees, in part because of the settlement's location along Black Oak Ridge, and in part because the rural-sounding name "held outside curiosity to a minimum." The name wasn't formally adopted until 1949, however, and was only referred to as the Clinton Engineer Works (CEW). All workers wore badges, and the town was surrounded by guard towers and a fence with seven gates.


United Church, The Chapel on the Hill, built for Manhattan Project employees

Beginning in late 1942, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began acquiring more than 60,000 acres (24,000 ha) for the CEW under authority of the Corps' Manhattan Engineer District (MED). The K-25, S-50, and Y-12 plants were each built in Oak Ridge to separate the fissile isotope uranium-235 from natural uranium, which consists almost entirely of the isotope uranium-238. During construction of the magnets which were required for the process that would separate the uranium at the Y-12 site, a shortage of copper forced the MED to borrow 14,700 tons of silver bullion from the United States Treasury to be used for electrical conductors for the electromagnet coils as a substitute. The X-10 site, now the location of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was established as a pilot plant for production of plutonium using the Graphite Reactor.

Because of the large number of workers recruited to the area for the Manhattan Project, the Army planned a town for project workers at the eastern end of the valley. The time required for the project's completion caused the Army to opt for a relatively permanent establishment rather than a camp of enormous size.

The architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) was contracted to provide a layout for the town and house designs. SOM Partner John O. Merrill moved to Tennessee to take charge of designing the secret buildings at Oak Ridge. He directed the creation of a town, which soon had 300 miles (480 km) of roads, 55 miles (89 km) of railroad track, ten schools, seven theaters, 17 restaurants and cafeterias, and 13 supermarkets. A library with 9,400 books, a symphony orchestra, sporting facilities, church services for 17 denominations, and a Fuller Brush Company salesman served the new city and its 75,000 residents. Prefabricated modular homes, apartments, and dormitories, many made from cemesto (bonded cement and asbestos) panels, were quickly erected. Streets were laid out in the manner of a "planned community".

The original streets included several main east-to-west roads, namely the Oak Ridge Turnpike, Tennessee Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Hillside Road, Robertsville Road, and Outer Drive. North-to-south oriented streets connecting these main roads were designated "Avenues", and streets branching off from the avenues were designated "Roads", "Places", "Lanes", or "Circles". "Roads" connected two streets, while "Lanes" and "Places" were dead ends. The names of the main avenues generally progressed alphabetically from east to west (e.g., Alabama Avenue in the east, Vermont Avenue in the west), and the names of the smaller streets began with the same letter as the main avenue from which they started (e.g., streets connected to Florida Avenue began with "F"). This made it considerably easier for the city's new residents to find each other.

Housing for families was constructed according to a series of templates, identified by letters. Thus an "A" house was the smallest lettered design, with one bedroom. A "B" house featured two bedrooms, a "D" house three bedrooms with a larger living space, an "E" was a two-story four-unit structure, and an "F" was the largest type home. The smallest homes were called "flat tops"; originally intended to be only temporary structures, they proliferated atop the ridges in the west end of town.

More spacious homes were awarded by the government based upon family size and the status of the worker. If a couple became divorced, they would usually be "demoted" in terms of their housing allocation, and a worker who became unemployed would usually lose his or her home altogether.

Oak Ridge was developed by the federal government as a segregated community. Black residents lived only in an area known as Gamble Valley and lived predominantly in government-built "hutments" (one-room shacks) on the south side of what is now Tuskegee Drive. Oak Ridge elementary education prior to 1954 was totally segregated; black children could only attend the Scarboro Elementary School. Oak Ridge High School was closed to black children, who had to be bussed out to Knoxville for an education. Starting in 1950, Scarboro High School operated for African American students at Scarboro Elementary School. It operated until Oak Ridge High School was desegregated in the fall of 1955. In 1953, an abortive attempt had been made by the Oak Ridge Town Council to encourage the desegregation of Oak Ridge High School; this resulted in an unsuccessful attempt to recall one of the council members, Waldo Cohn. It took the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education to change the federal government's stance in this matter. After the Brown decision, the nearby high school in Clinton was desegregated in the fall of 1956 and later bombed, closing it down. Oak Ridge then provided space at a recently vacated elementary school building (the original Linden Elementary School) for the education of high school students from Clinton for two years while Clinton High School was being rebuilt. Robertsville Junior High School, serving the west half of Oak Ridge, was desegregated at the same time as the high school. Elementary schools in other parts of the city and Jefferson Junior High School, serving the east half of the city, were desegregated slowly as African American families moved into housing outside of Gamble Valley until, in 1967, Scarboro Elementary School was closed and African American students from Gamble Valley were bused to other schools around the city. In the years after the Brown decision, public accommodations in Oak Ridge were also integrated, although this took a number of years. In the early 1960's, Oak Ridge briefly experienced protest picketing against racial segregation in public accommodations, notably outside a local cafeteria and a laundromat.

Construction personnel swelled the wartime population of Oak Ridge to as much as 70,000. That dramatic population increase, and the secret nature of the project, meant chronic shortages of housing and supplies during the war years. The town was administered by Turner Construction Company through a subsidiary named the Roane-Anderson Company. For most residents, however, their "landlord" was known as "MSI" (Management Services, Inc.).

The news of the use of the first atomic bomb against Japan on August 6, 1945, revealed to the people at Oak Ridge what they had been working on.

Since World War II


The "International Friendship Bell" (colloquially, the Peace Bell) at the Oak Ridge Civic Center

Two years after World War II ended, Oak Ridge was shifted to civilian control, under the authority of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The Roane Anderson Company administered most community functions under a government contract. In 1959 the town was incorporated, and a city manager and City Council form of government was adopted by the community rather than direct federal control. Three of the four major facilities created for the wartime bomb production are still standing today:

K-25, where uranium was enriched by the gaseous diffusion process until 1985, is now being decommissioned and decontaminated.

Y-12, originally used for electromagnetic separation of uranium, is still in use for nuclear weapons processing and materials storage.

X-10, site of a test graphite reactor, is now the site of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The S-50 liquid thermal diffusion plant was demolished soon after the war.

In 1983, the Department of Energy declassified a report showing that significant amounts of mercury had been released from the Oak Ridge Reservation into the East Fork Poplar Creek between 1950 and 1977. A federal court ordered the DOE to bring the Oak Ridge Reservation into compliance with federal and state environmental regulations.

Currently, the Department of Energy runs a nuclear and high-tech research establishment at the site and performs national security work. Tours of parts of the original facility are available to American citizens from June through September. The tour is so popular that there is a waiting list for seats.

Oak Ridge's scientific heritage is explored in the American Museum of Science and Energy.

Jaguar, a supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was the world's fastest computer until October 2010, when it was surpassed by China's Tianhe-I.

Geography

View from the Oak Ridge Summit, a barren knob on the north slope of Pine Ridge. East Fork Ridge is on the left, Blackoak Ridge spans the horizon.

Immediately northeast of Oak Ridge, the southwestward-flowing Clinch River bends sharply to the southeast for roughly 6 miles (9.7 km) toward Solway, where it turns again to the southwest. After flowing for approximately 17 miles (27 km), the river bends sharply to the northwest at Copper Ridge, and continues in this direction for nearly 7 miles (11 km). At the K-25 plant, the Clinch turns southwest again and flows for another 11 miles (18 km) to its mouth along the Tennessee River at Kingston. This series of bends creates a half-rectangle formation—surrounded by water on the northeast, east, and southwest—in which Oak Ridge is situated.

The Oak Ridge area is striated by five elongated ridges that run roughly parallel to one another in a northeast-to-southwest direction. In order from west-to-east, the five ridges are Blackoak Ridge—which connects the Elza and K-25 bends of the Clinch and thus "walls off" the half-rectangle—East Fork Ridge, Pine Ridge, Chestnut Ridge, and Haw Ridge. The five ridges are divided by four valleys—East Fork Valley (between Blackoak and East Fork Ridge), Gamble Valley (between East Fork Ridge and Pine Ridge), Bear Creek Valley (between Pine Ridge and Chestnut), and Bethel Valley (between Chestnut and Haw). These ridges and valleys are part of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians physiographic province. The main section of the city is located in the northeast, where East Fork and Pine Ridge give way to low, scattered hills. Many of the city's residences are located along the relatively steep northeastern slope of Blackoak Ridge.


The Oak Ridge Commemorative Walk at the Civic Center

The completion of Melton Hill Dam (along the Clinch near Copper Ridge) in 1963 created Melton Hill Lake, which borders the city on the northeast and east. The lakefront on the east side of the city is a popular recreation area, with bicycling trails and picnic areas lining the shore. The lake is also well known as a venue for rowing competitions. Watts Bar Lake, an impoundment of the Tennessee River which covers the lower 23 miles (37 km) of the Clinch, borders Oak Ridge to the south and southwest.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 90.0 square miles (233.0 km2), of which 85.3 square miles (220.8 km2) is land and 4.7 square miles (12.2 km2), or 5.25%, is water.

Economy


The entrance to Y-12

The federal government projects at Oak Ridge are reduced in size and scope, but are still the city's principal economic activity and one of the biggest employers in the Knoxville metropolitan area. The Department of Energy owns the federal sites and maintains a major office in the city. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest multipurpose lab in the Department of Energy's National Laboratory system, and is also home to the Spallation Neutron Source, a 1.4 billion dollar project completed in 2006, and "Jaguar", one of the world's most powerful scientific supercomputers that has peak performance of more than one quadrillion operations per second. The Y-12 National Security Complex is a component of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The Department of Energy's Environmental Management office is conducting an extensive program of decontamination and decommissioning, environmental cleanup, and waste management that aims to remove or stabilize the hazardous residues remaining from decades of government production and research activities. The Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information, which disseminates government research and development information and operates the Science.gov website, is located in the city. The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, operated by Oak Ridge Associated Universities, conducts research and education programs for the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and other federal agencies. The Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (ATDD), one of several field divisions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Air Resources Laboratory, is also located in the city. ATDD began under AEC sponsorship in 1948 as a Weather Bureau research office providing meteorological information and expertise for the AEC. Currently its main function is to perform air quality-related research directed toward issues of national and global importance.

Boeing operated a manufacturing plant in the city beginning in the early 1980's, but closed in 2007. IPIX, Remotec (now a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman), and several other technology-based companies have been founded in Oak Ridge. Wackenhut provides security services for DOE's local facilities, employing about 900 people. Several radioactive waste processing companies, including EnergySolutions, have operations in Oak Ridge.

The infrastructure that was new in the 1940s is aging, and the once-isolated city is now incorporated into the Knoxville metropolitan area. Oak Ridge, a proud city with historic international implications, is now challenged to blend into the suburban orbit of Knoxville as its heritage as a "super secret" government installation subsides. Changing economic forces have led to continuing changes in the commercial sector. For example, the Oak Ridge City Center, a shopping center built in the 1950's and converted to an indoor shopping mall in the 1980's by Crown American, is largely empty in preparation for its partial demolition and redevelopment into a more open type of shopping development.

Education


The ORISE building at Oak Ridge Associated Universities

The city operates a preschool, four elementary schools enrolling kindergarten through grade 4, two middle schools enrolling grades 5 through 8, and one high school enrolling grades 9 through 12.

In an August 2004 referendum, city voters approved an increase in local sales taxes to fund a $55 million project for Oak Ridge High School. Following demolition of one wing of the main building, construction on the first wall of the new building began in April 2005. Temporary classrooms were set up to house science classes; they will continue to be used for different purposes as the multi-year project progresses.

Roane State Community College has its largest branch campus in Oak Ridge. Other higher education organizations present in the community, but not offering classes locally, include the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and the University of Tennessee Forestry Stations and Arboretum.

Independent schools in the city include the Montessori School of Oak Ridge (preschool and kindergarten), St. Mary's School (Roman Catholic, pre-kindergarten through grade 8), and several preschools. The Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning offers a diverse array of educational opportunities for adults.

Media

Oak Ridge is served by a daily newspaper, The Oak Ridger, and was for many years the home of AM radio station WATO.

A smaller daily newspaper in the area is The Oak Ridge Observer.

Notable people

The following are notable people who were born, educated, resided, or worked in Oak Ridge:

E. Riley Anderson, Tennessee Supreme Court justice

Jennifer Azzi, former WNBA player and Olympic gold medalist

General B.B. Bell, general in command of U.S. Forces Korea since 2006 and previously in command of United States Army, Europe and NATO's Joint Command

Manson Benedict, nuclear engineering pioneer

Mike Caldwell, former NFL football player

Nikki Caldwell, women's basketball head coach (formerly at UCLA, now at LSU), grew up in Oak Ridge

Kenneth Lee Carder, United Methodist Church bishop

Lee Clayton, country-rock singer/songwriter best known as the writer of "Ladies Love Outlaws"

Sheldon Datz, chemist

Charlie Ergen, co-founder and CEO of EchoStar Communications Corporation, the parent company of Dish Network

Megan Fox, actress, born in Oak Ridge

John H. (Jack) Gibbons, Director of the Office of Technology Assessment and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Eugene Guth, physicist

Elaine Hendrix, actress

Otis Howard, former NBA player

Alston Scott Householder, mathematician who invented the Householder transformation

Kai-Fu Lee, Google executive

Randy McNally, Tennessee state senator

John O. Merrill, architect

Edgar Meyer, Grammy Award-winning bassist

Sarah Monette, author

Karl Z. Morgan, health physics pioneer

Ward Plummer, physicist

William G. Pollard, nuclear physicist and Episcopal priest who was the first director of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (now Oak Ridge Associated Universities) and the author of many works on the topic of Christianity and science

Mitch Rouse, actor, director and screenwriter

William Shepherd, American astronaut who served as commander of Expedition 1, the first crew on the International Space Station

Clifford Shull, Nobel Prize-winning physicist

Gore Verbinski, film director best known for his direction of Pirates of the Caribbean series

Viper (nee Stephanie Green), porn actress

Alvin Weinberg, nuclear physicist

Ed Westcott, only authorized photographer in Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project

Richard White, actor, voice of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast

Eugene Wigner, Nobel Prize-winning physicist

Herbert York, nuclear physicist

Points of interest

American Museum of Science and Energy

Children's Museum of Oak Ridge

East Tennessee Technology Park, formerly known as the K-25 site

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), U.S. Department of Energy

United Church, The Chapel on the Hill

University of Tennessee Arboretum

The Oak Ridge Story,

The Oak Ridge story; the saga of a people who share in history

External Links

The Secret City

City of Oak Ridge official website

Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau

Oak Ridge, Tennessee at the Open Directory Project

Historic photos of Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project

Source: Internet

Oak Hill, TN

Oak Hill is a city in Davidson County, Tennessee. The population was 4,529 at the 2010 census. The Tennessee governor's mansion is located in the city. Although the city is administered under the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, it retains its own municipal government.

External link

City of Oak Hill official website

Source: Internet

Norris, TN

Norris is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was 1,446 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Norris was built as a model planned community by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933 to house workers building Norris Dam. It is named in honor of Nebraska Senator George W. Norris, a long-term supporter of TVA.


Hydraulics laboratory building in the 1930's

TVA chairman Arthur Morgan envisioned Norris as a model of cooperative, egalitarian living. The city design was developed by TVA staff, who loosely based their design on the English garden city movement of the 1890s. Winding roads followed the contour of the terrain. Houses did not always face the street. A central common green and a belt of rural land around the town were reserved for use by residents. The houses, which were some of the first all-electric homes, were built using local wood and stone, according to twelve basic house designs that each included a porch and fireplace. Different exterior materials were used for visual variety.

Norris represents the first use of greenbelt design principles in a self-contained town in the United States. The town was the first in Tennessee to have a complete system of dial telephones. Norris Creamery was the first milk-producing plant in the world to be powered solely by electricity.

During the 1930's TVA officials excluded black families from the city, purportedly to conform to the customs and traditions of the area. However, black leaders said that poor whites and blacks had lived and worked together in the area long before TVA came into existence. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) complained repeatedly (in 1934, 1935 and 1938) about racial discrimination by TVA in the hiring, housing and training of blacks.

In 1948 the U.S. Congress directed that the city be sold at public auction. It was purchased for US$2.1 million by a Philadelphia investment group headed by Henry D. Epstein, which then sold individual homes to their residents. The city was officially incorporated in 1949. In 1953 the Epstein group sold its remaining Norris real estate to a corporation formed by Norris residents and known as the Norris Corporation.

Norris District

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

U.S. Historic district


One of the standard house designs in the planned community of Norris

Location: Town of Norris on U.S. 441, Norris, Tennessee

Built: 1934

Architect: Tennessee Valley Authority

Governing body: Private

NRHP Reference#: 75001727

Added to NRHP: July 10, 1975

The town, including 340 buildings and an area of about 4,000 acres (16 km2), was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 as an historic district, designated the Norris District.

Today Norris primarily serves as a bedroom community for Knoxville and Oak Ridge. Services available within the community include one elementary school serving grades K-5, one middle school serving grades 6-8, a small grocer, and many other small businesses. The community's high school students attend Anderson County High School.

The Museum of Appalachia, founded by John Rice Irwin, is a popular attraction in Norris. Norris is a short distance from both the Norris DamState Park, part of which is in the city, and Big Ridge State Parks, which include popular camping areas.

Geography

A large portion of this area is contained in the Norris Municipal Watershed, which has an area of more than 2,200 acres (8.9 km2) and is managed for water supply, recreation, timber production, and wildlife, including deer hunting. There are nearly 20 miles (32 km) of recreation trails on the watershed area.

Government

The government of Norris is vested in a mayor, a vice mayor and a three member city council. As of December 2012, the current mayor of Norris is Chris Mitchell. The vice mayor is Jack Black. The council members are: Bill Grieve, York Haverkamp, and Loretta Painter.

The original city hall was located in an old TVA dormitory on Ridgeway Drive until 1978, when it was destroyed by a fire. The cause was never determined. The city hall then moved to a location on Chestnut Road, but this location was destroyed in a fire in 2002. The facility on Chestnut Drive was reconstructed and continues to serve as a City Office and Community Building. The Norris Public Safety Department is located at 23 West Circle Road.

The city of Norris also helps fund a public library. The library has about 20,000 materials in its collection, which is located in the McNeeley Municipal Building.

External links

City of Norris — official website

Norris Public Library

Norris, TN at the Open Directory Project

History and Facts on Norris Dam

The Planned Community of Norris, Tennessee

"Tennessee - Anderson County - Historic Districts"

National Register of Historic Places Focus

Source: Internet

Niota, TN

Niota, Tennessee

History

The community was originally called "Mouse Creek," but was renamed in 1897 to avoid confusion with a railroad stop in Jefferson City that was named "Mossy Creek." The name "Niota" was based on the name of a fictional character in a dime novel, a Native American chief named "Nee-o-tah."

Notable people

Harry T. Burn, member of the Tennessee General Assembly, was born in Niota and lived in the community. He is best remembered as the state legislator whose vote secured the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving U.S. women the right to vote.

Robert C. Snyder, English professor at Louisiana Tech University, was born in Niota in 1919.

External links

Official website

Jim Matheny, Why do they call it that? Niota in McMinn County, WBIR-TV website, September 10, 2010

Source: Internet

Newport, TN

Newport, Tennessee

Geography

The town is situated along the Pigeon River in an area where the Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains descend into the French Broad and Nolichucky drainage basins. English Mountain rises prominently to the southwest and Hall Top Mountain rises to the southeast, with the Pigeon River cutting a valley between the two. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park boundary passes some 10 miles (16 km) to the south.

The confluence of the French Broad, Nolichucky, and Pigeon occurs 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Newport in an area once known as Forks-of-the-River. This area now comprises the northeastern section of Douglas Lake, which was created by an impoundment of the French Broad by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1940s. The French Broad eventually merges with the Holston River in Knoxville to form the Tennessee River, some 30 miles (48 km) to the west.


Cocke County, looking north from Mt. Cammerer

Several major federal highways intersect at Newport. Interstate 40 passes through the town's southern section appx. 30 miles (48 km) northeast of the North Carolina border. U.S. Route 321 runs perpendicular to I-40, approaching Newport from Cosby to the south. U.S. Route 411 merges with U.S. Route 70 in Carson Springs and the merged road enters Newport from the west, intersecting US-321 in downtown Newport. US-70 continues east to Del Rio, Tennessee and Hot Springs, North Carolina, while US-321 turns north and crosses the Pigeon and French Broad en route to Greeneville and northeastern Tennessee.

Newport consists of several sections relating to its historical development. The main section of town, centered around the courthouse, is situated along the south bank of the Pigeon amongst a series of relatively low but steep cliffs. North of the main section is "Oldtown," situated between the Pigeon and French Broad, which was the town's main area before the advent of the railroad in the late 19th century. A more modern section of town has developed along US-321 between the courthouse area and I-40.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.4 square miles (14 km2), all of it land.


English Mountain, looking west from the Cocke County High School parking lot

History

Historical marker along US-321 in Newport, recalling the site of War Ford

The Great Indian Warpath passed through what is now Newport en route to the ancient Cherokee hunting grounds of northeastern Tennessee. The Warpath crossed the Pigeon River at a point approximately 0.2 miles (0.32 km) east of the McSween Memorial Bridge (US-321), in an area where the river is normally low enough to walk across. The first European traders to the area, arriving in the mid-18th century, called this point along the Pigeon River the War Ford.

During the American Revolution, the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British, and launched sporadic attacks against early Euro-American settlers in the Holston valley. In the waning months of the conflict in 1782, a detachment led by Gen. Charles McDowell of North Carolina crossed the mountains into what is now Tennessee to join up with Col. John Sevier's local forces and initiate an aggressive campaign against the hostile Cherokee. In August of that year, Sevier crossed the Pigeon at War Ford, attacking and killing several Cherokee camped along the river's banks. This assault was one of the final engagements of the Revolution.

Early settlement

The Flatboat Period

The French Broad River in the vicinity of Fine's Ferry at Newport's northern border

As the French Broad River empties into the Tennessee River, towns along its banks are connected via waterway to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. In the early 19th century, William Faubion, who lived just northeast of New Port, managed to reach New Orleans with a flatboat shipment and return safely. In early 19th-century East Tennessee, which was riddled with poor roads and hilly terrain, river travel was a relatively convenient mode of transportation. New Port, strategically situated on the French Broad near Forks-of-the-River, quickly developed into a flatboat trading hub.

William Garrett (1774–1853) arrived in New Port in the late 1790's and built a plantation, known as Beechwood Hall, just south of Fine's Ferry. Many early travelers, including several circuit riders and religious leaders, were entertained at Garrett's mansion. During the War of 1812, Garrett shipped eight large flatboats stocked with food and whiskey to the U.S. Navy in New Orleans.

Among those entertained at Beechwood Hall in the early 19th century was Bishop Francis Asbury, a circuit rider credited with spreading Methodism to the Southern Appalachian region. Asbury wrote in his journal:

We rode through New-Port, the capital of Cocke County, forded French Broad at Shine's Ferry, and came cold and without food for man or beast to John O'Haver's but oh, the kindness of our open-hearted friends.

In 1812, a large Methodist revival was held at New Port's crude log courthouse, and the Zion Methodist Church was established that same year. The Presbyterians erected a church on Graveyard Hill (above the modern junction of US-321 and US-70) in the 1820's. The residents of New Port established one of the first schools in the area, Anderson Academy, in 1820. New Port was officially incorporated on October 19, 1812.

While New Port had strong religious beginnings, its situation as a river trading hub on the edge of the Appalachian frontier inevitably led to a certain lawlessness. Saloons were a mainstay in the town throughout the 19th century. Henry Ker, a traveler who visited New Port in 1816, recalled:

I set out for Newport, a small town on the French Broad River. At sunset I arrived, having much difficulty in finding the town for it was hid in a deep valley. It is the most licentious place in the State of Tennessee, containing about twenty houses of sloth, indolence and dissipation.

New Port's residents countered this lawlessness with swift methods of justice. The town had a pillory, stocks, and a ducking chair. Hangings were not uncommon.

At the close of the Revolution, the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the Newport area, ensconcing themselves in the vicinity of the strategic river fords. Peter Fine established a ferry on the north bank of the French Broad in the early 1780's, and in 1783 John Gilliland settled opposite Fine's Ferry in what is now Oldtown. Shortly thereafter, Emanuel Sandusky, a Polish immigrant, established a farm on the land where the Cocke County Memorial Building now stands, and Samuel O'Dell settled at the junction of the Pigeon River and Cosby Creek. Sometime in the 1790's, the Gilliland family donated 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land for a town square and courthouse to be situated opposite Fine's Ferry on the banks of the French Broad, and the town of New Port was born.

For nearly a quarter-century, the residents of the Newport area lived under constant threat of attack from Cherokee crossing the mountains from North Carolina. Shortly after the arrival of the first Euro-American settlers, Peter Fine sought to quell this threat by leading a punitive expedition against the Cherokee town of Cowee in North Carolina, which Fine captured and burned. The Cherokee responded by stealing Fine's livestock and attempting to herd them back to North Carolina. Fine gave chase and managed to retrieve the livestock, but on the return march he was ambushed and his brother, Vinet, was killed. The Indians were in pursuit and Vinet's body was hidden in a hole in a frozen creek for later retrieval. The creek melted and the body was lost. The creek was named Fines Creek. Shortly thereafter, two O'Dells were killed, one of Sandusky's daughters was kidnapped, and several others settlers were killed or scalped.

To provide defense against these sporadic attacks, the early settlers erected a series of forts in the area. Wood's Fort guarded the Forks-of-the-River just downstream from Newport, and McCoy's Fort and Whitson's Fort defended the area to the south. Other installations included Huff's Fort at what is now Del Rio. With Sevier's victory at the Battle of Boyds Creek and the ensuing Treaty of Dumplin in 1785, Cherokee influence in the area began to wane. In the 1790's, the Cherokee signed a series of treaties which essentially ceded most of the land on the Tennessee side of the Smokies to the U.S. government. By 1800, Cherokee attacks in the Newport area had been drastically reduced.

The Civil War

By 1834, New Port had a population of 150. The town included two general stores, two doctors, three blacksmiths, two tailors, two hatters, a wagon maker, two churches, and two taverns. A new brick courthouse had been erected in 1828 to replace the crude log courthouse.

While slavery was not as common in East Tennessee as in other parts of the Southeastern United States, it did occur. Some buildings in early Cocke County were built with slave labor. Sometime before the Civil War, local records report the executions of at least two slaves. One was a grandmother whose grandson drowned while she fled across the Pigeon River in an attempt to keep him from being sold. The other, a slave by the name of "Tom," was tortured and burned alive for the murder of Mary Lotspeich. In the years leading up to the war, Newport's Methodists split into pro-slavery and anti-slavery denominations, reflecting a division common throughout the county.

When the Civil War broke out in the 1860's, New Port attempted to remain neutral. The town was a consistent target of raids from both Union and Confederate soldiers. The owners of Beechwood Hall buried their silver and kept their horses in the basement to prevent them from being stolen. The residents of Cocke County eventually recruited a home guard to protect them from raids, which they based at the mouth of Indian Camp Creek, a few miles south of New Port.

Several skirmishes occurred in the vicinity of New Port, namely along Lick Creek to the north and Cosby Creek to the south. At the latter, the brother of North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance was captured in an ambush.

The railroad and the Clifton annexation controversy


The Cocke County Courthouse, built in 1930 to replace the 1884 structure, which had burned

In 1867, the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap, and Charleston Railroad constructed a line through Clifton, which was located just south of New Port on the other side of the Pigeon River. As railroads were quickly replacing flatboats as the preferred mode of transportation and shipping in East Tennessee, the residents of New Port sought to build the new Cocke County Courthouse in Clifton. To bypass state law, which required an election to move a county seat, New Port decided to simply annex Clifton.

The residents of Clifton, however, made it clear that they didn't want to be annexed. When New Port ignored them and moved forward with the annexation anyway, the residents of Clifton sued. After a 17-year legal battle, the Tennessee State Supreme Court ruled that the annexation violated the state's constitution. The new courthouse was constructed in Clifton in 1884. Perhaps due to railroad interests at the time, Clifton was renamed "Newport." New Port became known as "Oldport" or "Oldtown." Thus the town of Newport "shifted" from its location on the flatboat-friendly French Broad to its current location along the railroad running parallel to the Pigeon.

Alexander Arthur and the logging boom


The Pigeon River in Newport

Innovations in the logging industry in the late 19th century led to a rapid deforestation of the Ohio Valley and Mississippi Delta. Logging companies eventually turned to the timber-rich forests of Southern Appalachia to keep up with the increasing demand for wood, and band saw mills began spring up in towns located along the base of the mountains.

In 1880, Canadian-born entrepreneur Alexander Arthur (1846–1912), representing the Scottish Carolina Timber and Land Company, arrived in Newport with ambitious plans to log the Pigeon valley. Arthur's plan called for the construction of a series of dams and booms which would be used to move logs from the higher elevations downstream using the river's current. The logs would eventually be floated all the way to Knoxville. The operation would be based in Newport, with a sawmill in the higher elevations at Pigeon Valley (now Hartford, Tennessee).

Over the next six years, Arthur and his team of engineers and lumberjacks— some from as far away as South Africa and Europe— cut and sawed thousands of logs which they stocked behind a large dam. Arthur built an extravagant house in Newport and even made proposals to modernize the town square.

The residents of Newport— who were nonplussed by the flashy and energetic Arthur— warned the entrepreneur about the Pigeon River's volatility. While the mountain streams of Southern Appalachia appear calm and serene on a typical day, torrential rains in the higher elevations can turn these streams into raging whitewater rapids. In the Spring of 1886, the warnings of the locals became reality when a cloudburst hit the Balsam Mountains near the Pigeon's source and the river became a raging torrent. All day long, Arthur and his team fought ferociously to secure the dam holding back the company's precious stock of logs. That evening, one of Arthur's engineers returned to Newport briefly to rest. Before leaving again, he told the anxious wives of the company men and the curious Newportians that if they heard the whistle, all would be "gone to hell." Historian Wilma Dykeman described that night:

Just before daybreak at the depth of the dark and rain, the waiting women and all the rest of the wakefull town heard the great crash as the booms burst, and the cry of the whistle signaled the men's defeat. Logs from thousands of trees boiled over the broken dams, smashed together in a grinding roar and surged on down the current like giant toothpicks tossed by some elemental energy.

His venture now bankrupt, Alexander moved to Knoxville to start rebuilding his fortune. He would later be instrumental in the founding of Middlesboro, Kentucky. The residents of Newport converted Scottish Timber's now-abandoned commissary into a saloon.

1900's


Newport Depot, photographed by Marion Post Wolcott in 1939

By the 1890's, the population of Newport had grown to 900. While Alexander Arthur's logging venture failed, industry continued to find its way to the town. In 1895, the A.C. Lawrence Leather Company established what eventually become one of the world's largest tanneries in Newport. Three years later, brothers James and John Stokely founded the Stokely Brothers Company (now Stokely-Van Camp's) to can vegetables they grew throughout the French Broad valley. Newport native Ben Hooper served as governor of Tennessee from 1911-1915.

Carson Springs, four miles (6 km) west of Newport, developed around William Wilson's tavern and stagecoach terminal in the early 19th century. Later in the century, C.P. Peterson and wife built and operated the Peterson Hotel. As the mineral-rich mountain springs of Appalachia were thought to have health-restoring qualities, Carson Springs developed into an early tourist resort. The establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934 brought a still greater influx of tourists to Newport, but nothing like the tourism explosion that occurred in nearby Sevier County.

Kiffin Yates Rockwell, who was born in Newport in 1892, joined the French Foreign Legion during World War I. After being wounded, Rockwell joined one of the Legion's aviation corps, known as the Lafayette Escadrille, and would become the first American pilot to shoot down an enemy plane in combat.

Moonshining and crime

Appalachia is characterized by winding narrow coves and hidden hollows separated by high ridges. Many of these hollows contained just enough bottomland to support an economy based on subsistence agriculture, but with each crop, the soil grew poorer and poorer. Thus, to make ends meet, farmers in communities such as Cosby and Del Rio began setting aside some of their corn crop for liquor production. These early distillers found an easy market in the taverns and saloons of Newport, itself located at a point where the Appalachian highlands meet the Tennessee Valley.

At the onset of Prohibition in 1920, the demand for illegally-distilled liquor skyrocketed, and Cocke County was primed to meet it. Not only did the county have moonshiners with generations of experience, but the remote Appalachian hollows and thick forest provided perfect hiding places for illegal stills. And as young men left the farms of rural Tennessee to seek employment in the textile mills of Knoxville and the large manufacturing hubs of the Midwest in the early 20th century, networks for moving the liquor from the mountain hollows to the large urban areas were already in place.

From the 1920's through the 1960's, Cocke County became notorious throughout the Southeast as a moonshine mecca. To complicate matters, large numbers of servicemen passing through Newport en route to Knoxville or Asheville during World War II drew large numbers of prostitutes to the area. In 1969, the Knoxville News Sentinel published a series of reports regarding organized crime in the county, and Governor Buford Ellington launched an investigation that led to the arrest of Constable D.C. Ramsey, Cocke County Sheriff Tom O'Dell, and several state troopers stationed in within the county on charges of extortion and bribery. In the following decade, a new District Attorney, Al Schmutzer, launched a crackdown on the various moonshining, gambling, and cockfighting rings within the county, with some success.

In spite of Schmutzer's efforts, Cocke County continued to struggle with organized crime. In 1982, 40,000 marijuana plants were found growing just off Asheville Highway. The following year, Cocke County Sheriff Bobby Stinson was indicted along with 43 others on cocaine conspiracy charges. In 1987, 30 people from Cocke and Sevier County were arrested on charges relating to a car theft ring. Corruption probes and federal indictments relating to Cocke County law enforcement continued into the 21st century. In the 1990's, a series of economic initiatives by Newport and Cocke County, however, helped to curb the crime rate substantially.

In 2008, production for the CMT reality television program Outsiders Inn took place at the Christopher Place Resort in Newport.

In 2009, the FBI indicted and successfully prosecuted a 23 person car theft and drug ring. Six persons entered guilty pleas by 2010, including a retired Newport City Police Captain and his family. Eddie Hawk was sentenced 9 years. The investigation was branched from the FBI Rose Thorn case, which focused upon Cocke County Sheriff Officers' corruption, resulting in an earlier 170 arrests on Federal and State charges.

Historical structures in the Newport area


The Rhea-Mims Hotel

Beechwood Hall, constructed in 1803 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

O'Dell House, constructed in 1814 and placed on the NRHP in 1975.

Cocke County Courthouse, constructed in 1930 and placed on the NRHP in 1995.

Elm Hill, constructed in the 1890s and placed on the NRHP in 1975.

Rhea-Mims Hotel, constructed in 1925 and placed on the NRHP in 1998. In 2000, the hotel was refurnished as a home for senior citizens by the firm Barge, Waggoner, Sumner, and Cannon, Inc.

Cocke County Memorial Building, constructed in 1931 and placed on the NRHP in 1997.

Famous natives and residents

Jake Crum (1991- ) - NASCAR driver, winner of 2009 Bailey's 300

Wilma Dykeman (1920–2006) - Author and local historian

Ben W. Hooper (1870–1957) - Governor of Tennessee, 1911–1915

L. D. Ottinger (1938- ) - Former NASCAR driver

Jimmy Owens (1972-) Dirt Track Super Late Model Driver

Jim Phillips (1950-) - Announcer for the Motor Racing Network

Kiffin Yates Rockwell (1892–1916) - World War I pilot

Marshall R. Teague (1953- ) - Actor

External links

Newport, Tennessee

cockecounty.org — Chamber of Commerce site

Newport, Tennessee at the Open Directory Project

Source: Internet

New Johnsonville, TN

New Johnsonville is a city in Humphreys County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,905 at the 2000 census.

Link

Official website

Source: Internet

New Hope, TN

New Hope is a city in Marion County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,043 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Source: Internet

New 2012 Words Added to Dictionary

These are a few of the new words added to dictionary in 2012. Overall they are better than the 2011 words that were added to the dictionary.

F-bomb

aha moment - Thanks to Oprah for this one.

e-reader

man cave

flexitarian - A person who is vegetarian but occasionally eats meat or fish

brain cramp

bucket list

cloud computing

craft beer

earworm - A song that gets stuck in ones head.

energy drink - Redbull anyone?

game changer - There was a cool movie titled this also in 2011

gassed - Tired / drained of energy

tipping point

Source: Internet

Wasp And Hornet Spray

Never thought about this before but important to know!



I know some of you own GUNS but this is something to think about...

If you don't have a gun, here's a more humane way to wreck someone's evil plans for you. Did you know this? I didn't. I never really thought of it before. I guess I can get rid of the baseball bat.

Wasp Spray - A friend who is a receptionist in a church in a high risk area was concerned about someone coming into the office on Monday to rob them when they were counting the collection. She asked the local police department about using pepper spray and they recommended to her that she get a can of wasp spray instead.

The wasp spray, they told her, can shoot up to twenty feet away and is a lot more accurate, while with the pepper spray, they have to get too close to you and could overpower you. The wasp spray temporarily blinds an attacker until they get to the hospital for an antidote. She keeps a can on her desk in the office and it doesn't attract attention from people like a can of pepper spray would. She also keeps one nearby at home for home protection. Thought this was interesting and might be of use.

On the heels of a break in and beating that left an elderly woman in Toledo dead, self defense experts have a tip that could save your life.

Val Glinka teaches self-defense to students at Sylvania Southview High School . For decades, he's suggested putting a can of wasp and hornet spray near your door or bed.

Glinka says, "This is better than anything I can teach them."

Glinka considers it inexpensive, easy to find, and more effective than mace or pepper spray. The cans typically shoot 20 to 30 feet; so if someone tries to break into your home, Glinka says "spray the culprit in the eyes". It's a tip he's given to students for decades.

It's also one he wants everyone to hear If you're looking for protection, Glinka says look to the spray. "That's going to give you a chance to call the police; maybe get out." Maybe even save a life.

Please share this with all the people who are precious to your life

Did you also know that wasp spray will kill a snake? And a mouse! It will! Good to know, huh? It will also kill a wasp!!!

Source: Email

Louisiana Creole Cuisine

Dishes typical of Creole food


Creole Jambalaya with shrimp, ham, tomato, and Andouille sausage.

Louisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana, US which blends French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Native American, and African influences,[1] as well as general Southern cuisine. It is similar to Cajun cuisine in ingredients (such as the holy trinity), but the important distinction is that Cajun cuisine arose from the more rustic, provincial French cooking adapted by the Acadians to Louisiana ingredients, whereas the cooking of the Louisiana Creoles tended more toward classical European styles adapted to local foodstuffs. Broadly speaking, the French influence in Cajun cuisine is descended from various French Provincial cuisines of the peasantry, while Creole cuisine evolved in the homes of well-to-do aristocrats, or those who imitated their lifestyle. Although the Creole cuisine is closely identified with New Orleans culture today, much of it evolved in the country plantation estates so beloved of the pre-Civil War Creoles. (Despite its aristocratic French roots, Creole cuisine does not include Garde Manger or other extremely lavish styles of the Classical Paris cuisine.)

Overview

The Spanish, Italian, and Canarian influences on Creole cuisine were in the heat of the peppers, the wide usage of citrus juice marinades, the supreme importance of rice, and the introduction of beans. The Spaniards and the Italians also used tomatoes extensively, which had not been a frequent ingredient in the earlier French era. Pasta and tomato sauces arrived during the period when New Orleans was a popular destination for Italian settlers (roughly, 1815 to 1925). Many of them became grocers, bakers, cheese makers and orchard farmers, and so influenced the Creole cuisine in New Orleans and its suburbs. The African influences which were extensive, came about because many of the servants were African-American, as were many of the cooks in restaurants and cafes.

The first French, Spanish and Portuguese Creole cookbooks date back to the era before the Louisiana Purchase. The first Creole cookbook in English was La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes, From Leading Chefs and Noted Creole Housewives, Who Have Made New Orleans Famous For Its Cuisine, written by Lafcadio Hearn and published in 1885.

By that time Creole was already an identifiable regional cuisine recognized outside Louisiana: for example, an 1882 Florida hotel menu now in the New York Public Library's collection offered "Chicken Saute, á la Creole."

Starting in the 1980's, Cajun cuisine began influencing New Orleans Creole cuisine, spurred by the popular restaurant of Chef Paul Prudhomme, a Cajun from Opelousas, Louisiana. A national interest in Cajun cooking developed, and many tourists went to New Orleans expecting to find Cajun food there (being unaware that the city was culturally and geographically separate from Acadiana), so entrepreneurs opened or rebranded restaurants to meet this demand. The "New New Orleans Cooking" of celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse includes both Cajun and Creole dishes. In his writings and TV shows, Lagasse both draws the distinction between Cajun and Creole and explains where they overlap.

With the rise of southern American Cooking in the 1980's, a New Creole (sometimes called Nouvelle Creole or Neo-American Creole Fusion) strain began to emerge. This movement is characterized in part by a renewed emphasis on fresh ingredients and lighter preparations, and in part by an outreach to other culinary traditions, including Cajun, Southern, Southwestern, and to a lesser degree Southeast Asian. While the Cajun food craze eventually passed, Modern Creole has remained as a predominant force in most major New Orleans restaurants.

Classic dishes


Oysters Rockefeller

Appetizers

Crabmeat Ravigote

Oysters Bienville

Oysters en brochette

Oysters Rockefeller

Shrimp remoulade

Soups


Southern Oxtail Soup

Crawfish Bisque

Gumbo

Oyster and Artichoke Bisque

Yakamein

Turtle soup

Oxtail soup

Main dishes


Lobster creole


Crawfish étouffée, served at a restaurant in New Orleans.

Blackened Salmon

Chicken Creole

Creole Baked Chicken

Crawfish étouffée

Crawfish Fettuccine

Jambalaya

Mirliton

Pompano en Papillote

Potato Salad

Quiche

Red beans and rice

Rice and gravy

Sauce Piquante

Shrimp Bisque

Shrimp Creole

Smothered Pork Chops/Steak

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Trout meunière

Side Dishes

Maque choux

Red beans

Dirty rice

Green Beans w/Potatoes

Desserts


Austin Leslie's Creole bread pudding with vanilla whiskey sauce, from the late Pampy's Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana

Bananas Foster

Bread pudding

Beignets

King cake

Doberge cake

Pralines

Pecan pie

Banana Pudding

Peach Cobbler

Blackberry Cobbler

T-cakes

Beverages

Café Brûlot

Café au lait

Ramos Gin Fizz

Sazerac cocktail

Breakfast


Eggs Sardou with gulf shrimp added and grits on the side

New Orleans restaurants

Antoine's

Cochon

Arnaud's

Galatoire's

Brennan's

Commander's Palace

Dooky Chase's

Hubig's New Orleans Style Pies

Source: Internet

Louisiana Creole People

Louisiana Creole people refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French and Spanish descent. The term was first used during colonial times by the early French settlers to refer to those who were born in the colony, as opposed to those born in the Old World. After the Civil War, in response to the imposition of a binary racial classification imposed by the increasingly dominant Anglo-Saxon society (and the anxieties provoked thereby), some Creole scholars such as Charles Gayarre and Alcee Fortier began to assert that the word Creole referred exclusively to people of wholly European descent. But, references to "Creoles of Color" and "Creole Slaves" can be found in colonial-era documents. The term is now commonly applied to individuals of mixed-race heritage. Both groups have common European heritage and share cultural ties, such as the traditional use of the French language and the continuing practice of Catholicism; in most cases, the people are related to each other. Those of mixed race also have African and sometimes Native American ancestry.

The term "French Creoles" came to be applied to Creoles of European or white ancestry. Creoles of color", in use in the Colonial era but popularized in the 19th-century, came to refer to mixed-race people of African and European ancestry (primarily French and Spanish), who were native in the area before the Louisiana Purchase. Some Creoles of color may also have Native American heritage. Both groups of Creoles may have additional European ancestry, such as German, Irish or Italian, related to later immigrants to New Orleans. Most modern Creoles have family ties to Louisiana, particularly New Orleans; they are mostly Catholic in religion; through the nineteenth century, most spoke French and were strongly connected to French colonial culture; and they have had a major impact on the state's culture.

While the sophisticated Creole society of New Orleans has historically received much attention, the Cane River area developed its own strong mixed-race Creole culture, as did Frilot Cove and the Rideau Settlement. These Creole enclaves have had a long history of cultural independence.

History


Map of North America in 1750, before the French and Indian War (part of the international Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763). Possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain (orange)

An early 1718 history of New Orleans defined "Creole" as "a child born in the colony as opposed to France or Spain." Through both the French and Spanish regimes, parochial and colonial governments used the term Creole for ethnic French and Spanish born in the New World as opposed to Europe.(Logsdon). Parisian French was the language of early New Orleans. Later it evolved to contain local phrases and slang terms. The French Creoles spoke what became known as Colonial French; over time, the language in the colony differed from that evolving in France. It was a Roman Catholic culture, practiced by the ethnic French and Spanish, and their mixed-race descendants, who developed as a third class of free people of color in New Orleans particularly.

American rule

The transfer of the French colony to the United States in 1803 under the Louisiana Purchase and the arrival of Anglo-Americans from New England and the South resulted in a cultural confrontation. Some Americans were reportedly shocked by aspects of the cultural and linguistic climate of the newly acquired territory: the predominance of French language and Catholicism, the free class of mixed-race people, and the strong African traditions of enslaved peoples. They pressured the United States' first Louisiana governor, W.C.C. Claiborne to change it.

Particularly in the South, which was a slave society, slavery had become a racial caste. Many whites considered it a binary racial society, with all who had African ancestry classified as black, regardless of their proportion of white or European ancestry. Although there was a growing population of free people of color, particularly in the Upper South, they generally did not have the same rights and freedoms as did those in Louisiana.

When Claiborne made English the official language of the territory, the French Creoles in New Orleans were outraged, and reportedly paraded in the streets. They rejected the Americans' effort to transform them overnight. In addition, upper-class French Creoles thought many of the arriving Americans were uncouth, especially the rough Kentucky boatmen (Kaintucks) who regularly visited the city, having maneuvered flatboats down the Mississippi River filled with goods for market.

Realizing that he needed local support, Claiborne restored French as an official language. In all forms of government, public forums and in the Catholic Church, French continued to be used. Most importantly, Colonial French and Creole French remained the language of the majority of the population of the state.

Race

Colonists had referred to enslaved blacks who were native-born as creole, to distinguish them from new arrivals from Africa. Over time, the black Creoles and Africans created a French and West African hybrid language called Creole French or Louisiana Creole French. In some circumstances it was used by slaves, planters and free people of color alike. It was still spoken by some in Central Louisiana well into the 20th century. Creole French is typically not spoken in New Orleans any more, but certain words and phrases are still used. Creole people and culture are distinct from the Cajun people and culture, who are descended from French-speaking refugees forcibly resettled by the British from Acadia in Canada to Louisiana in the 18th century.


Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, better known as "Madame X", was a Creole from New Orleans


Adah Isaacs Menken, Creole actress, painter and poet.

As in the French or Spanish Caribbean and Latin American colonies, the Louisiana territory developed a mixed-race class, of whom there were numerous free people of color. In the early days they were descended mostly from European men and enslaved or free black or mixed-race women. French men took African women as mistresses or common-law wives, and sometimes married them.

Later, wealthy young white Creole men often took free or enslaved mixed-race women as mistresses or consorts before, or in addition to, their legal marriages, in a system known as plaçage. The young women's mothers often negotiated a form of dowry or property settlement to protect their futures. The men would often transfer social capital to their mistresses and children, including freedom for those who were enslaved, and education or apprenticeships. Mixed-race sons of wealthy men were sent to France for education, while daughters were educated in the local convent schools.

As a group, the mixed-race Creoles rapidly began to acquire education, skills (many in New Orleans worked as craftsmen and artisans), businesses and property. They were overwhelmingly Catholic, spoke Colonial French (although some also spoke Louisiana Creole French), and kept up many French social customs, modified by other parts of their ancestry and Louisiana culture. The free people of color married among themselves to maintain their class and social culture. The French-speaking mixed-race population came to be called "Creoles of color". "New Orleans persons of color were far wealthier, more secure, and more established than blacks elsewhere in Louisiana."

Under the French and Spanish rulers, Louisiana developed a three-tiered society, similar to that of Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, St.Lucia, Mexico, and other Latin colonies. This three-tiered society included a prosperous, educated group of mixed-race Creoles. Their identity as free people of color was one they had worked diligently towards and guarded carefully. By law they enjoyed most of the same rights and privileges as whites. They could and often did challenge the law in court and won cases against whites (Hirsch; Brasseaux; Mills; Kein etc.). They were property owners and created schools for their children. There were some free blacks in Louisiana, but most free people of color were of mixed race. They acquired education, property and power within the colony, and later, state.


Creole girls, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana" (1935 photo by Ben Shahn)

After the Civil War, mixed-race Creoles of Color resisted American attempts to impose their binary racial culture, which split the population into white and black (the latter including everyone other than whites). While the American Civil War promised rights and opportunities for the enslaved, it caused anxiety for the free persons of color. They knew the United States did not legally recognize a three-tiered society, and were the prospects of emancipation for thousands of slaves in Louisiana. It posed a considerable threat to the identity and position of the free people of color.

Following the Union victory in the Civil War, the Louisiana three-tiered society was gradually overrun by more European Americans, who classified everyone by the South's binary division of "black" and "white". Following Reconstruction, when white Democrats regained power in the state legislature, they passed Jim Crow laws and a constitution that effectively disfranchised most blacks and people of color, through discriminatory application of voter registration and electoral laws. The US Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 supported the binary society and the policy of "separate but equal" facilities (which were seldom achieved in fact) in the segregated South.

Whites increasingly claimed that the term Creole was to apply to whites only, and supported their views in "numerous articles, statements, speeches, and book inserts".
According to Virginia Dominguez,

"Charles Gayarré ... and Alcée Fortier ... led the unspoken though desperate defense of the Creole. As bright as these men clearly were, they still became engulfed in the reclassification process intent on salvaging white Creole status. Their speeches consequently read more like sympathetic eulogies than historical analysis."


P.G.T. Beauregard, Creole Confederate General

She suggests that, because of their struggle for redefinition, the white Creoles of European descent were particularly hostile to the exploration by the writer George Washington Cable of multiracial Creole society in his stories and novels. She thinks that in The Grandissimes, he exposed the Creoles' preoccupation with covering up blood connections with the free people of color and slaves. She writes,

"There was a veritable explosion of defenses of Creole ancestry. The more novelist George Washington Cable engaged his characters in family feuds over inheritance, embroiled them in sexual unions with blacks and mulattoes, and made them seem particularly defensive about their presumably pure Caucasian ancestry, the more vociferously the white Creoles responded, insisting on purity of white ancestry as a requirement for identification as Creole."

New Orleans was a city divided geographically between Latin (French Creole) and Anglo-American populations until well into the late 19th century (Hirsch & Logsdon). Those of Latin European descent lived east of Canal Street, in what became known as the French Quarter; the new American migrants settled west ("Uptown") of it. The Esplanade became the center of the Irish Channel, Irish Catholic immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century.

People of the French Colonies of Louisiana were not citizens until 1924 - They became citizens of the United States by the Indian citizenship act of 1924.

Culture

Cuisine


Crawfish Etouffee, a Creole dish

Louisiana Creole cuisine is recognized as a unique style of cooking originating in New Orleans. It makes use of what is called the Holy trinity (in this case, chopped celery, bell peppers, and onions) (as does Cajun cuisine). It has developed primarily from French, Spanish, African, Native American, and Caribbean historic influences, as well as later Irish, Italian, German, and American influences.

Gumbo is a traditional Creole dish from the French Quarter or Vieux Carré, the original European quarter of the city. It is a stew based on either seafood (usually shrimp, crabs, with oysters optional) and sausage, or chicken and sausage. Both contain the "Holy Trinity" and are served over rice. Gumbo is often seasoned with filé, which is dried, ground sassafras leaves. It was created by French colonists trying to make bouillabaisse with New World ingredients. Starting with aromatic seasonings, the French used onions and celery as in a traditional mirepoix, but lacked carrots. Africans contributed okra; the Native Americans contributed filé; the Spanish contributed peppers and tomatoes; and new spices were adopted from Caribbean uses. The French would later favor a roux for thickening. The Italians added garlic. After arriving in numbers, German immigrants dominated city bakeries, including those making traditional French bread. They introduced having buttered French bread as a side to eating gumbo, as well as a side of German-style potato salad.

"Gumbo" (Gombô, in Louisiana Creole, Gombo, in Louisiana French); in French, gombo is the name for okra, derived from the West African name for okra. Okra is traditionally grown in regions of Africa, and parts of the Middle East and Spain. Gombo became the informal name of the stew, due to the popularity of okra for thickening the mixture. "Gumbo" became the localized evolution of the word gombo after the English language became dominant in Louisiana. Gombo is a shortened version of the words kilogombó or kigambó, also guingambó or quinbombó, in West Africa.

Jambalaya is the second of the famous Louisiana Creole dishes. It also arose in the original European sector of New Orleans. It combined ham with sausage, rice and tomato. Today, jambalaya is commonly made as a seafood (usually shrimp) or chicken jambalaya, or a combination of shrimp and chicken; most varieties contain smoked sausage more commonly used instead of ham in modern versions. But, a version of jambalaya uses ham with shrimp, and may be one of the original jambalayas. Jambalaya is prepared in two ways: red and brown. Red jambalaya is the original version of the dish, native to New Orleans. It is found in the New Orleans metro area as well, and in parts of Iberia Parish, parts of St. Martin Parish. Red jambalaya is known as Creole jambalaya, which comes from the Spanish heritage of New Orleans. Red jambalaya gets its color from a tomato base and commonly uses shrimp stock. In Cajun areas, people prepare a brown jambalaya in a Cajun style that omits the tomato. The brown color comes from the rendering of tasso (a type of salt-cured, smoked pork shoulder).

Jambalaya's origins derive from the Spanish influence of paella in New Orleans. An extended evolution of the dish Paella in Louisiana, from the time of the Spanish ownership of Louisiana. The dish was introduced into Cajun culture through the white French Creoles whose fortunes collapsed after the Civil War, in which many moved to Cajun country to start new lives. Some sought refuge within the Cajun population from the Americans, some remained in the New Orleans area. The name for jambalaya comes from a combination of French and Spanish origins. The name comes from jambon, the French word for ham, the French language and Spanish language article à la, and the ending of the word paella which came to be "ya" from the Spanish pronunciation of the letters ll+a.

Music

Zydeco (a transliteration in English of 'zaricô' (snapbeans) from the song, "Les haricots sont pas salés"), was born in Creole communities on the prairies of southwest Louisiana in the 1920's. It is often considered the Creole music of Louisiana. Zydeco purportedly hails from Là-là, a genre of music now defunct, and old south Louisiana jurés. As Louisiana French and Creole French was the lingua franca of the prairies of southwest Louisiana, zydeco was initially sung only in Louisiana French or Creole French. Later, Louisiana Creoles, such as the 20th-century Chénier brothers, Andrus Espree (Beau Jocque), Rosie Lédet and others, added a new linguistic element to zydeco music. Today, most of zydeco's latest generation sings in English or Cajun French, with a few in Louisiana Creole French.

Zydeco is related to Swamp Pop, Blues, Jazz, and Cajun music. An instrument unique to zydeco is a form of washboard called the frottoir or scrub board. This is a vest made of corrugated aluminum, and played by the musician's working bottle openers or caps up and down the length of the vest.

The Creole music of enslaved African people from the nineteenth century is represented in Slave Songs of the United States, first published in 1867. The final seven songs in that work are printed with melody along with text in Creole French. These and many other songs were sung by slaves on plantations, especially in St. Charles Parish, and when they gathered on Sundays at Congo Square in New Orleans.

Language


19th century Newspaper clipping from Thibodaux, LA.

Louisiana French (LF) is the regional variety of the French language spoken throughout contemporary Louisiana in the south-eastern USA by individuals who today identify ethno-racially as Creole, French Creole, Spanish Creole, Mississippi Creole, Alabama Creole, Texas Creole, California Creole, African-American, Black, Chitimacha, Houma, Biloxi, Tunica, Choctaw, White, Cajun, Acadian, French, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Syrian, Lebanese, Irish and others. Individuals and groups of individuals through innovation, adaptation and contact, continually enrich the French language spoken in Louisiana, seasoning it with linguistic features that can sometimes only be found in Louisiana.

Tulane University's Department of French and Italian's website declares in bold text: FRENCH IS NOT A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN LOUISIANA. Figures from U.S. decennial censuses report that roughly 250,000 Louisianans claimed to use or speak French in their homes.

Louisiana Creole French (Kréyol La Lwizyàn) is a French Creole language spoken by the Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. The language consists of elements of French, Spanish, African, and Native American roots.

Among the eighteen governors of Louisiana between 1803–1865, six were French Creoles and were monolingual speakers of French: Jacques-Philippe Villèré, Pierre Augustin Charles Bourguignon Derbigny, Armand Julien Beauvais, Jacques Dupré de Terrebonne, André Bienvenue Roman, and Alexandre Mouton.

According to the historian Paul Lachance, "the addition of white immigrants to the white creole population enabled French-speakers to remain a majority of the white population [in New Orleans] until almost 1830. If a substantial proportion of free persons of color and slaves had not also spoken French, however, the Gallic community would have become a minority of the total population as early as 1820." In the 1850's, white Francophones remained an intact and vibrant community; they maintained instruction in French in two of the city's four school districts. In 1862, the Union general Ben Butler abolished French instruction in New Orleans schools, and statewide measures in 1864 and 1868 further cemented the policy. By the end of the 19th century, French usage in the city had faded significantly. However, as late as 1902 "one-fourth of the population of the city spoke French in ordinary daily intercourse, while another two-fourths was able to understand the language perfectly," and as late as 1945, one still encountered elderly Creole women who spoke no English. The last major French language newspaper in New Orleans, L’Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans, ceased publication on December 27, 1923, after ninety-six years; according to some sources Le Courrier de la Nouvelle Orleans continued until 1955.


New Orleans Mardi Gras in the early 1890's.

Today, it is generally in more rural areas that people continue to speak Louisiana French or Louisiana Creole.

New Orleans Mardi Gras


Revelers on St. Charles Avenue, 2007

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday in English) in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a Carnival celebration well-known throughout the world.

The New Orleans Carnival season, with roots in preparing for the start of the Christian season of Lent, starts after Twelfth Night, on Epiphany (January 6). It is a season of parades, balls (some of them masquerade balls), and king cake parties. It has traditionally been part of the winter social season; at one time "coming out" parties for young women at débutante balls were timed for this season.

Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French), the day before Ash Wednesday. Usually there is one major parade each day (weather permitting); many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the season. In the final week of Carnival, many events large and small occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities.

The parades in New Orleans are organized by Carnival krewes. Krewe float riders toss throws to the crowds; the most common throws are strings of plastic colorful beads, doubloons (aluminum or wooden dollar-sized coins usually impressed with a krewe logo), decorated plastic throw cups, and small inexpensive toys. Major krewes follow the same parade schedule and route each year.

While many tourists center their Mardi Gras season activities on Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, none of the major Mardi Gras parades has entered the Quarter since 1972 because of its narrow streets and overhead obstructions. Instead, major parades originate in the Uptown and Mid-City districts and follow a route along St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street, on the upriver side of the French Quarter.

To New Orleanians, "Mardi Gras" specifically refers to the Tuesday before lent, the highlight of the season. The term can also be used less specifically the whole Carnival season, sometimes as "the Mardi Gras season". The term "Fat Tuesday" or "Mardi Gras Day" always refers only to that specific day.

Cane River Creoles

While the sophisticated Creole society of New Orleans has historically received much attention, the Cane River area developed its own strong Creole culture. The Cane River Creole community in the northern part of the state, along the Red River and Cane River, is made up of multi-racial descendants of French, Spanish, Africans, Native Americans, similar mixed Creole migrants from New Orleans, and various other ethnic groups who inhabited this region in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The community is centered around Isle Brevelle in lower Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. There are many Creole communities within Natchitoches Parish, including Natchitoches, Cloutierville, Derry, Gorum, and Natchez. Many of their historic plantations still exist. Some have been designated as National Historic Landmarks, and are noted within the Cane River National Heritage Area, as well as the Cane River Creole Historic Park. Some plantations are sites on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.

Isle Brevelle, the area of land between Cane River and Bayou Brevelle, encompasses approximately 18,000 acres (73 km2) of land, 16,000 acres of which are still owned by descendants of the original Creole families. The Cane River as well as Avoyelles and St.Landry Creole family surnames include but are not limited to: Métoyer, LaCour, Lambre', Arnaud, PrudHomme, Balthazar, Chevalier, Dunn, Hebert, Fradieu,Llorens, Barre', Buard, Bayonne, Bossier, Brossette, Coutée, Cassine, Monette, Sylvie, Sylvan, Moran, Rachal, Conant, Chargòis, Esprít, Demby, Guillory, LéBon, Lefìls, Papillion, Arceneaux, DeBòis, Landry, Gravés, Deculus, St. Romain, Beaudion, Darville, LaCaze, DeCuir, Pantallion, Mathés, Mullone, Severin, Byone, St. Ville, Delphin, Sarpy, Laurent, De Soto, Christophe, Mathis, Honoré, De Sadier, Anty, Dubreil, Roque, Cloutier, Rachal, Le Vasseur, Vachon, Versher, Vercher, Mezière, Bellow, Gallien, Conde, Porche and Dupré. (Most of the surnames are of French and sometimes Spanish origin).

Pointe Coupee Creoles

Another historic area to Louisiana is Pointe Coupee, an area west of Baton Rouge. This area is known for the False River; the parish seat is New Roads, and other villages such as Morganza are located off the river. This parish is known to be uniquely Creole; today a large portion of the nearly 22,000 residents can trace Creole ancestry. The area was valuable for its many plantations during the French, Spanish, and American colonial periods. The population here had become bilingual or even trilingual with French, Louisiana Creole, and English because of its plantation business before most of Louisiana. The Louisiana Creole language is widely associated with this parish; the local French, Creole, and Spanish plantation owners and their African slaves formed it as communication language, which became the primary language for many Pointe Coupee residents well into the 20th century. The local white and black populations spoke the language, because of its importance to the region; even Italian immigrants in the 20th century often adopted the language.

Common Creole family names of the region include the following: Battley, Parker, Guerin, Bridgewater, Decuir, Gremillion, Roberson, Christophe, Joseph, Part, Major, Valéry, Robert, Ramirez, Castillo, Olivier, Fontenot, Francois, Aguillard, Duperon, Gaspard, St. Armand, Domingue, Patin, Chenevert, Savoir, Gaines, Fabre and dozens more.

Avoyelles Creoles

Avoyelles Parish has a history rich in Creole ancestry. Marksville has a significant populace of French Creoles who have Native American ancestry. The languages that are spoken are Louisiana French and English. This parish was established in 1750. The Creole community in Avoyelles parish is alive and well and has a unique blend of family, food and Creole culture. Creole family names of this region are: Sylvan, Auzenne, Normand, Gaspard, Fontenot, Chargois, Fuselier, Carriere, Barbin, DeBellevue, Goudeau, Bordelon, Gauthier, Lemoine, Gremillion, Broussard, Boutte, Esprit, Rabalais, Beaudoin, DeCuir, Dufour, Deshotels, Muellon, Lemelle, Saucier and Biagas.

St. Landry Creoles

St. Landry Parish has a significant population of Creoles, specially in Opelousas and its surrounding areas. The traditions and Creole heritage are prevalent in Opelousas, Port Barre, Melville, Palmetto, Lawtell, Swords, Mallet, Frilot Cove, Plaisance, Pitreville, and many other villages, towns and communities. The Roman Catholic Church and French/Creole language are dominant features of this rich culture. Zydeco musicians host festivals all through the year. Some Creole family names are: Guillory, Esprit, Jolivette, Jolivet, Rosignon (Rousillion), Sonnier, Hollier, Frilot, Roberts, Papillion, Simien, Lemon(d), Rideau, Barnabe, Bossier, Pain, Cezar, Thierry, Rene, Darbonne, Gobert, Coutee, Fontenot, Chargois, Villere, LaChappelle, Delafosse, Dupre, Birotte, LeBon, Arceneaux, Breaux, Chevalier, Durousseau, Chachere, Aubespin, Auzenne, Chenier, Chretien, Ledet, Fuselier, Carrier(e), LaStrapes, Piert, LaFleur, LeMelle, Deculus, Chavis, Victorian, Thomas, LaTour, St Mary, Ceasar (Ceaser), Frank, Soileau and Goodley.

Source: Internet