USA Guide
Louisiana
Baton Rouge
When French explorers first came upon the site of Baton Rouge in 1699, they found poles smeared in animal blood to designate the separate hunting grounds of the Houmas and Bayougoulas Indians. The area on these shallow bluffs therefore appeared on French maps as Baton Rouge – “red stick.” Now capital of Louisiana and the fifth biggest port in the US, Baton Rouge is an easy-going city for its size. Even the presence of the state’s largest universities, LSU and Southern, has done surprisingly little to raise the town anywhere much above “sleepy” status.