Vacherie, Louisiana

Vacherie is an unincorporated community in St. James Parish, Louisiana, United States. The name of the place derives from the French word for cowshed. Near the community is the WCKW/KSTE-Tower, a guyed mast noted as one of the tallest such structures on Earth.

The best known location in the community is the Oak Alley Plantation. There are several other historic plantations in the area: Laura, Desire, St. Joseph, and Felicity. The last two were combined in 1890.

Vidalia, Louisiana

Vidalia is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River at 31°34′6″N 91°26′3″W / 31.56833°N 91.43417°W / 31.56833; -91.43417 (31.568295, -91.434268)[5] and has an elevation of 66 feet (20.1 m).[6] The city of Natchez, Mississippi, lies on the opposite bank of the river, connected by the Natchez–Vidalia Bridge, carrying U.S. Routes 65, 84, and 425.

Vidalia was founded by Don José Vidal, when He was secretary to Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, the Spanish Governor of the Natchez District from 1792-1797, before the United States acquired it in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The Orleans Territorial legislature in 1811 changed the name of the city to Vidalia after its founder. Vidal had donated land along the river to the city, where its civic buildings were later constructed. He also donated land for the first school in Concordia Parish.

The Great Sandbar Duel, featuring Jim Bowie was a formal one-on-one duel that erupted into a violent brawl involving multiple combatants on September 19, 1827 and is one of the regional stories still told by local residents.

Ville Platte, Louisiana

Ville Platte is a city in, and the parish seat of, Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, United States.[3] The population was 7,430 at the 2010 census,[4] down from 8,145 in 2000. The city's name is of French origin, roughly translating to "flat city", in reference to its relatively flat topography in contrast to the more hilly terrain north of the area.

The area around Ville Platte appears to have been first settled during the last half of the eighteenth century, when Louisiana was under Spanish rule. The earliest record of settlement in the immediate area of Ville Platte was in the 1780s.

Popular legend states the founder of Ville Platte was Marcellin Garand, an adjutant major in the Army of the French Empire during the reign of Napoleon. In 1824, Garand obtained one of the first two lots that were platted in what is now Ville Platte, with the second being obtained by a Doctor Robert Windex. Those lots were obtained from the estate of William O'Donegan. This appears to be the actual beginning of, or the founding of, the present town of Ville Platte.

Vivian, Louisiana

Vivian is a town in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, United States and is home to the Red Bud Festival. The population was 3,671 at the 2010 census,[3] down from 4,031 in 2000. Vivian is the second-largest municipality in Caddo Parish by population (after Shreveport)

Vivian developed as a trading center and center of a retail area that included smaller towns in the area. During its heyday, people from the region used to visit Vivian for shopping and movies, especially on the weekends.

Local Democratic Party politician Earl Guyton Williamson had considerable power in the town and parish. A supporter of politician Huey Long, he served as mayor from 1938 to 1946, and again from 1962 to 1966. During all this period, until after 1965, African Americans were essentially disenfranchised in Vivian and the state.

Walker, Louisiana

Walker is a city in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,138 as of the 2010 census, making Walker and Denham Springs the only parish municipalities classified as cities.[3]

The area now known as Walker was founded by Michael Joseph Milton, Jr. (1795-1863) and “several slaves” in 1825.[4] Michael Milton married in 1832 in Livingston Parish.[5] He and his wife, Martha Clark Milton (1803-1878) developed 343 acres from a Land Grant for his service in the War of 1812. [6][7]The Milton family was a pioneering family from North Carolina who settled an area in Alabama, before establishing the new community in the piney woods east of the Amite River and Denham Springs.[8][9][10] In this sense, Walker, Louisiana, by virtue of its founding, traces its roots to the founding of the nation in Jamestown.[10] The Federal government recognized the growth of the settlement and opened a post office as Milton Old Field in 1856.[11] Michael Milton was appointed as postmaster in 1858.[12] In 1890 the post office was renamed after Dr. William Elliott Walker, M.D., a legislator from nearby Springfield, who had, also, served as a Lt. Col. in the Confederate States of America.[13]

Walker is located at 30°29′22″N 90°51′46″W / 30.48944°N 90.86278°W / 30.48944; -90.86278 (30.489423, -90.862872).[15] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.8 square miles (14.9 km²), all land.

Waterproof, Louisiana

Waterproof is a village in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States with a population of 834 as of the 2000 census. However, the population declined in the 2010 census by 17.5 percent to 688. The village in 2010 was 91.7 percent African American. Some 24 percent of Waterproof residents in 2010 were aged sixty or above.[3]

Waterproof is approximately 17 mi (27 km) north of Ferriday, one of the two principal communities of Concordia Parish. The village is named for its relative safety from flooding prior to construction of the Mississippi River levee system.[4]

With a population dependent on agriculture, the rural village struggles with poverty. Mechanization has decreased the need for farm labor. Industrial-scale cotton is the major commodity crop, but corn and soybeans are also important. In 2008, drought destroyed much of the corn crop.

Welsh rarebit

Welsh rarebit (spelling based on folk etymology) or Welsh rabbit (original spelling)[1][2] is a traditional Welsh dish made with a savoury sauce of melted cheese and various other ingredients and served hot, after being poured over slices (or other pieces) of toasted bread,[3] or the hot cheese sauce may be served in a chafing dish like a fondue, accompanied by sliced, toasted bread.[4] The names of the dish originate from 18th-century Britain.[5] Despite the name, the dish contains no rabbit meat.

Recipes for Welsh rarebit include the addition of ale, mustard, ground cayenne pepper or ground paprika[6][7][8] and Worcestershire sauce.[9][10] The sauce may also be made by blending cheese and mustard into a Béchamel sauce.[4][11] Some recipes for Welsh rarebit have become textbook savoury dishes listed by culinary authorities including Auguste Escoffier, Louis Saulnier and others, who tend to use the form Welsh rarebit, emphasizing that it is not a meat dish.

Acknowledging that there is more than one way to make a rarebit, some cookbooks have included two recipes: the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896 provides one béchamel-based recipe and another with beer,[11]Le Guide Culinaire of 1907 has one with ale and one without,[6] and the Constance Spry Cookery Book of 1956 has one with flour and one without.[4]

West Monroe, Louisiana

West Monroe is a city in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is situated on the Ouachita River, across from the neighboring city of Monroe. The two cities are often referred to as the Twin Cities of northeast Louisiana. Its population was 13,065 at the 2010 census and it is part of the Monroe Metropolitan Statistical Area. The mayor is Staci Albritton Mitchell.

Originally laid out in 1837 as Byron by John Campbell at the foot of the ferry landing to Monroe, the town floundered and Campbell went bankrupt. The area was bought by Christopher Dabbs, a doctor from Virginia who submitted the plans for Cotton Port in 1854; it was officially recognized in 1859. It too languished until the arrival of the Vicksburg, Shreveport, & Texas Railroad and the construction of the bridge over the Ouachita. Cotton Port boomed as a river port and rail depot.[3]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.0 square miles (20.6 km²), of which 7.7 square miles (20.0 km²) is land and 0.2 square mile (0.6 km²) (3.14%) is water.

Westlake, Louisiana

Westlake is a city in Calcasieu Parish, in western Louisiana, United States, and is part of the Lake Charles Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,568 at the 2010 census.[3] Westlake was incorporated in 1945.

Westlake is located in east-central Calcasieu Parish at 30°14′54″N 93°15′33″W / 30.24833°N 93.25917°W / 30.24833; -93.25917 (30.248455, -93.259047),[4] on the west bank of the Calcasieu River, just north of that river's entry into the water body of Lake Charles. The city of Lake Charles borders Westlake across the river, connected via the Interstate 10 bridge.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Westlake has a total area of 3.71 square miles (9.60 km2), of which 3.65 square miles (9.46 km2) is land and 0.05 square miles (0.14 km2), or 1.49%, is water.[3]

Westwego, Louisiana

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.6 square miles (9.2 km²), of which 3.1 square miles (8.3 km²) is land and 0.5 square mile (1.0 km²) (10.64%) is water.[6]

One story states generally that Westwego was so named because it was a major crossing point on the Mississippi river during the great westward movement of the late 19th century. When travelers were asked their destination, they would often reply "west we go". Another more specific tale, recounted in John Churchill Chase's Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children[7] is that the name was the specific outcome of an 1871 meeting of a railroad board of directors in New York, where planning was undertaken to use the site as an eastern terminus ("...west we go from there"). There has been further speculation that this use of "Westwego" as a place name may have been influenced by the board members' familiarity with the name of Oswego, New York.

The area of Westwego, Louisiana was inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years before Europeans settled here. These indigenous people created huge shell middens that can still be seen in the vicinity today. The French first developed the area in 1719 when French Minister of State LeBlanc started a plantation and a port along the Mississippi River. The port became an important site in the history of the transatlantic slave trade. The estate was later owned by the Zeringue family, who turned it into bustling sugar plantation, known as Seven Oaks. Planter Camille Zeringue built a canal at the plantation that played a prominent role in the community's history for decades. Other antebellum plantations in the area included the Whitehouse Plantation, Magnolia Lane, and the LaBranche Plantation among others. After Camille Zeringue's death, Seven Oaks was owned by Pablo Sala, who divided the property along the canal into lots, which he sold for $40 each. Many of these lots were purchased by displaced hurricane victims from Cheniere Caminada whose homes were destroyed in the great unnamed 1893 storm. With the addition of these families, who were mostly fisherman and trappers, the community of Salaville was born.