Shreveport, Louisiana, is a town with a history as fascinating as it is long. From the settlement of the area at the start of the nineteenth century, through the city's founding in 1836, to Shreveport's role as state capital during the Civil War, up until its present-day role as one of Louisiana's leading cities, figures ranging from snagboat operators to Huey P. Long have worked, lived, and played in this city by the Red River.

Few cities boast a heritage as rich and a local color as dynamic as that of New Orleans. Known the world round for its unique architecture, exquisite cuisine, flamboyant celebrations, and exotic peoples, New Orleans is a place where many cultures met and harmonized to create a city, and a lifestyle, unlike any other in America. Founded in 1718 as a backwater outpost of France, New Orleans was the catalyst for the greatest land deal in the history of the world, the Louisiana Purchase. Discover in these pages what made one city so appealing that a third of the continental United States was...

Known by the French settlers of the eighteenth century as the Fleuve Rouge, the Red River boasts a fascinating history in Louisiana. It is the states historic highway along which plantations were built, and upon which their wares went to the great markets of New Orleans and the rest of the world. In this captivating collection of vintage images, the history of navigation on the Red River unfolds. Flowing some 1,300 miles through four states, the Red River is the eighth-longest river in the continental United States. Despite numerous disasters, regular navigation occurred on the river for over...