It Happened in Louisiana

True Tales from the Pelican State—from the longest Civil War battle to one of history’s worst man-made disasters

Louisiana is well known for its spicy gumbo, Cajun music, and horrific hurricanes, but few may know why Tarzan once swung through the piney woods, how an entrepreneur used a land auction to build a town in a day, or how one man’s vision drew thousands of miracle-seekers to an empty field for over twenty years. It Happened in Louisiana goes behind the scenes to tell these stories and many more, in short episodes that reveal the intriguing people and events that have shaped the Pelican State.

• Discover how a well-drilling job gone awry turned an entire freshwater lake into a 1,300-foot-deep saltwater pit—and temporarily created the state’s tallest waterfall—in a matter of 48 hours.

• Relive the night that a life-changing performance finally put a world-famous rock 'n' roll legend on the path to fame.

• Learn the many disturbing reasons that one Louisiana prison—which today has its own radio station and annually hosts the longest-running prison rodeo in the United States—was once named the “worst prison in America.”

• Read about a determined, compassionate doctor from New Orleans who created a place of refuge and healing in his attempt to cure societal castaways who suffered from “the illness you do not talk about.”

Bonnye Stuart is a tenth-generation New Orleanian who got her B.A. at Louisiana State University and her M.A. from the University of New Orleans. She is the author of It Happened in New Orleans, More than Petticoats: Remarkable Louisiana Women, and Louisiana Curiosities (all Globe Pequot Press) and Discovering Vintage New Orleans and Haunted New Orleans (both Rowman & Littlefield) and she lives in Tega Cay, SC.