Baton Rouge Old Capital Building

Louisiana has had capital buildings everywhere.  Mostly, the capital of Louisiana has been in either New Orleans or Baton Rouge, but it’s been in several other towns.  While sometimes the capital is in a building actually built for it, they’ve held senate and house sessions in taverns, convents, hotels, and theaters.  It seems that the capital is in Baton Rouge because they wanted a town with good transportation on the Mississippi and because New Orleans was just too tempting to state representatives and senators.  Too little work and too many scandals occurred in New Orleans!

The Old Capital is just gorgeous.  The stain glass is amazing!

 

A lot of museums have films.  Most are pretty lame.  The movie at the Old Capital was given from the viewpoint of a ghost with all kinds of special effects.  Very cool! Oh, and this capital looks like a castle. 

Mark Twain wrote about it in “Life on the Mississippi”.  At the time, the building had suffered from a fire during the Civil War.  It was being rebuilt to look as it now does.  “… is not conceivable that this little sham castle would ever have been built if he [Sir Walter Scott] had not run the people mad…It is pathetic enough, that a whitewashed castle, with turrets and things – materials all ungenuine within and without, pretending to be what they are not - should ever have been built in this otherwise honorable place: but it is much more pathetic to see this architectural falsehood undergoing restoration and perpetuation in our day, when it would have been so easy to let dynamite finish what a charitable fire began…”
 

 Just because I think it’s cool, I’m including this here.  Here’s Louis Armstrong bugle that he used as he was first learning to play.

 

Huey Long

Huey Long was governor in Louisiana and made quite a splash.  We heard his story everywhere we went.  He was either a governor of the common people helping build roads and improve education, or he was incredibly corrupt, or he was both.  As governor, he pushed through the current capital building during the Depression.  It’s the tallest capital building in the U.S.

The theme is Art Deco.  It reminded me of Ghostbusters and I expected to see Gozer. 

The floor is made from lava from Vesuvius with 26 different types of marble in the walls.  Surprisingly, the building was only $5 million and built in 14 months.

There’s viewing on the 27^th floor, though the building continues up to the 34^th floor.

Huey Long was assassinated in the halls of his capital.  There is a bullet hole in the marble column where he was shot.

Huey Long was buried in front of the capital with over 100,000 people in attendance.

 

If you go to Baton Rouge, you will definitely see the capital building.  It’s the tallest building in town.  BTW, visit the Armory Museum too.  It’s small, but worth the short walk.

 

Morning Adventure

 

You know me and my morning walks.  Well, today we’re in Baton Rouge.  The campground is very near the Mississippi River.  So I decided to walk to the river.  Now most people would walk along the nice and neat paved walkway along the top of the levee.  But I wanted to go right to the Mississippi. That involved navigating puddles in the grass, weaving through marsh areas, breaking through branches of brambles, stepping through hills of kudzu, and then crossing a flat of mud.  I actually did well until the mud.  It was sandy mud, so I slide into it and coated my shoes and jeans with mud.  Ah, adventures! 

 

 

At 6:30 in the morning, the Mississippi is quiet.  Barges and ships had pulled over to the shore all along the river.  I wonder how that works.  They pull over and sleep for the night?  Do they have TV or something?  Internet?  Or do they just read a book?   Maybe they have a small boat so they can motor into town.  I can tell you that they wouldn’t come ashore by walking.  I saw several animal prints, but most humans are too smart to walk in this area.

 

By 7:00 am, the ships start moving along the river.  At times it sounds like a highway with big trucks passing.

The funny thing was that I found two golf balls in the weeds.  I wonder if the guys on the ships get bored and just hit a few balls off the bow?

On the Way to a Conference

Every year I go to a metals conference.   This year it is in San Antonio.  Since that isn’t very far, we decided to take the RV versus me flying and staying in a hotel.

On the way we drove through Mobile.  Mobile has been in the news recently with the Carnival cruise line.  The ship is still parked there in the harbor.  Right now I’m glad we have our own bathroom in the RV!

 

We are staying in a fascinating campground just south of Baton Rouge.  It’s a combination horse center and campground.  No internet or cable, but it has water, electricity, and good signal for several channels.  Plus, we can watch horses in the field or training!

 

Neighborhood Beach

I found out this morning that we’re within walking distance to the beach!  Well, it is 2.5 miles, but that is walking distance.  However, as I mentioned, I haven’t been walking lately.  So after walking to the beach, I developed a blister.  Luckily John was able to save me by driving down and picking me up for a ride back.

I’m not actually sure if anyone swims here.  There a small parking lot, but no signs about swimming.  Matter of fact, to get to the beach you have to cross a set of railroad tracks and go through a section of bamboo plants.  The beach itself is only 10 foot wide or so.  But it is sand and it is on water (Escambia Bay).

 

I liked the look of the trees here.  Very cool roots!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chimneys built by water creatures. 

 

This is a brick ‘thing’ in the water.  There’s a cement pipe out to it.  I’ve never lived near the water.  Maybe everyone has one!  What is it?

 

 

 

Chimney Park

Within walking distance from our house is Chimney Park.  The park is not very big, but it’s interesting.  In the 1850’s, the Pensacola area was full of saw mills and brick factories.  The area was growing plus the naval yards were thriving.  The Hyer-Knowles Planing Mill was built here using bricks from a local brick factory that used slaves.

 

In 1862, the Confederate army was leaving Pensacola to Union forces.  They were ordered to destroy anything that would help the Union, especially saw mills.  So, the equipment was put on a barge and the mill was burned down.  The night the mill was destroyed there was a big storm.  The barge with all the machinery sunk in the bay.  The largest thing left was this chimney from the steam plant.

The park has a very rough path to the side.  Several small sections of brick walls can be found among the plants.  Nice to have a historical place like this within walking distance.

 

Pensacola Ghoul

I’m not sure why, but since living in Pensacola I haven’t taken a morning walk.  However, the weather is perfect for walking (50-60’s in the morning) so I decided to see what is within walking distance.  It turns out one of Pensacola’s oldest cemetery is nearby.  Roberts Cemetery was the beginning of a bizarre story.

 

Back in 1957, someone snuck in and opened up a grave from this cemetery!  A few days later, another body was moved in nearby Whitmire cemetery giving the name Ghoul of Whitmire Cemetery.  In total, graves from four women/girls were opened and their clothes were found disarrayed starting rumors of necrophilia.  One instance was a 14-year-old girl who had been recently buried.  Another was an 11-year-old whose body was taken and found nearby.  The story was kept very low-key (the back page of the paper).  One theory was the perpetrator was related to a prominent citizen who suppressed the story.  However, rumors spread.  Large slabs were lifted that weighed over 1000 pounds, so one rumor was that the ghoul (technically a monster associated with graveyards who eat human flesh) had supernatural strength. No one was ever arrested for the crime. 

The cemetery has stones starting in 1860 and is still used today. 

Fifty-nine of the 800 gravesites have the last name of Nobles.  The cemetery is sometimes listed as Nobles Cemetery.

 

I just liked this grave.  Besides the name Bilbo, I thought the phrase was interesting. “Stop dear friends as you pass by, as you are now so once was I, as I am now so you must be.  Prepare yourself to follow me.  My family’s love I carry with me for I am dead.”