|
This article is about the City of Lake Charles, La. For the lake after which this city was named, see "Lake Charles (body of water)". Lake Charles, (French: Lac Charles), is the fifth largest city in the US state of Louisiana. It is the parish seat of Calcasieu Parish and is the urban center of the southwest region of the state. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 71,757. Lake Charles is known as the Festival Capital of Louisiana with over 75 festivals held annually in the Lake Charles area. The city is a major petrochemical refining center, gaming center with three riverboat casinos, and home to McNeese State University.
Settlement & Incorporation While several Indian tribes are known to have lived in the area of modern Lake Charles, the first European people, of French, Spanish, English, and Dutch descent, arrived in the 1760s. At the time, the area was covered with dense pine and baldcypress forests. Oral tradition holds that Jean Lafitte frequented Contraband Bayou and the lake before and after the War of 1812. M. and Mme. LeBleu of Bordeaux, France were the first recorded Europeans to settle the area around 1781. The area they settled is now known as the LeBleu Settlement. Charles Sallier married LeBleu's daughter, Catherine. The Salliers built their home on the shell beach where Lake Charles now stands. Afterwards, the lake became known as "Charlie's lake". By 1860 this area was called "Charles Town". Many of Charles Sallier's descendants are buried in Sallier Cemetery, near St. Patrick's Hospital. The Rio Hondo, which flowed through Lake Charles, was later called Quelqueshue, an Indian term meaning "Crying Eagle", and still later, Calcasieu. On March 7, 1861, Lake Charles was incorporated as the town of Charleston, Louisiana. The growth of the city was fairly slow until Captain Daniel Goos, a Frisian by birth, came in 1855. Goos established a lumber mill and schooner dock, now called Goosport, and promoted a profitable trade with Texas and Mexican ports by sending his schooner down-river into the Gulf of Mexico. Until the arrival of Goos, a man named Jacob Ryan dominated the lumber industry. Between 1817 and 1855, the timber provided by Longleaf Pines and Baldcypress remained the primary industry. Jacob Ryan convinced the state government to move the parish seat to Lake Charles from its former location at Marion, which was about 8 miles upriver. Later that year, Ryan and Samuel Kirby transferred the parish courthouse and jail by barge to Lake Charles, which was at that time still called Charleston. Six years after the city was incorporated, dissatisfaction over the name Charleston arose. On March 16, 1867, Charleston, Louisiana, was incorporated into the town of Lake Charles. By the time of the U.S. Civil War, many English and northeastern Americans, along with a large influx of continental Europeans and Jewish people, had come to settle the area. Attitudes toward slavery in Lake Charles were mixed, and was secondary to business interests. Less than 5% of the population were slaves. The citizenry did finally become involved in the war, and young men of local families went to serve the Confederacy. Post Civil War After the Civil War, Lake Charles had become a major lumber town. The mills of the area were swamped with orders. The 1880s saw what was a small sawmill village develop into a boom town. This was largely due to the innovative advertising methods of a man named J.B. Watkins. With his astounding $200,000 advertising campaign, the town grew 400% in the '80s. By the 1890s, finer homes were being built. Carpenters struggled to outbuild each other with their use of elaborate fretwork and Victorian era decoration. Fancy spindles, newel posts, soldiers and paneled doors - all native of native pine - filled the houses. The courthouse donated by Ryan and Kirby was replaced many times, a cypress wood two-story one in 1872, then a brick one in 1890. The 1890 courthouse was destroyed in the "Great Fire of 1910". The historic Calcasieu Courthouse was completed in 1912, two months after the Louisiana legislature divided old "Imperial Calcasieu" parish into the current parishes of Allen, Beauregard, Cameron, Jefferson Davis and Calcasieu. After World War II Lake Charles experienced industrial growth with the onset of the petrochemical refining industries. The city grew to a height of 80,000 people in the early 1980s, but with economic recession, the population declined. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 71,757. Present-Day
Geography The city is located on the banks of the Calcasieu River in southwestern Louisiana, and borders both Lake Charles and Prien Lake. It is a port on a deepwater channel to the Gulf of Mexico, and was first settled in 1852. Lake Charles is located at (30.214656, -93.208537). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 110.2 km² (42.5 mi²). 104.0 km² (40.2 mi²) of it is land and 6.1 km² (2.4 mi²) of it (5.57%) is water. Primarily the city is located on a plain about 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Many pine trees used to grow around the waterways, and some still do. There are few hills, except when one is near the water, or in Moss Bluff. Nearby Cities
Neighborhoods/Districts List of relatively large or established neighborhoods and districts in Lake Charles: Central Business District North Lake Charles (north of Broad Street and the east of Hodges Street) Central Lake Charles (location of major shopping areas) South Lake Charles (south of Interstate 210) Demographics
Education Lake Charles' public schools are operated by the Calcasieu Parish Public School System, although there are a number of private schools located in the city. Colleges and universities Lake Charles is home to McNeese State University, a public university in the Louisiana School System. McNeese offers a variety of courses, including well-respected schools of education and biology. Over 8,000 students attend the university. The motto is "Excellence, with a Personal Touch." Also located in Lake Charles are Delta School of Business and Technology * and Sowela Technical Community College * which offer vocational courses. Libraries In March 1904 the Carnegie Memorial Library *, the modern Calcasieu Parish Library, opened, having been partly financed by Andrew Carnegie and built on land donated by W. S. B. McLaren, President of the North American Land and Timber Company of London, England. The Calcasieu Parish Public Library * has several locations throughout Calcasieu Parish. Culture Lake Charles has several small museums and other cultural facilities such as the Central School Arts and Humanities Center, the Children's Museum of Lake Charles, the Imperial Calcasieu Museum, and the Mardi Gras Museum. The Old City Hall has been renovated for exhibition space and many moving art exhibits are displayed at the locale every year. McNeese State University puts on The Banners Series, a series of various musical and theatrical performances, throughout the year. In addition, The Lake Charles Little Theatre, The Artists Civil Theatre Studios (ACTS) Theatre and The Children's Theatre Company provide theatrical shows using local talent. The city boasts its own symphony orchestra, the Lake Charles Symphony. Religion Christianity is the predominant religion in the Lake Charles area. Roman Catholicism is the largest denomination of which, claiming a Diocese of 82,414 parishioners, or about 33% of the general population, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. However, the Diocese spans over five parishes, and Calcasieu Parish alone had 183,577 people, according to the 2000 Census. Also according to the 2000 Census, Cameron had 9,991 people, Jefferson Davis had 31,435, Beauregard had 32,986, and Allen had 25,440. So according to the church's own figures, only about 29% of the region is Roman Catholic: 4% less than what is claimed. Lake Charles is home to several Protestant and Evangelical Christian denominations as well, which combined together, comprise the majority of the population. A substantial portion of the population affiliates itself with Judaism. Notably, there is an atheist group as well. Particular elements of Voodoo are recognizable in the area; namely, Hoodoo, as one can spot jars filled with animal organs placed around graves and hanging from trees in the pauper cemetery on Broad Street. Transportation Interstate 10 passes through Lake Charles, connecting the city with Sulphur, Vinton, and eventually the Louisiana-Texas state border to the west; to the east lies Iowa and Jennings. Interstate 210 loops through the southern half of Lake Charles. U.S. Highway 90 runs parallel with Interstate 10, and U.S. Highway 171 connects the city with De Ridder. The main commercial road through the city is Ryan Street, which leads to downtown. Lake Charles Regional Airport, located south of the city, is the Lake Charles's only airport which provides commercial services. Chennault International Airport, while a fully operational airport, is strictly an industrial and maintenance center. The latter airport is named for Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault, the aviator famous for commanding the Flying Tigers fighter group during World War II. The Port of Lake Charles is the sixteenth-largest seaport in the United States, the fourth-largest liner service seaport in the U.S. Gulf, and a major West Gulf container load center. The Calcasieu Ship Channel provides direct access to the Gulf of Mexico 34-miles downstream. The ship channel, which has a projected depth of 40 feet and a bottom width of 400 feet, intersects the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway just north of Calcasieu Lake. Industry Many area residents are employed by the petro-chemical refineries in nearby Westlake; some of the corporations with facilities in or around the city include PPG Industries, ConocoPhillips, and Citgo Petroleum Corporation. The Trunkline LNG terminal, immediately southwest of Lake Charles, is one of the United States' few LNG terminals. It has facilities for LNG receipt, storage and regassification. Manufacturing has been periodically struggling to achieve economic success in the area in order to diversify the economic base of the city. Chennault International Airport hosts Aeroframe (formerly EADS Aeroframe Services), which services airplanes, and a Northrop Grumman facility. Holidays and Festivitals Lake Charles plays host to over one-hundred festivals and carnivals which give the city its nickname, "The Festival Capital of Louisiana." Contraband Days Contraband Days is a 12-day, annual festival in early May filled with savory cajun food, family fun and festivities, and is attended by more than 200,000 people. It is one of the largest celebrations in Louisiana, second only to Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras Mardi Gras in Southwest Louisiana has a colorful history dating back to 1882, when Momus, King of Mardi Gras, landed his royal yacht at the foot of Pujo Street in downtown Lake Charles. Throughout the two World Wars, Mardi Gras was downsized which lead to a lack of participation by the area's youth. However, an interest to redevelop the festivities arose, and the first Mardi Gras Ball in the Lake Charles area was staged in 1964. The full revival of Mardi Gras in Lake Charles was not realized until 1979, when several Krewe captains formed the "Krewe of Krewes" with the prime purpose of parading and promoting Mardi Gras for local residents. In 1985, Mardi Gras of Imperial Calcasieu, Inc. was formed by a group of civic-minded volunteers to further aid in the preservation of this festival. Other Festivals Lake Charles has many publications in circulation. The most-widely distributed, daily newspaper is The American Press. Other popular periodicals include Lagniappe and The Times of Southwest Louisiana; however, the latter two are non-daily. Television Lake Charles is home to KPLC-TV, Channel 7, a NBC affiliate. KVHP-TV, Channel 29, a Fox affiliate, also serves the city. The city is also served by KATC-TV, Channel 3 (ABC) and KLFY-TV, Channel 10 (CBS), all located in nearby Lafayette. It is also home to the American Press newspaper. Radio Famous residents (Past & Present) Sister Cities Lake Charles is the proud sister city of: Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| |