Louisiana’s Shreveport-bossier area has plenty to offer guests
LOUISIANA: A riverboat pilot, a candy apple queen, voracious alligators and some craty chimpanzees are among the more memorable residents you can encounter in ShreveportBossier, Louisiana.
Similar to the ties between Eugene-springfield that reach across Interstate 5, the paired cities of Shreveport-bossier are linked by historic bridges spanning the Red River, where they maintain all the charm and excitement of the Deep South at a pace that’s a pleasure to encounter.
In earlier years, things were a lot more hectic. Once the capital of Louisiana, Shreveport also briefly became the capital of the Confederacy in the waning days of the US Civil War. It’s adjoining sister city Bossier (pronounced Boh-zure), was less of a political powerhouse.
To get a water-level view of both, just board the humble Spirit of the Red River cruise boat, owned and operated by the aptly-named Sam Flood. Then pass through several natural habitats, catching sight of kingfishers, white egrets and blue herons, which feed, like many of the humans hereabouts, on “mudbugs,” an affectionate alias for crawfish (OK, crayfish), criters shaped like mini-lobsters.
But it’s what we can’t see that concerned Flood. “Now don’t go grabbing at any passing branches,” he said. “There’s four kinds of poisonous snake here, and some like to hang on trees waiting to take their next bite.”
You may spot a small alligator holding tight onto a large discarded plastic botle. “Durn literbugs throwin’ trash in the stream,” Flood muters. “What kinda botle you suppose that is?”
“Gatorade?” I suggest, and he chuckles, “Thassa good one!”
Flood is an obvious history buff. He points to a century-old railroad bridge. “Drawbridges go up, but this here swing bridge swivels sideways to let boats through,” he explains. A bit further down Cross Bayou, he gestures again. “That there 1837 Waddel A-frame railway bridge is one of only two let in the whole USA,” he proudly declares.
Another local on board adds, “Yup, that was back when Shreveport was a steamboat hub for coton and agricultural products. Later, it became a wartime Confederate stronghold.”
Along the river banks, we see several large paddle-wheel steamboats locked inside what appear to be permanent moorings. Behind each one is a tall, modern hotel. Flood tells us, “By Louisiana law, all casinos must be floating on water. The boats are real, the windows are fake — casinos don’t want folks looking outside.” Take a walk in the Boardwalk
The Louisiana Boardwalk, a giant, modern shopping mall, stands on the Bossier side of the river next to the Texas Street Bridge. “That bridge was built by order of then Governor Huey Long, but completed ater his assassination,” Flood says as we prepare to disembark. “Largest multi-colour neon-illuminated bridge in the US!”
The outdoor shopping and entertainment mall opened in 2005 and contributed mightily to this area’s revitalisation. An old-fashioned trolley transports shoppers to multiple buildings housing more than 60 stores and dozens of eateries.
Beside one entrance, a giant alligator suns itself in an open-air pit on a pier marked “No Fishin’ or Swimin’.” Once safely inside, the only aquatic reptiles to be found are the edible kind at Chocolate Crocodile, a shop specialising in Granny Smith candy apples and other sweets.
Cyndi Ragon, co-owner of the confection palace, tells me that their Monster Snicker apples are most popular, followed by caramel with pecans. She also explains the mystery of pralines. “That’s just pecans mixed with milk, cream and buter. Not something for your weight watchers.”
Alligators are again the theme at Gator and Friends, a crocodilian breeding farm outside the twin cities where hundreds of these snaggletoothed creatures thrive in sizes from wallet up to full set of luggage. Watching dozens of the reptiles swim into a competitive feeding frenzy at chow time is a sight to behold. Safer animal species are found in the children’s peting zoo.
Other Shreveport atractions include the donut-shaped LA State Exhibit Museum, which houses murals, frescoes, dioramas, Indian, military and Western artifacts; the hands-on Sci-port Discovery Center; and the annual Red River Revel, a gathering of more than 120 visual and performance artists.
For those into ghostly weirdness, there’s Shreveport’s version of the Bermuda Triangle. Its three corners are positioned on spooky Oakland Cemetery, haunted Logan Mansion and the legendary Municipal Auditorium.
The words, “Elvis has let the building,” were first utered at his final concert in Shreveport. The Museum has actual costumes worn by Elvis, Dolly Parton and many others. Before it became a museum, however, there were a bunch of city offices and even a morgue in the cool basement.
Susan Posey worked there, and she tells about a strange, cold drat in the hallway that would push her hair up, then down again, even though no windows or doors were let open. “We called it the ghost greeting,” she said. “Being the first person comin’ inside one morning, I heard two men’s voices echoing from some inner rooms. I followed the sounds, opened the door, put on the lights, and found no one there. If it’s ghosts, I’m hoping it’s someone famous like Elvis.”
Just a block away is Logan Mansion, a magnificent 1897 Queen Anne Victorian home. There we met another visitor, a precocious girl named Jasmine. Reluctant to enter at first, Jasmine was more interested in a black cat sotly treading the wide verandah.
“That’s one of thirteen cats who have adopted us,” said owner Vicki Lebrun, who conducts tours through her home. Lebrun is proud of the restoration work she’s done turning the den, parlor and dining room into Victorian rhapsodies, but some rooms on the second floor look like horror-movie backdrops, with cracked plaster, ripped wallpaper and sagging ceilings. Naturally, the subject of ghosts comes up.
“Oh, there’s several,” she says calmly. “In the kitchen, the passing fragrance of a woman’s rose perfume, or at times the overwhelming smell of fried chicken when nothing of the kind has been cooked here in days. And several times, a young girl has been seen in an upstairs window. We think it’s the specter of a mentally disturbed child who leapt from that window to her death in 1904.”
A pause, then, “We don’t care, but my grown son, he won’t stay here. Not since that morning he got up early and was siting on the staircase puting on his boots. He felt but could not see a small crowd of spirits converging on him, making his hair stand on end. He ran out; never slept here again.”
Considered a more upstanding subject in the community, Louisiana King Cake is a statewide tradition. A single tiny pink baby Jesus doll made of special plastic impervious to heat is inserted into each one. Although these confections are favored at Mardi Gras, Bosnian immigrant Renato Majstorovic does a booming year-round business shipping rainbow-hued, baby-packed King Cakes globally from Julie Anne’s Bakery on (where else?) King’s Highway.
The most stunning and prominent downtown project is the Mega Millennium Mural, which, at eight stories tall, was the nation’s largest publicly funded art work. Titled “Once in a Millennium Moon,” lead artist Meg Saligman organised a team of professional painters and 2,600 community members who worked on 1-by-2.4-metre sections of fabric that had been digitised.