This page is about the land before discovery by early European explorers (was inhabited by indigenous people as far back as the pyramids), to the discovery, to settlement, to incorporation and becoming the capital of Louisiana.
Official Baton Rouge Flag
Historic cultures to BR represented on flag
Red field - Native American
Union Jack - British
Fleur de lis - French
Baton Rouge's history from discovery, to colonization. to incorporation. to becoming the capital of Louisiana; Baton Rouge during the American Revolutionary War to the Civil War.
The history of Baton Rouge (land not city) dates to before the Egyptian pyramids, when local Indian's groups lived in the area. Source
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On March 17, 1699, Pierre Le Moyne Sieur d'Iberville, while exploring the Lower Mississippi River, saw on a bluff a pole (wooden) decorated with bleeding heads of animals and fishes, Iberville then wrote "Baton Rouge" on his chart (French for "red stick"). It is commonly believed that the pole marked a boundary between two Indian tribes, the Houma to the North and the Bayougoula to the South.
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In 1810, Baton Rouge was described by a man named Fortescue Cuming as "a dirty little town, sixty cabins crowded together on a narrow street on the river bank (Mississippi River)" Source
Baton Rouge was incorporated in 1817 and became the capital of Louisiana in 1850. Source
