Shreveport, Louisiana

Lore & Background

Shreveport was established by the Shreve Town Company in 1836 on land sold by the Caddo Indians in 1835. The town was named for Captain Henry Miller Shreve, who cleared the Great Raft log jam from the Red River using the steamboat Heliopolis. Shreveport became a steamboat commerce center, trading cotton and agricultural crops, and had a slave market. During the Civil War, it was the Confederate capital of Louisiana from 1863 to 1865 and housed the Trans-Mississippi Department headquarters. In 1873, a yellow fever epidemic killed about 759 people, roughly 10-15% of the population. The city later became a hub for the oil industry, hosting the Standard Oil of Louisiana refinery (which continued under other ownership after the corporate entity was dissolved) and United Gas Corporation until the 1960s and 1980s respectively. The Louisiana Hayride radio program, broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium from 1948 to 1960, launched the careers of Hank Williams and Elvis Presley. The city also saw civil rights activism, including the 1963 bombing of Dr. C. O. Simpkins' home.

Reader's Guide

Shreveport's significance lies in its role as a strategic river port, Confederate capital, and oil industry center. The clearing of the Red River by Henry Miller Shreve enabled steamboat commerce that drove early growth. During the Civil War, Shreveport served as the last Confederate command to surrender, on May 26, 1865. The oil boom made it a national hub, with major corporations headquartered there until the late 20th century. Economic decline followed the loss of oil jobs and the closure of General Motors' Shreveport Operations, leading to population loss and crime. The city remains the cultural and educational center of the Ark-La-Tex region, hosting multiple universities and the I-20 Cyber Corridor. The Louisiana Hayride program cemented its place in music history, and Barksdale Air Force Base, established after citizen efforts in the 1920s, continues as a major military installation. Shreveport's legacy includes both its historical prominence and ongoing revitalization efforts.

Did You Know?

• The city lost about 10-15% of its population to a yellow fever epidemic in 1873, with roughly 759 deaths.
• Elvis Presley made his first appearance on the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport in 1954, though it was not his broadcasting debut.
• The Red River was made navigable by Captain Henry Miller Shreve, who removed the Great Raft log jam.

Origins at the River's Edge

Shreveport's story begins with a river obstacle. In the early 1830s, an 180-mile stretch of tangled logs known as the Great Raft choked the Red River, blocking commercial navigation. Captain Henry Miller Shreve, working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, deployed a specially modified vessel called the Heliopolis to break through the jam and restore passage. In his honor, the Shreve Town Company was chartered to build a settlement where the newly navigable river met the Texas Trail, the overland corridor into the young Republic of Texas. The village was laid out on land purchased from the Caddo people in 1835, organized into 64 blocks formed by eight streets running west from the river and eight running south from Cross Bayou. Incorporated on March 20, 1839, the young town quickly became a hub for steamboat traffic carrying cotton and agricultural goods from Caddo Parish plantations. By 1860, its population included roughly 2,200 free residents and 1,300 enslaved people, reflecting the agricultural economy that anchored its earliest decades.

Confederate Capital and a City Struck by Plague

When Baton Rouge and Opelousas fell to Union forces, Shreveport assumed the role of Louisiana's Confederate capital from 1863 to 1865. The city became the headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department, and Fort Albert Sidney Johnston was erected on a ridge to the northwest. Because the theater was geographically isolated, fighting continued here for weeks after Lee's surrender in April 1865. In the chaotic window between May 13 and 21, soldiers grappling with news of the surrenders, Lincoln's assassination, and the departure of their own commanders descended into rioting, destroying buildings that held service records—a loss that later complicated Confederate pension claims. The Trans-Mississippi command finally laid down arms on May 26, the last to do so. The city's wartime ordeal was compounded in 1873, when a yellow fever epidemic killed an estimated 1,200 people over four months, roughly one quarter of the population. Around 800 victims were buried in a mass grave at Oakland Cemetery, and five Catholic priests and two sisters died tending the sick.

Oil, Industry, and the Long Road to Recovery

The discovery of oil in Louisiana transformed Shreveport from a regional river town into a national energy hub. Standard Oil of Louisiana and United Gas Corporation both maintained their headquarters in the city, anchoring a workforce and tax base that propelled growth through much of the twentieth century. That era of prosperity, however, gave way to contraction. The gradual loss of oil-industry employment, the closure of General Motors' Shreveport Operations, and a cascade of other economic setbacks drove a sustained population decline and deepened poverty, drug problems, and violent crime. The city's contemporary identity is shaped by its ongoing effort to rebuild: diversifying its economic base, modernizing aging infrastructure, and working to reduce crime. Today, Shreveport anchors the I-20 Cyber Corridor that links it to Dallas and Atlanta, and hosts significant operations from Amazon, Regions Financial, JPMorgan Chase, AT&T Mobility, UPS, Walmart, General Electric, and Calumet Specialty Products Partners, among others. With a 2020 population of 187,593 and a metro area of 393,406, it remains Louisiana's third-largest city.

A Crucible of Music and Learning

Shreveport's cultural footprint extends well beyond its borders. In the red-light district known as St. Paul's Bottoms, which operated legally from 1903 to 1917, a young Huddie William Ledbetter—later known worldwide as Lead Belly—absorbed the sounds of Fannin Street, a row of saloons, brothels, and dance halls, and began forging his own blues style. The city also produced bluesmen Jesse Thomas and Dave Alexander, guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and early jazz and ragtime composers Bill Wray and William Christopher O'Hare. Beyond music, Shreveport serves as the educational and commercial heart of the Ark-La-Tex region, where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas converge. It is home to Centenary College of Louisiana, Louisiana State University Shreveport, Louisiana Tech University Shreveport, Southern University at Shreveport, and Louisiana Baptist University. Providence Academy, established for African American students, added another layer to the city's long commitment to learning. Together, these institutions and artists cement Shreveport's role as a crossroads of culture in the American South.

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