Louisiana's capital on the Mississippi, LSU's home turf and the heartbeat of Cajun country
Baton Rouge is Louisiana's state capital — a Mississippi River port with the tallest state capitol building in the US, LSU Tigers football culture, and Cajun-Creole food traditions rooted in the bayou country to the west. The Gothic Old State Capitol, the USS Kidd destroyer museum, and a thriving concert scene make it more than a stopover on the way to New Orleans.
Baton Rouge takes its name from the French for 'red stick', a boundary pole the French found in 1699 marking the hunting territory of the Houma and Bayougoula peoples. The city changed colonial hands between France, Britain, and Spain before joining the United States after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and it was the site of the West Florida Rebellion of 1810 — the first armed revolt in the territory that would become the continental US.