Perhaps the most dominant feature of the Hammond Regional Arts Center is a white staircase that cuts through the middle of a historic downtown building. That staircase has become the stage for a series of concerts by area singer-songwriters.

A South Louisiana fire department holds the distinction of being the oldest volunteer fire department in the country,.

Back in the early 1960s, car designers and drivers were pushing the limits of speed and setting land speed records at the Bonneville salt flats in Utah. One of those record-breakers was Knot Farrington of New Orleans, who just celebrated his 99th birthday.

One South Louisiana chef has the perfect answer for anyone who wants to know the meaning of Creole food. It’s a history lesson that credits seven different nations for the rich flavors of South Louisiana cooking.

In the city where jazz was born, you can see and hear its history in an expanded state museum. The old U.S. Mint, now the New Orleans Jazz Museum, features live performances along with treasured jazz artifacts.

Back in the 1800s, it was not unusual find one-room school houses, especially in rural communities. There's one that's been saved and turned into a museum in Ponchatoula.

Louisiana is the nation's third-largest producer of rice, but the state makes a claim to having America's oldest operating rice mill.

There's a group of school kids who are part of the musical tradition of marching brass bands in New Orleans.

Since it opened more than 70 years ago, Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans has kept a strong tie with one of America's early aviation pioneers.

One of the most relaxing ways to experience the natural beauty of Louisiana is to tour a swamp in a kayak. One of the most beautiful places to paddle is Lake Martin.

They have been planting crops on the Inglewood Plantation for more than 180 years.

There was a time when dance halls were a part of nearly every community in South Louisiana. But in recent years, nearly all of those places have disappeared. A researcher at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette is trying to capture those dance hall stories before even the memories disappear. This decaying old building near Opelousas is one of countless dance halls that are disappearing from the Louisiana landscape. "Leading up to, and then after World War II, pret...

If you've ever driven I-55 between Laplace and Ponchatoula, you've probably noticed an exit for Ruddock. Today it's only a boat launch, but a century ago, it was a thriving railroad town until a hurricane washed it away.

When you hear about Saints in New Orleans, you probably think football. But a New Orleans woman is on a path that could lead to her becoming the first native-born African-American saint in the United States.

You may not think of South Louisiana farms as a place where you can pick fresh apples and a lot of other fruits, but one New Iberia farmer is determined to grow everything in his fruit orchard.

It's a rich blend of cultures and the mix of the old and new that make is so special. And it's a place where you can ride on history.

There have been times when New Orleans was under attack. Two hundred years ago the British army threatened the city and most recently it was a hurricane.

New Orleans is a place that where you expect to hear music in the streets both day and night.

New Orleans was founded 300 years ago, but there was an attempt at an earlier settlement. It was a fort on the river that was lost and then found two centuries later.

A poor Irish immigrant saves the orphaned children of New Orleans and a free woman of color turns her back on Creole society and begins a journey that could take her to Sainthood.

New Orleans throughout its 300-year history it is a city that moves to its own unique rhythm.

Since its earliest days, there has been a church in New Orleans' Jackson square. But St. Louis Cathedral has had its share of difficulties over the past three centuries.

As the City of New Orleans celebrates its 300th anniversary, there is a French Quarter coffee shop that's been around for more than half of those three centuries. Café du Monde in the French Market has become a favorite of tourists and locals.

In a city that's 300 years old, you find lots of cemeteries. And for New Orleans, its unique above-ground tombs are a top tourist attraction.

It looks something like an old castle, standing on a tiny spot of land in Lake Borgne in St. Bernard Parish.

It may be hard to imagine what New Orleans was like in 1718, the year it was founded, three centuries ago. But an exhibit at the Historic New Orleans Collection is bringing that founding era to life with drawings, maps and artifacts from the earliest days of the city.

In April, the strawberries are big and red, and they're ripe and sweet. It's the perfect time for picking berries at the Liuzza family farm near Amite.

If you want to do some serious hiking, like trekking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, you're most likely going to need months of preparation to get in shape for that kind of hike. Dave McNamara shows us how he did it by hiking some of his favorite trails in the Bayou State.

There was a time not-so-long ago when telephones really didn't change much. Instead of standing in line every year to buy the latest upgrade, families would go for decades with the same home phone.

The tiny northwest Louisiana town of Haughton is an unlikely place to see a massive collection of wild animals from around the world. But years ago, a husband and wife team turned their taxidermy skills into the creation of a homemade natural history museum.

Before there was zydeco music, early French-speaking musicians in Southwest Louisiana were creating Creole music. And one of the earliest recording artists was accordion player Amede Ardoin, whose life on the Creole music trail went from stardom to tragedy.

You have probably seen the paintings of this renowned Louisiana artist - from a giant clarinet on a New Orleans hotel, a blues harmonica on a Baton Rouge casino and murals of Cajun history scattered across South Louisiana.

Royanne kropog plays a Hungarian folk song, a tune that arrived in Southeast Louisiana more than a century ago. It's music that is played at the annual harvest dance in an area known as Hungarian Settlement near Albany, LA.

It didn't take tax incentives to lure the very first Hollywood blockbuster to film in Louisiana. The very first Tarzan film was shot in Morgan City and released to enthusiastic audiences 100 years ago.

It's an unlikely place to find a piece of presidential history. In fact, it's a rather large piece - an aircraft that served as Air Force One 60 years ago.

For more than 150 years, these old lighthouses have marked the entrances to rivers and ports across coastal Louisiana.  But most of the old structures have fallen victim to hurricanes, sinking land and newer technology.

This is that time of year when bags of Carnival beads will be dumped into trunks, closets, attics and even trash cans. But one artist has spent years turning discarded beads into colorful, three-dimensional works of art.

If you like to see old, historic buildings, the oldest one in Louisiana is located in the French Quarter in New Orleans. It was built in the mid-1700s as a home for French Ursuline nuns.  As New Orleans celebrates its 300th anniversary this year, Dave McNamara takes us inside the Old Ursuline convent in the Heart of Louisiana. The wooden steps show the wear of nearly three centuries.  "These are the ones on this side that really have a nice dip in them and ...

These young, first-time puppeteers have only one hour to learn how to handle their new colorful new friends. To teach them how to talk, to sing and move in rhythm with the song.

When it comes to experiencing Cajun culture, you can do some one-stop shopping in the town of Eunice. And the music, the dancing and the cooking demonstrations are all free.

Sometimes a hobby that you start as a child can stick with you for a lifetime. That's what has happened to a Catholic priest in the town of French Settlement.

The design of these two overgrown, dilapidated wooden buildings has an old but familiar military look. Inside, the deteriorating walls give no clue of what was here when they were built more than 70 years ago.

Two centuries before Christopher Columbus discovered a new world, Caddo Indians were paddling a dugout canoe along the Red River in northwest Louisiana.

Most of the cypress giants are gone, but the huge stumps give you an idea of what this area was like before the largest trees were cut for timber.

For couples who like dancing to live zydeco music, it's a breakfast worth getting up early for in the town of Breaux Bridge.

From the New Orleans Lakefront to communities on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, you find marinas chock full of sailboats. They can be floating escapes from the daily grind.

"I call it growing butterflies from scratch," Charles Allen said. "Go out and plant plants that would grow caterpillars and then the caterpillars turn into the chrysalis eventually into the butterflies." Dr. Charles Allen, a retired botanist and professor, has a yard full of flowers, butterflies and moths.

It's 130 tons of rolling steel - a classic 90-year-old oil-burning, steam-powered locomotive that has reclaimed its place on the rails of Louisiana.

Buggies were common on the roads around the small Cajun town of Church Point, well into the 1950's.

250 years ago, the Spanish ship El Nuevo Constante was headed from Mexico to Havana.  As it passed the coast of Southwest Louisiana, the ship ran into rough seas.

The music of South Louisiana has a sound that is known around the world.

It took the Tunica-Biloxi tribe in Marksville, La. decades to get federally recognized. And it might not have happened if a treasure hunter hadn't discovered a long-lost tribal burial ground.

This town in East Feliciana Parish got its name from the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. Jackson, Louisiana, was founded in the early 1800s, and there are a surprising number of historic buildings that date from that time period.

If you want to find the oldest cypress trees in Louisiana, you'll probably need to hike through woods or wade through a swamp. This is where the ancient trees have thrived for thousands of years, until a century of logging wiped out virgin cypress forests.

It's a bit out of place in Louisiana, but an Egyptian mummy has been at home in Baton Rouge for the last half-century.

If you want to hear some authentic bluegrass music, you need to head to Louisiana's hill country.

He's a world-renowned musician and entertainer, and he is New Orleans' favorite son.

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