Baton Rouge

Sister cities

• Aix-en-Provence
• Port-au-Prince
• Córdoba
• Taichung

History

Human habitation in the Baton Rouge area has been dated to 12000–6500 BC, based on evidence found along the Mississippi, Comite, and Amite rivers. Earthwork mounds were built by hunter-gatherer societies in the Middle Archaic period, from roughly the fourth millennium BC. The speakers of the Proto-Muskogean language divided into its descendant languages by about 1000 BC; and a cultural boundary between either side of Mobile Bay and the Black Warrior River began to appear between about 1200 BC and 500 BC—a period called the Middle "Gulf Formational Stage". The Eastern Muskogean language began to diversify internally in the first half of the first millennium AD. The early Muskogean societies were the bearers of the Mississippian culture, which formed around 800 AD and extended in a vast network across the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, with numerous chiefdoms in the Southeast, as well. By the time the Spanish made their first forays inland from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in the early 16th century, by some evidence many political centers of the Mississippians were already in decline, or abandoned. At the time, this region appeared to have been occupied by a collection of moderately sized native chiefdoms, interspersed with autonomous villages and tribal groups. Other evidence indicates these Mississippian settlements were thriving at the time of the first Spanish contact. Later Spanish expeditions encountered the remains of groups who had lost many people and been disrupted in the aftermath of infectious diseases, chronic among Europeans, unknowingly introduced by the first expedition. French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville led an exploration party up the Mississippi River in 1698. The explorers saw a red pole marking the boundary between the Houma and…

Geography

The city of Baton Rouge lies on the banks of the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana's Florida Parishes region. The city is about from New Orleans, from Alexandria, from Lafayette and from Shreveport. It is also from Jackson, Mississippi and from Houston, Texas. Baton Rouge lies on a low elevation of to a little over above sea level. Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana and the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which are land and (2.81%) are covered by water. Baton Rouge is on the first set of bluffs north of the Mississippi River Delta's coastal plains. Because of its prominent location along the river and on the bluffs, which prevents flooding, the French built a fort in the city in 1719. Baton Rouge is the third-southernmost capital city in the continental United States, after Austin, Texas, and Tallahassee, Florida. It is the cultural and economic center of the Greater Baton Rouge metropolitan area. Baton Rouge has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa). It has mild winters, hot and humid summers, moderate to heavy rainfall, and the possibility of damaging winds and tornadoes yearlong. The area's average precipitation is 61.94 inches (141.1 cm) of rain and 0.1 inches (0.25 cm) of snow annually. With ample precipitation, Baton Rouge is fifth on the list of wettest cities in the United States. Snow in the Baton Rouge area is usually rare, although it snowed in three consecutive years at the first decade of the 21st century: December 11, 2008, December 4, 2009, and February 12, 2010. In 2017, Baton Rouge received snow again. In January 2025, Baton Rouge as well as all of southern Louisiana received record snowfall in a once-in-a-lifetime blizzard. The…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  21,577
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  19,377
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  17,598
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  17,371
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  16,746
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  13,634
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  13,219
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,416

Largest nearby schools

• University View Academy Inc. (FRM LA Connections)
  Other · Baton Rouge · 3,928 students · 21.7:1 ratio
• Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy
  Other · Baton Rouge · 2,235 students · 28.3:1 ratio
• Central High School
  High · Baton Rouge · 1,587 students · 17.3:1 ratio
• Baton Rouge Magnet High School
  High · Baton Rouge · 1,582 students · 19.8:1 ratio
• Woodlawn High School
  High · Baton Rouge · 1,527 students · 19.1:1 ratio
• LSU Laboratory School
  Other · Baton Rouge · 1,497 students · 12.1:1 ratio
• IDEA Bridge
  Other · Baton Rouge · 1,250 students · 23.6:1 ratio
• Liberty High School
  High · Baton Rouge · 1,208 students · 18.3:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 3 — 2010-08-02
  16 km ESE of Clinton, Louisiana
• M 3 — 2005-12-20
  9 km ESE of French Settlement, Louisiana