'Lost Louisiana: The Cattle Drives' presentation Oct. 12

In Lost Louisiana: The Cattle Drives of Louisiana, the speaker Stella Tanoos will explore the history of Louisiana’s cattle drives to New Orleans, from the earliest known cattle drives of the 1700s by the French to the last American cattle drives within Louisiana in the early 1900s.
The speaker will describe the known cattle drive routes across Louisiana and through its swamps and the dangerous health conditions that existed in the slaughterhouses of New Orleans. She will discuss the economic conditions of the 18th and 19th centuries that made the long and arduous trip possible and advantageous to those who undertook it.
Tanoos crowns this exploration of a little-known part of Louisiana history with her inclusion of the story of one cattle drive that began in Texas in November 1854 and ended in New Orleans in February 1855. Using the diary of Louisiana-born cowboy William Duncan Berry and her extensive research of available records of this period, Tanoos provides the audience with a vivid depiction of the journeys undertaken by the courageous men who drove these herds.
Stella Tanoos is a life-long student of the history of Louisiana. She is a member of the Iberville Museum in Plaquemine, Louisiana, as well as a board member of Le Comite des Archives de la Louisiane Inc. Tanoos’ extensive research of the history of the Atchafalaya Basin, which holds a prominent place in her ancestral history as well as the history of the Louisiana cattle drives, has made her one of the few subject-matter experts in this arena.
On Saturday, Oct. 12 at 1:30 p.m. Stella Tanoos will present her program at the Young-Sanders Center in Franklin. The Young-Sanders Center is located at 701 Teche Drive just one block from the St. Mary Parish Courthouse. The lecture is opened to the general public with no admission fee. For further information contact the center at ysc1861@aol.com or call us at 337-413-1861.