LCV Spring 2013 - (Page 94)

AANSEL, BALISE, CAERNARVON Now you’ll know your Louisiana ABCs aton Rouge Sunday Advocate writer Clare D’Artois Leeper has assembled a delightful collection based on her long-running “Louisiana Places: Those Strange Sounding Names.” Leeper’s column first appeared in February 1961, and this “eclectic compendium” of choice entries will appeal to a wide range of readers. Sadly, Clare Leeper died in July 2012 at age 80, just before publication of Louisiana Place Names. In this volume we see her dedication to research and crisp storytelling, making this book a fitting legacy. Library Journal has just named Leeper’s book among the top five general reference works of 2012, noting it was a “sheer labor of love.” What becomes evident the more time one spends with Leeper’s book is her grasp of audience and sense of how much detail to include. Her knowledge of history and culture is embedded in every entry; she is clear but does not oversimplify. Having read all of the entries, what’s remarkable is how important historical figures are given just enough “re-introduction” to keep readers from jumping back to other entries in order to fill in the blanks. While we now rely all too heavily on GPS devices to help us navigate, knowing the story behind that glowing dot on the map marked “Spoon Full” might make the place worthy of a detour. Leeper’s entries range from the historical and practical to the quirky; with that in mind, this review highlights selected entries, covering them alphabetically (with parish names in parentheses). Louisiana Place Names: Popular, Unusual, and Forgotten Stories of Town, Cities, Plantations, Bayous, and Even Some Cemeteries by Clare D’Artois Leeper Louisiana State University Press, 2012 B • [First] Acadian Coast (St. James Parish) Acadians from Nova Scotia first arrived in New Orleans in 1765, settling later along bayous in South Louisiana and the Mississippi River. Their settlements along the river were called the First and Second Acadian Coasts. It was later “swallowed up by the Louisiana legislature’s creation of St. James Parish” in 1807. The name “Acadia” has an obscure history; it could be a corruption of the classical Arcadia, with its pastoral Greek roots, or even a version of a Micmac Indian word. • Atakapa A tribe of Native Americans from southwestern Louisiana whose name literally means “cannibal” or “man-eater.” Although there was only one reported incident of cannibalism among the tribe members (from a 1703 account), the gruesome moniker stuck. By the middle of the 18th century, Le Page du Pratz’s history of the state commented: “since the French have gone among [the Atakapas] they have raised in them so great a horror of that abominable practice … they have promised to leave it off.” After the Louisiana Purchase, the Orleans Territory was divided into 12 counties; Atakapa was the name given to the land previously called the “parish of St. Martin.” • Audubon (St. Tammany Parish) John James Audubon’s time in Louisiana was spent mostly in Feliciana Parish, where much of his early work on The Birds of 94 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES • Spring 2013 • • • • • America was completed. He was in residence at Oakley Plantation during the summer of 1821. A post office was established in 1904 in St. Tammany Parish. Notably, it was closed only two years later, leaving the state without a place named after one of its most famous inhabitants. Bayou Funny Louis (La Salle Parish) From the Choctaw “fani lusa,” meaning “black squirrel,” the name has “enjoyed a variety of spellings,” including Bayou Funneleur and Fanne Louis. Bunkie (Avoyelles Parish) The town was named for the daughter of Captain Samuel Haas, who donated land to the Texas and Pacific Railroad. “According to local legend, she had a pet monkey but could not say ‘monkey’ so she called it ‘Bunkie,’” which became the young girl’s nickname. Having now shared this information with a number of my friends and associates, it has become the backstory that everyone remembers. Cannes Brulées (Jefferson Parish) Now called Kenner and home of Louis Armstrong International Airport, the area’s original name, given in 1721, meant “place of burned canes” for the land cleared by setting fire to cane and underbrush. The town that later appeared was created from the plantation belonging to Minor Kenner. Cooterville (Red River Parish) Leeper tells about driving from Shreveport to Baton Rouge in 1971 and chatting with the manager of this town’s combination store and bar. Bill Hossier, who built the store, named the town in 1938 “because there were so many cooters crawling out of the pond and crossing Highway 71, causing accidents.” Leeper adds: “I was not sure what a cooter was, so I asked, and he told me that cooters are turtles.” Côte Gelée (Lafayette Parish) “Freely translated” from the French as “frozen hill(s),” the area is a hilly area of vast prairies; while the word “côte” usually refers to “coast,” it can also mean “hill” or “slope.” The name comes from early settlers who couldn’t find the timber for fuel. 

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