Lost Louisiana: The Cattle Drives of Louisiana

In November 1854, Louisiana-born cowboy William Berry Duncan set out on horseback from Texas, a herd of cattle before him. It would take him and his cattle four months to reach New Orleans. And a long the way, he kept a diary. 

Using the vivid accounts from Duncan's hand, and a trove of records from the time period, local historian and researcher Stella Tanoos has pieced together a depiction of this journey, and the many others like it. 

On Thursday, July 18, Tanoos will present this history at the Ascension Parish Library in Donaldsonville—starting with the French cattle drives to New Orleans in the 1700s and ending with the last American drives in the early 1900s. It's a story of treacherous, swampy journeying and less-than-pristine slaughterhouses, rooted in the economic conditions of the 18th and 19th centuries that made it all worthwhile. 6 pm. To register, call the library at (225) 473-8052. myapl.org.