The Hippo of Cross Lake

Eric Brock's Shreveport is a collection of vignettes on the history of Shreveport. The pieces were originally written for Brock's column that ran on the JournalPage. Today, Brock is a columnist for The Forum News.

"It is not meant to be a comprehensive history of the city, but rather a sort of tour through its past," notes Brock in the book's introduction. You'll find the story of Cross Lake hippo in the chapter Brock titled Strange but True.

Eric Brock's Shreveport was published in 2001 by the Pelican Publishing Company in Gretna, Louisiana.

Damn Blunder

Imagine riding in a submarine in 1864. During the Civil War they were built in the Shreveport Navy Yard. This is just one of the interesting facts Gary Dillard Joiner reveals in his award winning 2004 book One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: the Red River Campaign of 1864.

Shreveport author Joiner has an attractive website kept fresh with timely updates. He can be heard Tuesday Mornings on Red River Radio with his History Matters.

Shreveport Madam

While New Orleans had Storyville, Shreveport had it's own legal red light district. Goodloe Stuck's 1981 book, Annie McCune Shreveport Madam, is about the bawdy history of Shreveport.

Michael Parker at West Edge Books and News, located inside of the West Edge Artists' Co-op in downtown Shreveport at 725 Milam, can help you locate out of print books. Parker says he has an extensive selection of regional and Louisiana history books on hand. Email him at MPBookfreak@hotmail.com or you can catch him most days at the Co-op at 318 221-6961.

Amazon.com is also another good place to try to find a copy of Stuck's book.