SHREVEPORT, a city of north-western Louisiana, U.S.A., at the head of navigation on the Red river ; the capital of Caddo parish. It has a municipal airport ; is on Federal highways 71, 171 and 8o: and is served by the Illinois Central, the Kansas City Southern, the Louisiana and Arkansas, the Louisiana Rail way and Navigation company, the St. Louis South-western, the Southern Pacific and the Texas and Pacific railways, and by numerous motor-bus and motor-truck lines. Pop. 43,874 in 1920 (57% native white and 40% negroes) ; 67,641 in 1927, according to a special enumeration under the supervision of the Federal Census Bureau ; and, after annexations of territory, was 76,655 in 1930 by Federal census.
The city has an area of 27 sq.m., an assessed valuation for 1927 of $121,111,580, and a commission form of government.
The Caddo parish court-house (completed in 1928, at a cost of $1,250,000) is a structure of unusual beauty and many interesting features, including a gaol on the seventh and eighth floors, the highest in the building. The city has 56 schools, 98 churches representing 12 denominations, nine hospitals with a total of 1,000 beds, 22 hotels with a total of 1,500 guest-rooms, a mu nicipal auditorium seating 5,000, and seven theatres, including a charming playhouse for the "little theatre." It is the seat of Centenary college (Methodist ; founded at Jackson in 1825 and moved to Shreveport in 1908) and the Dodd Junior college (1927), and the home of the Louisiana State fair. There are 12 lakes in the vicinity, providing good fishing and duck-hunting. Shreveport is the largest city within a radius of 175 m., and there fore an important commercial and financial centre. Its trade terri
tory covers a rich agricultural region, vast forests of hard and soft woods, and one of the greatest oil and gas areas of the Mid-Conti nent field. The Caddo oil-field, north-west of the city, which field includes the Caddo Lake in its area, produced 4,067,000 bbl. in 1925. The city is headquarters for 23o oil-operating firms or individuals, and has seven large refineries. Petroleum products constitute about half (measured by value) of its total factory output, which in 1927 was valued at $20,707.409 and included 90 different products. Lumber and lumber products, on which the earlier development of the city was based, rank second in importance, and fertilizer to the amount of 75,000 tons is manu factured annually. Bank debits for 1926 aggregated $483,902,000. Shreveport is in the Caddo Grant, a tract ceded to the United States by the Caddo Indians in 1837. In 1835 Captain Henry Miller Shreve (who had charge of improvements on the western rivers from 1826 to 1841) came up the river in his snag boat and founded a settlement here. In 1839 Shreve's Landing was incorporated as a town, and the city was chartered in 1871. In 1862, after the capture of Baton Rouge and New Orleans by the Unionists, Shreveport was occupied by the Confederate offi cials of the State. In the spring of 1864 it was the objective of combined land and naval expeditions of Union forces, in the course of which the Federals were worsted at Mansfield on April 8, and the Confederates at Pleasant Hill on April 9. De velopment of the oil and gas resources of the region began in 1906.