40 and 8 Boxcars

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Although I'm a native Virginian and now live in the greater Richmond area, I 
lived some 23 years in Baton Rouge, LA until my retirement in 1996. While 
there I many times saw the Louisiana "Merci Car" which is displayed under shelter 
on the grounds of the "Old State Capitol" (now a museum) at 100 Government 
Street which is downtown just across the east bank levee from the Mississippi 
River. (Also located across from the "Old State Capitol" is the Louisiana Arts & 
Science center in Baton Rouge's former 1920s railroad station and W.W.II 
Fletcher-class destroyer, USS Kidd, DD-661).)

The URL http://www.sec.state.la.us/museums/osc/merci/osc-merci.htm leads to a 
page describing the restoration of Louisiana's "Merci Car" in 1999. This page 
and some of the links in it show a number of good pictures of that car. One 
of those links also is to http://www.wsrhs.org/mercicar.htm which contains 
pictures of most, maybe all, of the still existing "Merci Cars."

The http://www.wsrhs.org/mercicar.htm URL given in one recent N&W Hist. Soc. 
"Merci Car" communication leads to a page containing information about the 
location of most of the states' "Merci cars" but it incorrectly gives the 
location of Louisiana's car as the state capitol grounds. Louisiana's present state 
capitol, opened in 1932 and of Huey Long fame -- he was assassinated in its 
halls, is some several miles away from Louisiana's "Merci Car" which, as noted, 
is on the grounds of the "Old State Capitol."

Tom Parham
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