Moving Companies Shreveport, LA

Shreveport, Louisiana

Built where the Red River and Cross Bayou meet, the city of Shreveport, Louisiana is the third largest city in the state and the 99th largest in the country. The city is near the borders of Texas and Arkansas, giving it a particular local culture, typically described as a cross between the cowboy mentality of east Texas and the Cajun flair of Louisiana’s bayou country. Dubbed the “Next Great City of the South” with a population of over 200,000 people, moving to Shreveport is an excellent destination to relocate.  

Economy:
Thanks to growing employment in the natural gas and entertainment industries, US News & World Report ranked Shreveport eighth among the best places to find a job in the United States in 2009. Once a major center for Louisiana’s oil industry, Shreveport’s primacy in that area diminished during the 1980s and is now only a minor part of the local economy. The city’s primary employers are now in the service industry, especially in tourism and casino gaming. Shreveport, like much of Louisiana, has become a major center for Hollywood filming, thanks to tax incentives put into place after 2006. Starting in 2008, interest in natural gas from the Haynesville Shale has led to a slow beginning of a natural gas industry in Shreveport. These prolific industries have greatly expanded the city of Shreveport as evidenced from the numerous moving companies that transport people and their belongings to the city every day.

History:
The Shreve Town Company founded Shreveport in 1836, on land purchased from the Caddo Indians the previous year. Captain Henry Miller Shreve of the US Army Corps of Engineers had only recently opened the Red River for navigation (by removing a 180-mile-long debris field), and the Company hoped to found a trading town. The village of Shreve Town was incorporated in 1839 and the city of Shreveport followed suit in 1871. The town was integral to the Confederate cause during the Civil War, serving as the headquarters of the Confederate Army’s Trans-Mississippi Department. While steamboat shipping caused the growth of the town, the river ceased to be navigable after 1914, when disuse allowed the debris field to re-form. The Red River remained closed to traffic until the 1990s when a new interest in shipping and tourism encouraged the rapid growth of moving to the area.

Tourism:
Tourism is a major industry in Shreveport, and area attractions helped to expand the city. The original site of 19th-century Shreveport, consisting of 64 blocks in the city’s central business district, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, as are five other districts in the greater Shreveport Area. Museums in the city include the R.S. Barnwell Memorial Art & Garden Center and Sci-Port (Louisiana’s science museum). Much of Shreveport’s tourism activity centers around its riverboat casinos docked in the Red River. Cultural attractions in the city include several theaters, an opera, a symphony and a ballet company. Festivals are also a major draw throughout the year, with Holiday in Dixie (April), Mudbug Madness (late May) and Red River Revel among the biggest. Four airlines fly into the Shreveport Regional Airport, offering service between the city and Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Atlanta and Memphis daily. SporTran is the local bus service with routes in Shreveport and nearby Bossier City.

Colleges/Universities:
• Ayers Career College
• Louisiana State University at Shreveport
• Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport
• Northeastern State University College of Nursing
• Southern University, Shreveport
• Louisiana Baptist University and Theological Seminary
• Remington College

Interesting Facts:
• Founded in 1892, Shreveport’s American Rose Society is the oldest, single-plant horticultural society in the United States.
• Among the many movies filmed in Shreveport since 2006 are “The Guardian,” “Factory Girl,” “Mr. Brooks” and “The Mist and Soul Men.”
• Blues singer and guitarist Huddie William Ledbetter, known as “Leadbelly” got his start in Shreveport’s red light district in the 1910s. Before his death in 1949, he was internationally famous.

Helpful Links:
• City of Shreveport
• Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau
• Shreveport Real Estate
• Shreveport Storage
• Shreveport Moving Guide