The Atlas Obscura Guide To Baton Rouge

4 Cool, Hidden, and Unusual Things to Do in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Updated August 13, 2021

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Unusual Attractions in Baton Rouge

Louisiana Old State Capitol from the Repentance Fountain

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Louisiana Old State Capitol

A 19th-century Gothic, castle-like statehouse by the Mississippi River.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Bayou St. John Confederate Submarine

A mysterious find dredged from Louisiana waters.

Mike the Tiger looking all cute and stuff!

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Mike the Tiger

The LSU mascot lived on the college campus in one of the most impressive tiger habitats in the country.

Oliver Pollock used his personal finances to support the American Revolution, and he unintentionally inspired the dollar sign.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Sculpture of Oliver Pollock

This sculpture may be the only known depiction of a man who helped finance the American Revolution and inadvertently created the dollar sign.

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Zachary, Louisiana

Teddy’s Juke Joint

One of the last remaining venues on the Old Chitlin’ Circuit is a kaleidoscopic music hall at the end of a dirt road.

11 miles from Baton Rouge

The cemetery at the Hansen's Disease Museum

Carville, Louisiana

National Hansen's Disease Museum

This museum chronicles the history of a leprosy quarantine hospital that then became a refuge.

16 miles from Baton Rouge

Inside the interferometer

Walker, Louisiana

LIGO Livingston Observatory

World's largest precision optical instrument used to detect Einstein's elusive gravity waves.

23 miles from Baton Rouge

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Restless Spirits of Louisiana

Sponsored by Louisiana Office of Tourism

If ghost stories help us confront a harrowing past, it’s no surprise that Louisiana is filled to the brim. From the swamplands to the pine forests, the state reverberates with tales of fortunes won and lost, untimely demises, and some of the darkest chapters of early American history. Whether you believe in the paranormal or not, the stories below reveal the hidden histories behind this mystifying state—place by place, spirit by restless spirit.

St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans

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