This year marks the 200^th anniversary of what has been described as the greatest real estate deal in history. In 1803, the United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory — 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. The lands acquired stretched from the Mississippi to the Rockies and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States and contained area from which all or part of 13 states were eventually carved.

Here is a chronology of the Louisiana Purchase:

• April 11 — France and United States begin negotiations for Louisiana.
• April 30 — Signing of Louisiana Purchase Treaty.
• Oct. 20 — U.S. Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase Treaty.
• Dec. 20 — Lower portion of Louisiana Territory officially transferred from France to the United States; three months later, the United States gained possession of the upper portion.

Population . . . Then and Now

4.5 million
Estimated July 1, 2002, population of Louisiana, the heart of the Louisiana Territory. Back in 1810, according to the first census following the U.S. acquisition of the territory, only 77,000 people lived in what is now the state of Louisiana, then known as the Territory of Orleans. (The rest of the area was known as the Louisiana Territory.)

Following is a list of states within the Louisiana Purchase area, along with their current population and earliest population count.

<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-168.html>
<http://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/cph2/cph-2-1-1.pdf>

97,000
Population counted in the Louisiana Purchase area, according to the 1810 census.
<http://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/cph2/cph-2-1-1.pdf>

36.1 million
Estimated July 1, 2002, population of the 13 states carved from the Louisiana Purchase area. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-168.html>

According to the 1810 census, there were about 17,000 people living in New Orleans. The town of
St. Louis had an estimated population of about 1,400. Today, New Orleans has 485,000 people and St. Louis, 348,000. <http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet>

The French Influence
The French influence is still strong in much of the Louisiana Purchase area. Nationally, there are 8.3 million people of French heritage and 85,000 people who identify themselves as Cajuns (descendants of French-speaking immigrants deported from Nova Scotia, Canada, in the mid-1700s). Of those, 48,700 Cajuns live in the 13 states that were part of the Louisiana Purchase, with the overwhelming majority, 45,000, in Louisiana. In addition, about 1.5 million residents of French ancestry reside in this area, with 545,000 in Louisiana. <http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet>

France is our 9^th leading trading partner, with $47.4 billion in trade between the two countries last year. <http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/>

Names

7
Number of places within the 13-state Louisiana Purchase area named "Jefferson." Thomas Jefferson was president in 1803 and engineered the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory. The most populous of these places is Jefferson City, Mo., with 39,636 residents. The others: Jefferson, Iowa; Jefferson, La.; Old Jefferson, La.; Jefferson City, Mont.; Jefferson, Okla.; and Jefferson, S.D. <http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet>

Another appropriate place in which to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase might be Lewis and Clark Village, Mo., population 155, named after the two explorers who set out in 1803 to explore the new territory. <http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet>