Editing Livingston, Louisiana (section)

==History==

Like the parish, Livingston takes its name from the jurist [[Edward Livingston]].

Livingston was the site of a major train [[derailment]] (spilling about 200,000 gallons of chemicals) in 1982.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/east-palestine-train-derailment-future-rcna71638 | title='Déjà vu': A train derailment 40 years ago holds clues for East Palestine's future | website=[[NBC News]] | date=February 25, 2023 }}</ref>

On February 11, 2016, it was officially announced that the LIGO collaboration successfully made the [[First observation of gravitational waves|first direct observation of gravitational waves]] in September 2015. [[Barry Barish]], [[Kip Thorne]] and [[Rainer Weiss]] were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for leading this work.<ref name="PRL-20160211">{{cite journal |author=Abbott, B.P. |title=Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger |journal=[[Phys. Rev. Lett.]] |volume=116 |pages=061102 |year=2016 |issue=6 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102 |display-authors=etal |pmid=26918975|arxiv=1602.03837 |bibcode=2016PhRvL.116f1102A |s2cid=119286014 }}</ref><ref name="Properties">{{cite journal | url=https://dcc.ligo.org/public/0122/P1500218/012/GW150914_parameter_estimation_v13.pdf | title=Properties of the binary black hole merger GW150914 | date=February 11, 2016 | journal= Physical Review Letters| bibcode=2016PhRvL.116x1102A | access-date=February 11, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160215165026/https://dcc.ligo.org/public/0122/P1500218/012/GW150914_parameter_estimation_v13.pdf | archive-date=February 15, 2016 | url-status=dead | last1=Abbott | first1=B. P. | last2=Abbott | first2=R. | last3=Abbott | first3=T. D. | last4=Abernathy | first4=M. R. | last5=Acernese | first5=F. | last6=Ackley | first6=K. | last7=Adams | first7=C. | last8=Adams | first8=T. | last9=Addesso | first9=P. | last10=Adhikari | first10=R. X. | last11=Adya | first11=V. B. | last12=Affeldt | first12=C. | last13=Agathos | first13=M. | last14=Agatsuma | first14=K. | last15=Aggarwal | first15=N. | last16=Aguiar | first16=O. D. | last17=Aiello | first17=L. | last18=Ain | first18=A. | last19=Ajith | first19=P. | last20=Allen | first20=B. | last21=Allocca | first21=A. | last22=Altin | first22=P. A. | last23=Anderson | first23=S. B. | last24=Anderson | first24=W. G. | last25=Arai | first25=K. | last26=Araya | first26=M. C. | last27=Arceneaux | first27=C. C. | last28=Areeda | first28=J. S. | last29=Arnaud | first29=N. | last30=Arun | first30=K. G. | volume=116 | issue=24 | page=241102 | doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.241102 | pmid=27367378 | arxiv=1602.03840 | s2cid=217406416 | display-authors=29 }}</ref><ref name="Nature_11Feb16">{{cite journal |title=Einstein's gravitational waves found at last |journal=Nature News|url=http://www.nature.com/news/einstein-s-gravitational-waves-found-at-last-1.19361 |date=February 11, 2016 |last1=Castelvecchi |first1=Davide |last2=Witze |first2=Alexandra |doi=10.1038/nature.2016.19361 |s2cid=182916902 |access-date=February 11, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="BBC_11Feb16">{{cite news|title=Einstein's gravitational waves 'seen' from black holes|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35524440|work=[[BBC News]]|date=February 11, 2016}}</ref><ref name="Nature12Jan16">{{cite journal | url=http://www.nature.com/news/gravitational-wave-rumours-in-overdrive-1.19161 | title=Gravitational-wave rumours in overdrive | journal=Nature | date=January 12, 2016 | doi=10.1038/nature.2016.19161 | access-date=February 11, 2016| last1=Castelvecchi | first1=Davide | s2cid=182043049 }}</ref><ref name="DetectionScienceSummary">{{cite web | url=https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/301/original/detection-science-summary.pdf | title=Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A Binary Black Hole Merger | publisher=LIGO | date=February 11, 2016 | access-date=February 11, 2016 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216132808/https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/media_files/binaries/301/original/detection-science-summary.pdf | archive-date=February 16, 2016 }}</ref>
The communities of Doyle and Livingston, combined in 1955 to create the Town of Livingston. Doyle was established northeast of present-day Livingston in the late 1800's, located on Hog Branch, off present-day North Doyle Road but moved when the railroad was built from Baton Rouge to Hammond, and the community was re-located in 1901 by the McDonald family.

Livingston was started by the Lyons Cypress Lumber Company (The world's largest cypress mill), clear cutting all the cypress north of the mill, running from the Mississippi River in St James the Baptist Parish to the Amite River. In 1915, it closed the mill and retooled it to a Southern Pine mill, also changing the name to Lyons Lumber Company. Crossing the Amite River in 1916 and building both the Garyville Northern Railroad and Livingston (Was Named The Town of Landry before the construction of the town started. The surveyor who drew up the plat named it after himself, but the owners changed it to the Town of Livingston, naming it after the Parish. The town was a logging community on 63 acres just west of Doyle, to support their logging industry and timber mill in Garyville, located south of Livingston on the Mississippi River. Therefore, Livingston and Garyville are sister cities.

When Livingston was first established, there was a house on every lot, a boardwalk in front of every home, and water wells drilled on each corner so every home would have access to running water. Today, the Catholia Church and less than a dozen homes built by the Lyons lumber Company are all that is left of the era. During its heyday, there were about 200 homes, and a town Square where the present Old Courthouse sits today. All the businesses faced the town square, with all those lots measureing 25&nbsp;ft wide accept the corner lots and they were 33&nbsp;ft, Big Store #2 was on the northwest corner where the present day County Agents office is located and a hotel on the wouthwest corner where the Old First Baptist Church Parsonage is located. There was a sweet shop, hotel, butcher shop, grocery, barber shop, and other businesses located around the square. There was a black settlement on the opposite side of the Garyville Northern Railroad where the present day Post Office is today with hundreds of workers living there (No Records of how many shanny shacks were located there.) and a wheel house to turn the train around where the present day Louisiana Dept of Highway has a maintenance warehouse. There was a huge flow well located there to refill the steam engines. It flowed all the time until sometimes in the 1960s, the town, parish or the state capped it off.

When the Lyons Lumber Company sold out in the early 1930s, they sold everything, even the Catholic church in Livingston was sold. Julis Smith, Doctor Tomm, and Mr Tidwell purchase all the holdings, donating the Catholic Church back to the people of Livingston. Mr Stebins, who was the manager of the Lyons Lumber Company Mill at the time, purchased the Town of Garyville, the timber mill, as well as the Garyville Northern Railroad. At some point during the beginning of WW II after America entered the war, he pulled up all the metal rails and sold them for scrap metal and paid off his debt on everything he purchased. Today, The Garyville Northern as the old time locals call it, is now the road bed for Hwy 63 South, however, the road only runs between the Town of Livingston and the community of Verdun, it no longer goes all the way to the Mississippi River where the Town of Garyville is located.

When the Lyons Lumber Company sold out in Livingston, most of the workers moved away, some had purchased homes, but most were just renting, most of the homes were torn down because the value of the cypress lumber was worth more than the home itself. Over the past 100 plus years, we have lost most of the buildings built by the Lyons Lumber Company, however, the Town has survived and is growing.