Ponchatoula, Louisiana

The name Ponchatoula comes from the Choctaw language and means hanging hair, a vivid description of the Spanish moss that drapes every oak tree in this corner of Louisiana. The town was laid out in eighteen fifty-three, and it really took shape in eighteen fifty-four when the railroad arrived and farmers could ship produce north in a matter of days. Strawberries became the signature crop.

In nineteen sixty-seven, Ponchatoula shipped one hundred ninety-four railcar loads of berries compared to Hammond's seventeen, and that lopsided record became the founding argument for calling this place the Strawberry Capital of the World. The Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival began in nineteen seventy-two and has grown into Louisiana's largest free harvest celebration, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each spring.