Detroit & New Orleans: Le Loup Garou

Another slice of shared history between Detroit and New Orleans, since we were just there. Last week we talked about Cadillac’s time in the bayou.

***

“Madame de Ber says there is no such thing as a loup garou, that a person cannot be a man and a wolf at the same time.”

— A Little Girl in Old Detroit*

“That it was the Loup Garou or wehr-wolf Archange had seen he did not doubt, and he recalled all the traditions of his youth, how the dreaded monster had stolen young children; sometimes a young man would be inveigled away into the forest and never heard of afterwards, and his fate conjectured by some, having seen the wolf dressed in his clothes.”

— Legends of Le Detroit

In Detroit, the loup garou — the fancy French colonial werewolf — haunts our old history books.

In New Orleans, they have a loup garou at THE ZOO. No joke.

What will it take to convince the Detroit Zoo to acquire one of these creepy, rare, French-y creatures?

*We REALLY need to talk about this book, which I just discovered in an attempt to learn more about the loup-garou. Amanda Minnie Douglas wrote a whole series of “Little Girl in the Old City” books – one of the earliest series of historical fiction for young women. Other “Old” cities including Quebec, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Salem, Boston and Washington. Ms. Douglas was also a literary scenestress in Newark, NJ. And she invented things. And I love her.

Thanks to some able eBay searching, I just bought this one and A Little Girl in Old New Orleans. So we should have more to discuss soon.

#detroit and new orleans#loup-garou