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is a city in and the parish seat of Madison Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 9,189 at the 2000 census. Tallulah is the principal city of the Tallulah Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Madison Parish.
Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections operates the Steve Hoyle Rehabilitation Center in Tallulah.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.7 square miles (7.0 km²), all of it land.
Tallulah got its name in an unusual sort of way. When the railroad was expanding in the area, there was a widow that owned a large plantation. She became friendly with the railroad's contractor and persuaded him to change the route of the railroad so it would run through her plantation. After the railroad was built she had nothing else to do with him. Feeling rejected he named the water stop for an old girlfriend named Tallulah, instead of the plantation.
Tallulah was the focus of national shame when, on July 20, 1899, five Sicilians were lynched, to much public approval, after they fought with a local doctor after he shot their goat. The sheriff testified that every white man in Madison Parish was implicated in the lynchings, but no one was ever charged.
Tallulah was the first city in the United States to have an indoor shopping mall. The mall was only one hall with stores on either side much like the ones today but much smaller. This hall opened into the street on both ends. This historic land mark is still in Tallulah to this day on US HWY 80, though no longer in use. The name of the indoor shopping mall is Bloom's Arcade, built around 1925.
Tallulah is thought to be the place where Delta Air Lines got its early beginnings as the home of an agricultural experiment station which first used airplanes to control cotton pests.
Built in the late 1920's by Standard Oil Company, the building housed a US Experimental Station in the early 20's that began flying mail for the US Post Office, and soon started a flying service which evolved into Delta Airlines.
Madison Parish considers itself the home of Delta Airlines, and the original airport building, Scott's Field, still stands near Tallulah, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings.