| Communities | Economy | History / Markers | Local Government |
| Location / Geography | Media | Parks and Recreation | Schools and Libraries |
| Parish Map | Top of page | ||
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Unincorporated areas of interest in the parish include Ada, Alberta, Anderson, Brown, Burkplace, Cox Crossing, Danville, English, Friendship, Fryeburg, Giddens, Hunt, Lawhon, Liberty Hill, Machens Spur, Mt. Olive, Nelson, Pratt, Roy, Sailes, Taylor Post Office and Tullis Areas of interest include Briarwood Gardens; the Blue Hole, a bottomless cold water spring near Kepler Creek Lake; the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush site south of Mt. Lebanon; Driskill Mountain, at 535 feet above sea level, the highest point in Louisiana; the Colbert place built by Captain James Pollard Murphy; The Dog Trot, a home originally built as a hotel by Tandy Key in 1847; Down Home built by Catlett G. Thurmond in 1853; The Prothro Place built in the 1850s; The Stage Coach Inn built in 1847 by Rueben Drake was a stop on the stage line from Shreveport to Monroe until it ended; Stagecoach Trail Museum; Jackson-Bienville Wildlife Management Area; Lake Bistineau with a state park. Events include the Crawfish Festival in late Spring and the Stage Coach Tour of historic buildings inon the first Sunday in May. |
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Black Lake Bayou Dugdemonia River Kepler Creek Lake Lake Bistineau Loggy Bayou Saline Bayou |
History | |
| 1787 |
The earliest residents of the area that is now Bienville Parish were the Caddo Indians, who claimed all the land between the Red and Ouachita Rivers. Bienville parish was settled and developed more slowly than the surrounding parishes because all of the transportation arteries were on its fringes. The area did benefit somewhat from the Great Red River Log Raft that diverted river transportation through Loggy Bayou and Lake Bistineau. The first white settler in the area, a Frenchman, established a ranch near Lake Bistineau about 1787. |
| 1805 |
When the Territory of Orleans is divided into counties the present-day Bienville Parish is part of Natchitoches. |
| 1812 |
In 1812 all this section of north Louisiana was one great forest, with a thick mat of underbrush and vines. Indians then living in the area included Ouachita, Caddo and later some Choctaw who migrated from Mississippi. The hill country of North Louisiana was known as a paradise for adventurous hunters. Game of every sort abounded: turkey, deer and buffalo and water fowl covered ponds and bayous in the winter. It was also home for wolf, bear and panther, with wild horses and cattle running free over the country. Within a few years great fires raged through the area for several successive summers. They burned all the underbrush, and in some instances, even taller timber but when the fires finally burned out they left the country looking like a beautiful park with vast openings and enchanting vistas. Early hunters and surveyors told also of the fertility of the soil and of the healthfulness of the higher lands. The fame of the area spread far and wide. An additional motivation for settlers was the fact that land could be had from the government for almost nothing. |
| 1820s |
Between 1820 and 1850 the influx of settlers became a steady stream, mostly Irish immigrants from the Southeastern United States. |
| 1828 |
They came so rapidly that it was necessary to divide the original large parishes because the seats of government were too far from most settlers. In 1828 the state legislature passed an act to form the new parish of Claiborne, named for the first American governor of the state. The parish was to include "all land south of the Arkansas Territory, west of Ouachita Parish, east of the Red River and north of a line starting at the east bank of the Red River at a point fifty miles north of the village of Natchitoches, thence due east to the Ouachita boundary." |
| 1837 |
Rehoboth Baptist Church is built for 20 Baptist settlers. |
| 1848 March 14 |
Bienville Parish was created on March 14, 1848 by an act of the state legislature which divided Claiborne Parish. It was named in honor of Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville, founder of New Orleans and the first French Governor of Louisiana. The original parish seat is in Sparta. |
| 1848 |
The Louisiana Baptist Convention is organized in the Rehoboth Baptist Church. A granite memorial is laid in front of the Rehoboth Baptist Church. |
| 1853 |
Mount Lebanon University is founded. It will claim 127 students at one time. |
| 1854 |
Bienville Parish's first courthouse is built by William C. Mays at Sparta. |
| 1857 |
The Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church is dedicated. The pews and pulpit are hand hews and a wooden divider down the middle separates men and women. A chandelier once hung in the house of William C. C. Claiborne in New Orleans. |
| 1861 |
In 1861 the parish was thriving and its citizens were well on their way to fulfilling dreams and ambitions when the war broke out. Only an occasional skirmish occurred in the parish as foraging parties made contact, but it is said that sounds of the Battle of Mansfield, fifty miles to the west, could be heard. Progress in the parish and the region was delayed for many years. |
| 1863 September |
Mount Lebanon University buildings are used by Confederate forces as a hospital. Suspended during the war, the school will be moved to Pineville and reopened as Louisiana College. Also during the war Mt. Lebanon was one of three communities to issue its own postage stamps. The wood block is carved as the stamp would normally appear, so the stamp itself is reversed, a rarity in philately |
| 1871 |
The area of Bienville Parish is reduced by the formation of the contiguous parishes of Red River and Webster in 1871 and Lincoln Parish in 1873. |
| 1873 |
The area of Bienville Parish is again reduced by the formation of Lincoln Parish. |
| 1874 |
The first Women's Missionary Society in Louisiana is organized at the Mt. Lebanon Church. |
| 1883 |
Growth resumed when the V. S. & P railroad was built through the northern fringe of the parish in 1883. This meant much to a people whose nearest market was thirty odd miles away over bad roads. Bienville Parish was strictly rural, without a big town in all her 856 square miles of territory. Following in the tracks of the railroad builders were lumbermen who set up saw mills along the road. Some of these saw mill communities survived and grew into towns as lumber replaced cotton as the chief agricultural product. Populations and towns shifted during this period to take advantage of the many railroads that began to crisscross northern Louisiana. |
| 1890 |
The first railroad is built rhrough the parish with stops at Gibsland and Arcadia, which become boomtowns and moves the center of population away from Sparta. |
| 1892 |
The parish seat is moved from Sparta to Arcadia. A few years later a Romanesque Revival style courthouse with a bell tower on one corner is built. |
| 1920 |
By 1920 most of the choice lumber in the parish and throughout Louisiana had been harvested. Logging operations continued on a lesser scale but cotton once more became the main economic activity. |
| 1921 |
Natural gas is discovered at Lake Bistineau in 1921 and oil was first produced in 1945. Farming diversified as more fruits and vegetables were grown and sold, thanks to improved transportation. Sand, gravel and clay deposits have also added to the prosperity of the parish. |
| 1934 |
Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are tracked down by Texas Rangers and a sheriff's posse near Driskill Mountain after years of bank robbery in the area. |
| 1946 |
Since World War II many rural communities in the parish have disappeared and most of the cotton farmlands have been returned to forests. Only Arcadia in the northwest and Ringgold in the southwest maintained steady growth. Some smaller communities have been able to attract new industries, but mostly the parish is growing in importance as a recreation area for dwellers of larger cities in the region. It is ironic that as a result of the many changes in the twentieth century, Bienville Parish is gradually returning, in many respects, to its original form. |
| 1953 |
A new courthouse is built in Arcadia. |
| 1980 |
First year of the annual Ringgold Crawfish Festival. |
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Education |
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Director - Joyce Lilly 2678 Maple St. Arcadia, LA 71001-3699 Email - bvlibl@bienville.lib.la.us Branches - Ringold Branch, 1 Bookmobile American Library Directory 1999-2000, R. R. Bowker |
