Caddo Parish
The Boom or Bust Byway paves its way through the charming towns north of Shreveport such as Gilliam, Vivian and Oil City. This route offers road trippers some great places to stop and experience the hidden landscapes of Louisiana’s Other Side. If the natural beauty of the lakes and parks aren’t enough, travelers will experience the community’s resilience to the fluctuating industry of oil and agriculture. Visitors can discover treasured stories in museums along the byway. Their locals’ way of life can be experienced in restaurants, festivals and events along the route.
What to See
Hosston
Big Mama’s Antiques and Restorations
Big Mama’s Antiques and Restorations sells industrial materials, salvage materials and electric offerings. They specialize in African American historical artifacts and have been featured on the Antiques Road Show and in the Antique Trader Magazine. Store hours are Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or daily by appointment.
6403 Dogwood St., Hosston, LA 71043
318-573-2127
Gilliam
Skydive Louisiana
Skydive Louisiana is a USPA certified Training Center Dropzone. The experienced staff members offer tandem jumps, sports jumps and more for one of the most memorable lifetime achievements.
10165 Vivian Airport Rd., Vivian, LA 71082
318-464-5867
Thunder Road Raceway Park
Thunder Road Raceway Park is a state-of-the-art, motorsports facility featuring a 1/4-mile drag strip, sanctioned by the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) in Division 4.
5700 Thunder Rd., Gilliam, LA 71029
318-296-4466
Main Street Restaurant
Main Street Restaurant in Gilliam features “country cooking” favorites like chicken fried steak as well as fresh Gulf seafood options including fried oysters, boiled shrimp and more. Open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday-Tuesday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Wednesday-Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday-Saturday.
12807 Main St., Gilliam, LA 71029
318-296-4400
Red River Cross Roads Museum
See how the early settlers of the surrounding rural communities lived through memorabilia and pictures. Located in Shreve Memorial Library branch in Gilliam, the library’s hours are by appointment only.
12797 Main St., Gilliam, LA 71029
318-296-4303
Sunflower Trail and Festival
View the beautiful, blooming sunflowers at Sunflower Trail and Festival along Hwy 3049 in Gilliam. Afterwards enjoy crafts, entertainment, food, and family fun at the festival.
LA-3049., Gilliam, LA 71029
318-296-4303
Belcher
L’Evangeline Bed & Breakfast
Guests are welcome to come stay in a charming bed and breakfast located in a quiet, peaceful town full of oaks, pines and sunflowers. Belcher, Louisiana is a historic town surrounded by historic plantations, cotton fields, and the legendary KWKH radio tower of the Louisiana Hayride. The L’Evangeline is a remodeled, two-story southern home with a columned porch, featuring a full bench and porch swing.
228 Louisiana St., Belcher, LA 71004
318-518-6588
Vivian
Allen’s Guide and Tour Service
Allen’s Guide and Tour Service offers half day and full day fishing excursions on Caddo Lake. Fishing Guide Mark Allen specializes in largemouth bass fishing and is a multi-FLW/BFL tournament winner. Narrated tours of the lake are also available. Excursions by appointment only.
9691 Pelican Lodge Rd., Vivian, LA 71082
903-530-0611
Cool Beans Coffee Shop
Experience a mellow, rustic atmosphere in the middle of Vivian’s downtown area. Cool Beans Coffee Shop offers a variety of drinks including cappuccinos, hot chocolate and other seasonal drinks with more than 10 different flavors including sugar-free options. Open 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday-Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday.
109 W Louisiana Ave., Vivian, LA 71082
318-936-9947
Louisiana Red Bud Festival
Families looking for fun should check out Louisiana Redbud Festival’s all-day events including music on the square, parade, food, and arts and crafts booths.
Vivian Townsquare, Vivian, LA 71082
318-375-3893
Country Crow Antiques, Gifts and Collectibles Shop
Country Crow features antiques, gifts and collectibles.
126 West Louisiana St., Vivian, LA 71082
318-426-3775
Vivian Railroad Station Museum
Walk around and explore exhibits showcasing artifacts, photographs and more about North Caddo Parish’s railroad history at Vivian Railroad Station Museum.
100 Front St., Vivian, LA 71082
318-375-5300
Outlaw BBQ
Outlaw Bar-B-Q in Vivian serves barbecue plates, sandwiches, steaks and more. Open 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday.
959 S. Pine St., Vivian, LA 71082
318-375-4622
Country Christmas Festival
Celebrate Christmas in the country. This annual Country Christmas Festival promises to entertain guests with delicious food, entertainment, crafts, and more.
100 Front St., Vivian, LA 71082
318-375-5300
Vivian Black History Festival and Parade
Celebrate at Vivian’s Annual Black History Festival and Parade. Visit historical sites like the Vivian Railroad Station Museum and more. Enjoy great music, food, family fun, and good ole Southern hospitality. Don’t miss the “Shop Til U Drop” vendors Expo. This festival is held the 3rd Saturday in February each year.
Vivian, LA 71082
318-935-0376
Ark-La-Tex Speedway
Dirt track races are held seasonally on this quarter-mile, semi-banked clay oval track.
13035 Boyter Ln., Vivian, LA 71082
318-375-3470
Oil City
Earl G Williamson Park
Earl G. Williamson Park, a 40-acre park, features a public boat ramp, a 450-foot fishing pier, paved parking areas, restrooms with showers, RV camper hook-ups, areas for tent camping, extensive picnic facilities, two playgrounds, volleyball nets, a baseball field, tennis courts, and a swimming area.
11425 LA Hwy. 1., Oil City, LA 71061
318-995-7139
Gusher Days Festival
Gusher Days Festival celebrates the north Caddo Parish oil industry with an archery tournament, fishing tournament, music, food, and entertainment.
11411 LA-1., Oil City, LA 71061
318-470-3446
Louisiana State Oil & Gas Museum
Learn how the discovery of oil shaped the history of Caddo Parish through photographs, films, a shot gun house, and life-size dioramas at Louisiana State Oil & Gas Museum.
200 S Land Ave., Oil City, LA 71061
318-995-6845
Restor-A-Book
Restor-A-Book handles a wide variety of restoration and binding work including Bibles, books, genealogy papers, church hymnals, bulletins, newspapers, tabloids and much more.
126 South Land Ave., Oil City, LA 71061
318-995-6800
Christmas on Caddo Fireworks Festival
Christmas on Caddo Fireworks Festival has been bringing Christmas cheer to the people of north Louisiana for nearly three decades. The all-day affair includes the presentation of Miss Christmas on Caddo pageant winner, live band, concessions, clowns, Santa, and fireworks over Caddo Lake.
100 Front St., Vivian, LA 71082
318-631-0182
Caddo Outdoors Bait and Tackle Restaurant
Caddo Outdoors Bait and Tackle offers travelers the opportunity to enjoy popular Southern dishes from chicken fried steak to red beans and rice, fried catfish, meat pies, and more. Visitors can indulge in more than five different flavors of homemade pies or treat themselves to an apple or peach fried pie. The company motto is ‘Biscuits, Burgers, and Bait.’ You can build your own breakfast, fill up with a burger basket, order a good-sized salad, grab a slice of pie, and get your bait and tackle all in one stop. Caddo Outdoors Bait and Tackle is open 5:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Wednesday; 5:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday; and 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.
118 Ferry Lake Rd., Oil City, LA 71061
318-995-8008
La Herradura Mexican Restaurant
La Herradura cooks up fresh Mexican and seafood including fajitas, fish, enchiladas, nachos, taco salad, and more. Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday-Sunday.
326 Hwy. 1., Oil City, LA 71061
318-995-8008
Mooringsport
Historic Caddo Lake Drawbridge
In 1914, as modes of transportation progressed, the Historic Caddo Lake Drawbridge in Mooringsport was built to replace the ferry. This vehicular bridge illustrates the unique “Vertical Lift” design which allows the entire center span to lift to allow tall oil equipment to pass through, especially Gulf Oil Company’s pile driver which was used for the first off-shore oil drilling. This 100-plus-year-old landmark is the last surviving Waddell vertical-lift bridge in Louisiana and is open to the public as a pedestrian walkway. It has been listed on National Register of Historic Places since 1996.
500 N Croom St., Mooringsport, LA 71060
318-929-2806
Mooringsport Cypress Festival
The Mooringsport Cypress Festival features live entertainment, arts and crafts, food eating contests, children’s activities, parade, and more.
Higgins St., Mooringsport, LA 71060
318-469-6282
Longwood General Store
Longwood General Store is a country store that features a small dining room and kitchen serving Southern classics like chicken fried steak and over-sized hamburgers. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, this restaurant is well-known for steaks. The restaurant serves steaks on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays only. Open 24 hours a day, Tuesday-Saturday and 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday-Monday.
3502 Hwy. 169., Mooringsport, LA 71060
318-929-2231
Caddo Lake
Caddo Lake is a 25,400-acre lake and wetland located on the border between Texas and Louisiana. It is the largest natural fresh water lake in the South.
11425 Hwy. 1 North., Oil City, LA 71061
318-995-7139
Blanchard
Poke Salad Festival
The Poke Salad Festival kicks off with a $1,000 treasure hunt, carnival, food, children’s activities, and live entertainment.
Pinehill Rd., Blanchard, LA 71009
318-309-2647
Bossier Parish
Take a deeper journey along the Boom or Bust Byway through the pastures of Bossier Parish into calm, quiet towns including Benton and Plain Dealing. These towns offer lots of treasures that are worth a drive starting with fresh summer produce at the Benton Famers’ Market all the way to the historic, picture-perfect mural stashed away in Plain Dealing on Palmetto Street. On this route, road trippers will discover homemade burgers, water recreations in the local bayou, a petting zoo, historic homes built in the early 1900s, and more hidden gems along the Boom or Bust Byway.
What to See
Benton
Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District
Cypress Black Bayou is a full-service recreation area that includes a marina, swimming, camping, cabins, fishing piers, zoo, and much more. Cypress Black Bayou has a meeting room that holds up to 50 people if a small group is looking for a retreat.
135 Cypress Park Dr., Benton, LA 71006
318-965-0007
Cypress Zoo
Cypress Zoo is located on seven acres inside Cypress Black Bayou Recreation Park encompassed by oak, pine, and sweet gum trees. Built in 1998, Cypress Zoo has provided visitors with a superb learning environment while heightening their understanding and respect for the animals and the surrounding area. The zoo staff continues to educate guests while providing them with memorable experiences.
135 Cypress Park Dr., Benton, LA 71006
318-965-0007
Plain Dealing
Giles Snack Shop
Gile’s Snack Shop has been in business for many decades serving old-fashion home cooked meals in Plain Dealing. Open 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Friday.
210 E. Palmetto St., Plain Dealing, LA 71064
318-326-4088
Webster Parish
Outdoor sports enthusiasts, nature lovers, music fans, history buffs and those who savor the fun and flavors of outdoor festivals and fairs will enjoy Webster Parish, Louisiana. Visitors are encouraged to savor the beautiful bayous, lakes and other natural wonders.
One of the towns along the Boom or Bust Byway worth a visit is Sarepta, named after parishioner Sarepta Carter who donated a large Bible to the local Baptist church in 1869 in exchange for the town’s namesake.
This charming community has produced a few stars including country music superstar Trace Adkins. His roots in the local church choir were the precursor to his Nashville success. Some of the songs he made popular are “Dreamin’ Out Loud”, “Every Light in the House” and “Lonely Won’t Leave Me Alone.”
Grammy award-winning Cox Family is from this area, too. The family is best known for the song “I am Weary” and for the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” After more than 20 years as a band, the Cox Family won their Grammy for work with Alison Krauss on “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.”
If you are driving along the byway, be sure to stop at the interpretive kiosk next to Town Hall on Hwy. 371 to learn more about the history and culture of the area.
What to See
Bayou Dorcheat
If calm-water canoeing interests you, beautiful Bayou Dorcheat winds its way through the entire length of Webster Parish. Once a major thoroughfare for paddleboats and steamships. Dorcheat offers scenic fishing, boating and watersport opportunities. Sportsmen can access the bayou from a number of locations, including the neighboring village of Dixie Inn.
Dorcheat Street, Minden, LA 71055
Germantown Colony and Museum
If calm-water canoeing interests you, beautiful Bayou Dorcheat winds its way through the entire length of Webster Parish. Once a major thoroughfare for paddleboats and steamships. Dorcheat offers scenic fishing, boating and watersport opportunities. Sportsmen can access the bayou from a number of locations, including the neighboring village of Dixie Inn.
200 Museum Rd., Minden, LA 71055
318-377-6061
Forests and Fields
Farms prospered on fertile land along the Red River. Cotton, for example, grew well there. Plantations and well-placed gins, thanks to the labor of hundreds of field hands and then sharecroppers, produced thousands of bales of cotton.
Closer to Sarepta, in what is still appropriately referred to as the Piney Woods, it was the combination of forests and flowing water that attracted the first of several generations of loggers. Axes and saw blades, in roughened hands, shaped and continue to reshape regional landscapes, triggering boom and bust cycles all too familiar to local residents.
Sawmills, like their agricultural cousin, the cotton gin, became centers of rural commerce and employment, growing larger and more mechanized with the passage of time. Tall, straight pines emerged from the mills as lumber for oil derricks, railroad ties, siding for boomtown homes, paper and boxes.
The Cox Family
Just 10 minutes south of Sarepta is the town of Cotton Valley, hometown of the Grammy Award winning Cox Family. The Cox Family was formed in Cotton Valley in 1972 and is best known for their recording, “I Am Weary” for the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” In 1994, after more than 20 years together as a band, the Cox Family won a Grammy Award for their work with Alison Krauss on “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow”. The Cox Family began performing at fairs and church socials. Willard Cox worked in the oil fields of Cotton Valley and played the fiddle and sang in his spare time. His son and daughters began joining their father to perform. While they sang both country and bluegrass, they made their reputation singing gospel.
LumberJack Grill
Lumberjack Grill will provide you with home cooked meals, salad bar and desserts. It offers a nice, family atmosphere for dining in or take outs.
26026 Highway 371, Sarepta, LA
318-994-2018
Claiborne Parish
Claiborne Parish was formed in 1828 and was named for the first Louisiana Governor William C.C. Claiborne. The parish seat is Homer.
The byway passes through Claiborne Parish. It rolls across gentle hills lined with miles of forest and an occasional small town such as Athens, Homer and Lisbon. In Homer, the town features one of the state’s finest examples of Greek Revival architecture and the only antebellum courthouse in Louisiana that has been in continuous use since its construction in 1859.
Lake Claiborne provides recreation for locals and visitors. This 6,300 acre lake offers fishing, swimming, birding, boating, cabins and much more.
What to See
Lake Claiborne
The 6,300-acre lake is eight and a half miles long and has 40 miles of shoreline. Fishing, swimming, birding, boating, and waterskiing are just some of the activities you can participate in here. The park has ten modern cabins and 86 improved campsites if you’d like to spend the night, and a nature center where you can learn to see more clearly and completely the beauty of the park.
225 State Park Road, Home, LA
318-927-2976
Kel’s Love Marina
Kel’s Kove Marina offers fishing, cabins, convenience store, and marina. It also has a bathhouse, tent camping and full hookups.
3455 Highway 146., Homer, LA 71040
318-927-2264
www.kelskove.com
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Pleasure Point Marina Bar and Grill
Pleasure Point Marina Bar and Grill offers food, beverages, wi-fi and lakefront gasoline. It also offers two cabins with lakefront access. There are 30 lakefront full hookups and 20 non-lakefront with full hookups. Enjoy the homemade “Lake Claiborne” burger, a favorite within the community. A full bar is now available with frozen beverages.
775 Peterson Rd., Homer, LA 71040
318-927-6536