Baldwin's Store

Many is named for a soldier, not a settler. Colonel James B. Many commanded the garrison at nearby Fort Jesup, and the town took his name. The Louisiana Legislature created the town and Sabine Parish on March 21, 1843, by Act 46, splitting the new parish from Natchitoches Parish and making Many the seat. The first business was a log store that also served as hotel, tavern, post office and seat of local government. The town had 143 people in 1880, peaked at 3,988 in 1980, and counted 2,571 in the 2020 census.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Jesup State Historic Site — 5.7 mi
  The 1822 army post Zachary Taylor built to hold the Neutral Ground between Louisiana and Spanish Texas, with the one surviving kitchen, a reconstructed officers' quarters and a museum open Friday to Sunday.
• North Toledo Bend State Park — 15 mi
  A 900-acre park on the Louisiana shore of the 186,000-acre Toledo Bend Reservoir, with trails, disc golf and cabins, near the flooded sites of Pine Flat and other Sabine Parish communities.
• Los Adaes State Historic Site — 15 mi
  The Spanish presidio that was the capital of Texas from 1729 to 1770, some 15 miles from French Natchitoches, now an archaeological site where Native pottery is the most abundant find.
• Red Hills Lake Recreation Area — 22 mi
  A 19-acre Sabine National Forest lake completed by the CCC in 1940 near Milam, a short drive from Toledo Bend Reservoir, with a swimming beach, fishing and camping from May through October.

More markers nearby

• Village of Fisher — 5.2 mi
• El Camino Real — 5.7 mi
• Free State of Sabine — 8.8 mi
• Early Spanish Missions — 9.9 mi