"Ben and the Boys"

Ben Lilly gave up on Mer Rouge in 1901, signing his property over to his wife and children. In 1904 the Bureau of Biological Survey hired him to collect specimens, and from Louisiana he shipped a cougar, five black bears, seven red wolves and two ivory-billed woodpeckers. He gave up coffee, drink and tobacco as well as cursing. His last visit to the state was a call on his sister in Shreveport in August 1920. He died on a New Mexico ranch in December 1936, and a conservation area on Bayou Bartholomew bears his name.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chemin-A-Haut State Park — 9.6 mi
  A 1935 park on the ridge above Bayou Bartholomew, the 359-mile bayou, named for the French 'high road' that followed the ridge.
• Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 19 mi
  A cypress lake inside the city limits of Monroe, run by the Fish and Wildlife Service on a 99-year lease, with a boardwalk, a wildlife pier and a planter's house visitor center.
• Northeast Louisiana Delta African American Heritage Museum — 23 mi
  A museum chartered in 1994 that tells the story of the Black pioneers of Monroe and northeast Louisiana, with local art, quilts and the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail's only Ouachita Parish stop.
• Chennault Aviation and Military Museum — 24 mi
  A Monroe museum that began as a 1986 reunion of Selman Field airmen and now holds Flying Tigers displays, Delta's Monroe beginnings and a park of retired aircraft.

More markers nearby

• Mable John — 6.9 mi
• Morehouse Parish Training School — 7.5 mi
• Gene Stewart — 21 mi
• Po' Henry and Tookie — 21 mi