City Of Hammond

Hammond's first name was practical. When the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern reached the settlement in 1854, the junction was called Hammond's Crossing. Strawberries came later and fast. Across the parish, berries were worth over $1.1 million in 1909 against $60,000 for cotton, and Louisiana led the nation in strawberry output for most of the 1920s, before production peaked in 1931 and then fell sharply. Hammond became a shipping point for the crop, and Independence's farmers' association, founded in 1908, auctioned its members' berries at the railroad terminal.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tickfaw State Park — 13 mi
  A floodplain park on the Tickfaw River, with cypress-tupelo swamp, bottomland hardwoods and about 4.75 miles of trails and boardwalks, plus a nature center with an 800-gallon river aquarium.
• Fontainebleau State Park — 29 mi
  Lakeshore park on the Northshore where Tchefuncte potters, Acolapissa and Choctaw lived, and where 153 people were enslaved at Marigny's sugar and brick plantation by 1840; the mill ruin still stands.

More markers nearby

• Hammond Junior College — 0.3 mi
• Friendship Circle — 0.5 mi
• Site of 1st Classroom Bldg. — 0.5 mi
• The Republic of West Florida — 2.8 mi