How Bunkie Got Its Name

The man who named Bunkie was born Alexandre Haas in Alsace in 1833 and reached New Orleans from Le Havre in June 1855, aged 16. By 1860 he was in Opelousas with his merchant brother Samuel. He served as a Confederate colonel and stood in the honor guard at Jefferson Davis's funeral. In exchange for the Texas and Pacific's right of way, he asked to name the station for his daughter Mary Maccie's nickname, Bunkie. He died in Evergreen in 1908 and is buried there.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tunica-Biloxi Museum — 13 mi
  The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana's own museum at Marksville, built around the Tunica Treasure that the tribe won back in court.
• Avoyelles Parish Courthouse: Solomon Northup Marker — 14 mi
  The Marksville courthouse where Solomon Northup was freed in January 1853, with a marker and a 2026 bronze that shows him rising from the mud.
• Epps House: Solomon Northup's Gateway to Freedom — 21 mi
  The Creole cottage Solomon Northup helped build for the man who enslaved him, moved twice and now a small museum on the LSU Alexandria campus.
• Arna Bontemps African American Museum — 29 mi
  The restored Alexandria house where the Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps was born in 1902, on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.

More markers nearby

• Cleco Originated in Bunkie, LA — steps away
• Bunkie Post Office — steps away
• Bunkie Depot Museum — steps away
• Rays Ferry 1816 — 2.4 mi