Libuse Czech Colony

Needlework carried Libuse's Czech families through the hard years. Embroidery, crochet and sewing were set aside during the early pioneer period and revived in the late 1920s and 1930s, when the Depression made buying household goods difficult. Feed and flour sacks became clothing, towels, sheets and diapers, and unraveled sack string became crochet thread. Embroidered kitchen cloths carried proverbs and domestic scenes, and Marie Wittera Brousek was known for multicolored designs. Libuse was founded in 1914 and is named for Libuse of Czech tradition.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum — 4.3 mi
  A National Guard museum in a replica WWII barracks at Camp Beauregard, built around the huge 1940-41 war games in Central Louisiana. Free.
• Forts Randolph and Buhlow State Historic Site — 7.1 mi
  Two Confederate earthen forts on the Red River at Pineville, built with enslaved labor and never attacked, beside the remains of Bailey's Dam.
• Arna Bontemps African American Museum — 7.2 mi
  The restored Alexandria house where the Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps was born in 1902, on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.
• Kent Plantation House — 9.4 mi
  Rapides Parish's oldest known standing building, a Creole house with a February tour and a 2023 memorial that put the enslaved first.

More markers nearby

• Camp Beauregard - 761st Tank Battalion — 4.3 mi
• Kolin Czech Colony — 5.2 mi
• Jefferson Highway — 5.4 mi
• Louisiana College — 5.8 mi