Old Wire Road

The first stagecoach crossed north Louisiana by 1825, a trip of about 30 hours for $15. On the Monroe-Shreveport line the fare for the 140 miles was $14, with stands every ten to fifteen miles. Vienna, about 35 miles out at $3.50, had a hotel run by the Colvin and Huey families where travelers slept. Accounts differ on whether the telegraph wire went up in 1847 or 1857. Vienna lost the parish seat to Ruston in 1884, the year the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific railroad was finished. Interstate 20 now runs five or six miles south.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eddie G. Robinson Museum — 6.0 mi
  A state museum in a former women's gymnasium at Grambling State University, on the 408-win coach who sent more than 200 players to the pros.

More markers nearby

• Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, Sr. — 5.3 mi
• Eddie G. Robinson — 5.3 mi
• Lincoln High School — 5.5 mi
• Louisiana Colored Chautauqua — 6.6 mi