Russellville

Claiborne Parish's government moved four times in about twenty years. After the parish was created in 1828, business was done at the Murrell house on Flat Lick Bayou, which had also served as church, school and post office. Russellville was the first official seat. In 1836 the seat went to Overton, at the head of navigable water on Dorcheat Bayou; in 1846 to Athens, because of flooding and health concerns; and after an 1848 fire destroyed the courthouse and its records, to the present site, named Homer.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Germantown Colony Museum — 12 mi
  Two hewn-log buildings from an 1836 religious commune near Minden, the earliest of its kind in Louisiana, with a museum added in 1975.
• Eddie G. Robinson Museum — 21 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.
• Lake Bistineau State Park — 26 mi
  A 903-acre state park on a lake the Great Raft made, opened in 1946 with a separate section for Black visitors from 1956, and now known for cypress water and a lake that is drawn down.

More markers nearby

• St. John Colored School — 4.1 mi
• Claiborne Parish Confederate Monument — 4.7 mi
• Homer College (CME) / African American Education in Louisiana — 7.3 mi
• Ma Canfield's Cafe — 8.4 mi