Site of Bowie Residence

The Bowies settled permanently in Opelousas in 1812, and after the War of 1812 James supported himself by sawing lumber and floating planks down the bayou. In 1818 he found a better trade. With Jean Lafitte he made three trips to Lafitte's Galveston compound, bought smuggled enslaved people, used customs-house rules to get half the price back, and sold them for more in New Orleans and upriver. Before the knife and the Alamo, he made money by trafficking in human beings.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Le Vieux Village and the Venus House — 1.2 mi
  A heritage park in Opelousas built around the Venus House of about 1791, the home of a free Creole woman of color, Marie Francois Venus, with an old schoolhouse, Methodist church and the visitor center's zydeco music exhibit.
• Prairie Acadian Cultural Center — 21 mi
  A National Park Service center in Eunice on the Cajun prairie, with exhibits on the Acadians who settled the prairies, a Courir de Mardi Gras display, free music and cooking demonstrations, and the shuttered Liberty Theatre nearby.
• Vermilionville — 21 mi
  A living-history village of about 23 acres on Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette, opened in 1990 to interpret the Native peoples, Acadians, Creoles and people of African descent of the Attakapas region.
• Cypress Island Preserve at Lake Martin — 24 mi
  Nearly 10,000 acres of bottomland hardwood and cypress-tupelo swamp at the south end of Lake Martin, owned by The Nature Conservancy, with a boardwalk and a rookery of egrets, spoonbills and alligators.

More markers nearby

• Mary Jane Steam Engine Train — 1.2 mi
• Jim Bowie Oak — 1.2 mi
• Louisiana Orphan Train Museum — 1.2 mi
• Opelousas Firsts and Famous / Hall of Fame — 1.2 mi