Haynesville, Louisiana

Town of Haynesville
Town
Welcoming to Haynesville: "Gateway to North Louisiana"
Country	United States
State	Louisiana
Parish	Claiborne
Elevation	367 ft (111.9 m)
Coordinates	32°57′40″N 93°08′17″W
Area	4.9 sq mi (12.7 km2)
- land	4.9 sq mi (13 km2)
- water	0.0 sq mi (0 km2), 0%
Population	2,679 (2000)
Density	545.2 / sq mi (210.5 / km2)
Timezone	CST (UTC-6)
- summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
Area code	318
Location of Haynesville in Louisiana
Location of Louisiana in the United States

Haynesville United Methodist Church

First Baptist Church in downtown Haynesville

The First Presbyterian Church in Haynesville

City Hall in Haynesville

This obelisk erected in 1976 in Bicentennial Park in Haynesville is dedicated to the medical profession. The site is at the former location of a hospital.

The large Old Town Cemetery in south Haynesville contains the grave of John Sidney Garrett.

Haynesville is a town in northern Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, United States, located just south of the Arkansas border. The population was 2,679 at the 2000 census.

Haynesville is known as the "Gateway to North Louisiana" and the "Butterfly Capital of Louisiana".

History

Haynesville was settled in 1818. The community took the name "Haynesville" in 1843 from farmer Samuel Haynes of Georgia, who established Old Haynesville some two miles south of the present site of the town. In 1898, the whole town moved north to meet the railroad, now the Louisiana and Northwest Railroad.

Modern Haynesville was built on a 1920s petroleum boom, one of the largest in Louisiana. For a time, the population reached twenty thousand. The "old boom town" was constructed in what is called Baucum Spur. It consisted of a hotel, restaurants, and saloons.

The Haynesville economy is supported still by oil as well as hunting, fishing, and timber, with considerable logging and pulpwood production in the area.

Since 1907, Haynesville High School has won fifteen state championships in American football. This record is second to John Curtis Christian High School in River Ridge in Jefferson Parish in the New Orleans suburbs. Haynesville maintains a longstanding rivalry with nearby Homer High School in the parish seat of Homer, which also opened in 1907.

Haynesville has a variety of churches, including Baptist, United Methodist, Presbyterian, Missionary Baptist, Pentecostal, and Church of Christ.

Geography

Haynesville is located at 32°57′40″N 93°8′17″W (32.961132, -93.138091).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.9 square miles (13 km²), of which, 4.9 square miles (13 km²) of it is land and 0.20% is water.

The most common soil is Eastwood series, which has 3 to 10 inches of brown very fine sandy loam over 20 inches of red clay.[1][2] It supports a native forest vegetation of loblolly pine, shortleaf pine, southern red oak, American sweet gum and hickory.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,679 people, 1,087 households, and 709 families residing in the town. The population density was 545.2 people per square mile (210.7/km²). There were 1,247 housing units at an average density of 253.8 per square mile (98.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 49.42% White, 49.76% African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.04% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.07% from other races, and 0.49% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.82% of the population.

There were 1,087 households out of which 30.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.0% were married couples living together, 19.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.7% were non-families. 33.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 3.07.

In the town the population was spread out with 27.3% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 23.7% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and 22.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 82.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.9 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $20,406, and the median income for a family was $28,295. Males had a median income of $29,375 versus $20,278 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,163. About 23.8% of families and 27.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 39.9% of those under age 18 and 20.0% of those age 65 or over.

Government and infrastructure

The United States Postal Service operates the Haynesville Post Office.

Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections operates the David Wade Correctional Center in an unincorporated section of Claiborne Parish near Haynesville.

Education

Haynesville Junior-Senior High School

Claiborne Parish School Board serves the parish. The schools that serve Haynesville are Haynesville Elementary School and Haynesville Junior-Senior High School.

Claiborne Academy is located in unincorporated Claiborne Parish, near Haynesville.

Notable natives and residents

• Geoffrey Beene, clothing designer.
• Thomas S. Cochran, author of "Running the Dogs" and "Roughnecks," nominated for the The National Book Award for Young Adults.
• Doug Evans, former NFL football player.
• Demetric Evans, current NFL football player (San Francisco 49ers).
• Hines Upton "Mutt" Slaid (1922–2008), sometimes known as "Mr. Haynesville", was elected mayor in 2005 at the age of eighty-two.
• John Sidney Garrett, politician; Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives (1968–1972)
• Jim Haynes born 1933, leading figure in British 'counter-culture'.
• George H. Mahon, Texas U.S. Representative from 1935–1979, was born in Mahon near Haynesville in 1900
• Cicely Levingston, Major, United States Air Force
• Danny Roy Moore, Louisiana state senator from Claiborne and Bienville parishes from 1964–1968, was born in Haynesville in 1925.
• Bob Odom, former Louisiana commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry.
• Rupert Peyton, politician, historian, journalist; first worked for the Haynesville News.
• J. Wayne Robbins (May 7, 1927 - December 15, 2007) was a Haynesville native who served as mayor of the small city of Kimball in the Nebraska Panhandle from 1978-1982.