This photograph was taken in the Bayou D'Loutre Basin, at the mouth of the Loutre where it empies into the Ouachita River. The photograph shows the site of the old settlement known as Port Union. As early as the 1840s and 1850s, there was a store here and a cotton warehouse. Farmers from the region around Bayou d'Loutre east of Farmerville had their cotton taken to Port Union to await shipment to New Orleans. It is unclear whether they hauled it there along the poor roads or floated it by flatboat down Bayou d'Loutre during periods of high water.

Thanks to Gene Barron for taking me out on the Loutre for me to take these photographs on a sweaty, hot summer day in late June 2006. If the earliest settlers made their way into the Bayou d'Loutre region east of Farmerville by poling up the Loutre in February 1837, it was a difficult journey. Our boat hit numerous snags.

This photograph was submitted to the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by T. D. Hudson in November 2006.

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