Bernice, LA

Bernice is a Union Parish town with 1,356 residents in the 2020 census. It is known as a gateway to the parish, with the Bernice Depot Museum, the Captain Henderson caboose, and the Corney Creek Great Outdoors Festival giving the small town a set of recognizable gathering points. Union Parish Public Schools now sends Bernice students to schools in Farmerville, but the restored depot keeps the town's railroad beginning in view. The 1899 building sits beside the routes that connect Bernice to northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas.

The Arkansas Southern Railroad platted Bernice in 1899 and built the depot when its line extended into Louisiana. In 1899, a public lot sale drew a large crowd, and 207 lots sold that spring; Bernice incorporated in December of the same year. Passenger trains continued into the 1950s and freight service lasted into the 1980s. The town acquired the depot in 1991 and turned it into a museum filled with local memorabilia. Bernice is a Louisiana railroad town whose present-day museum occupies the building that put it on the map.