DeQuincy, LA

DeQuincy is the northernmost city in Calcasieu Parish, a six-mile-square place surrounded by pine and hardwood forests. The 2020 census counted 3,144 residents. It began in 1897 as a railroad settlement, and the Kansas City Southern and Union Pacific lines still define the town's shape. Timber and turpentine also belong to the early local economy, giving DeQuincy a working history that is broader than the tracks alone. You can read that older economy in the trees beyond the tracks and the equipment parked around the depot.

That railroad story is kept in the 1923 Kansas City Southern Depot, now the DeQuincy Railroad Museum and a National Register property. The grounds hold a 1913 steam engine, a 1947 Pullman coach, two cabooses, a park, and the annual Louisiana Railroad Days Festival on the second weekend in April. The museum's meeting room and playground keep the depot in ordinary use beyond exhibit hours. DeQuincy's local scoop is a north Louisiana town where a timber-and-railroad past still runs through one hands-on museum.