Farmerville, LA

Farmerville is the seat of Union Parish in north Louisiana, a town laid out in 1839 after the parish was created. Its name is generally tied to Miles Farmer, and the town was incorporated and chartered in 1842. Those courthouse roots still matter to the way Farmerville feels on a map: this is the place where parish business, schools, and the main local festival gather. Union Parish School District serves the area, with Farmerville High School among the town’s familiar institutions.

Lake D’Arbonne gives Farmerville its bigger geographic frame. The reservoir was completed in 1963 and spreads across roughly 15,280 acres with about 100 miles of shoreline, drawing fishing, boating, camps, and year-round homes around the water. Lake D’Arbonne State Park sits on the lake west of town, with piers, docks, trails, and fishing for bass, crappie, catfish, and bream. Back on Courthouse Square, the Watermelon Festival returns on the last weekend of July, a Jaycees tradition dating to 1963 with a parade, contests, and other events. Farmerville’s character comes from that pairing: parish-seat practicality on one side, a large recreational lake on the other.