Montgomery, LA

Montgomery is a Grant Parish town on the eastern bank of the Red River, with one of Louisiana's older settlement stories. The place began as Bon Dieu Falls, a French trading post established in 1719. The river later shifted into the old channel, making the settlement permanent along the bluffs. General Thomas Woodward bought the land in 1840 and called it Creola Bluff; by 1860 the name Montgomery had taken hold. For decades the river made the town a steamboat port, with freight, travelers, and river commerce setting the pace.

The railroad changed that arrangement in 1901. River trade declined, and the town moved about two miles east toward the station, first called Machen before the Montgomery name followed it. U.S. Route 71 now carries the road traffic through northwestern Grant Parish, while the Red River remains the town's geographic signature. Montgomery's story has a real Louisiana twist: a French trading post, a wandering river channel, a bluff named for a family story, and a railroad that nudged the town to a new spot. It is an old Red River place that has moved with the transportation system around it.