Plain Dealing, LA

Plain Dealing began in 1839 when George O. Gilmer established a 5,000-acre plantation and used the family name for part of the property. That origin sits within a broader history of land, farming, and enslaved labor in north Louisiana. The town took form later, when S. J. Zeigler backed a site for the St. Louis Southwestern Railway branch from Arkansas to Shreveport. Lots were sold in 1888, and Plain Dealing was chartered in 1890, giving the railroad a town to serve.

Today, Plain Dealing is a Bossier Parish town eight miles south of the Arkansas line and north of Shreveport. Farms, schools, churches, shops, town offices, and the railway-era street grid shape ordinary life, while the Shreveport-Bossier metro supplies larger jobs and services. The town’s early electric system, water lines, and sidewalks showed a community building infrastructure around agriculture and rail. Current life has a smaller scale, but the same practical question remains: how does a rural town keep its center useful for the surrounding country? Plain Dealing’s answer is found in local government, school routines, business owners, and residents who still use the town as a service point.