Simsboro, LA

Simsboro is a Lincoln Parish village of 803 people at the 2020 census, in western Louisiana and part of the Ruston Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its historical footprint is tied to people who connected the small village to nearby Ruston and a future university. Representative George M. Lomax lived in Simsboro and in 1894 introduced Act 68, the legislation that established the institution that became Louisiana Tech University.

The university link is the memorable hook, but Simsboro's local scale stays visible. D. "Buddy" Napper served as a lawmaker from 1952 to 1964 and practiced law in Ruston for half a century. Ragan Madden left the House in 1949 and became a five-term district attorney of the 3rd Judicial District. Simsboro is a Lincoln Parish village whose story moves between a village address, Ruston legal life, and the institution whose origin traces to a 19th-century legislative act. The act's legacy gives Simsboro a place in the origin story of a major regional institution.