Abandoned Towns

Former town · nothing left · Beauregard Parish, Louisiana

Bon Ami

A Long-Bell company sawmill town of about 1,500 people, built in 1900 and 1901 two miles south of DeRidder and dismantled after the timber ran out in 1925.

30°48′28″N 93°17′43″W
Nothing left

Nothing of the sawmill town of Bon Ami is known to stand. Its mill ran out of timber in 1925, and the mill and most of the town were taken down. USGS maps from 1947 on show only a mill pond and old rail grades there, and the current USGS aerial imagery (viewed October 29, 2026) shows pasture, woods and the pond beside the Kansas City Southern line two miles south of DeRidder.

The label

Why Bon Ami is called a ghost town

Wikipedia calls Bon Ami a ghost town and includes it in its list of ghost towns in Louisiana, which takes in the state's old sawmill towns. The historian W. T. Block, in "Bon Ami, Beauregard Parish: A Thriving Mill Town", writes that it became "only another ghost town" like two hundred other Louisiana mill towns once the pine was cut. The label is fair. In 1904 Bon Ami was the fourth-largest town in Calcasieu Parish; twenty-one years later the company that built it took it apart.

History

Bon Ami then

Bon Ami was a company town of the King-Ryder Lumber Company, a subsidiary of the Long-Bell Lumber Company of Kansas City, which had followed the Kansas City Southern railroad into the longleaf pine of southwest Louisiana. The company broke ground in October 1900, and the mill started cutting on July 26, 1901, when the area was still part of Calcasieu Parish. The name is French for "good friend", though Block thought its origin uncertain. The town stood where the Kansas City Southern and the company's Louisiana and Pacific Railway ran side by side.

The American Lumberman of July 2, 1904, counted 210 houses, two schools, three lodges, two churches and two hotels, the Commercial, which it called one of the best between Shreveport and Port Arthur, and the cheaper Hotel Bon Ami, and put the population at 1,500 or more. The mill was rated at 150,000 feet of lumber a day but was running day and night and cutting about twice that. Block estimates at least 1,200 people, describes a large commissary, a school through the seventh grade for white and Black children, and a logging railroad 12 miles long to the log camp at Walla, and notes that the mill dropped to one shift in the 1907 and 1908 slump.

The mill cut out its timber in 1925, and the mill and much of the town were dismantled. Block, writing from sources up to the 1950s, says Bon Ami's name was soon forgotten except by a few elderly people, and that "perhaps only an abandoned cemetery is all that exists there today." We found no record or report of that cemetery.

Oct 1900. The King-Ryder Lumber Company breaks ground for the mill and town.

Jul 26, 1901. The mill begins cutting.

1904. Bon Ami has 210 houses, two schools, two churches, two hotels and at least 1,500 people, and the mill runs day and night.

1907–1908. In the panic the mill drops to one shift.

1925. The timber is cut out, and the mill and most of the town are dismantled.

1947. The USGS DeRidder sheet names Bon Ami beside the Kansas City Southern line, with only the mill pond and old rail grades.

1960. The USGS De Ridder sheet shows the pond and fields at Bon Ami, with Hite and the edge of DeRidder to the north.

Today

What is there now

The site is open country two miles south of DeRidder, on the east side of the Kansas City Southern line and LA 27. The USGS sheets of 1947 and 1954 print the name over an empty section with a small pond, likely the mill pond, a looping dashed line of old track and a grade running off to the west. The 1960 sheet shows the pond and fields, with houses growing along the roads toward DeRidder. The current USGS aerial imagery, viewed October 29, 2026, shows pasture, a belt of woods along the railroad and scattered houses on Granberry Road to the north. We found no marker, no ruins and no dated visit report. The land around the pond appears private; see it from the public road.

Historic maps

Bon Ami on USGS maps, 1947–1960

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the map point. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Bon Ami, 1947
DeRidder sheet, 1947, 1:31,680 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Bon Ami's site is just south of DeRidder off LA 27. Both routes end on Granberry Road, the nearest public road to the point, about 200 m from it. There is nothing to walk to; the land is private as far as we know.

USGS topographic map from DeRidder south along LA 27 to the Bon Ami site

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Times assume dry roads.

From downtown DeRidder2.9 miabout 5 min
  1. From downtown DeRidder, take South Pine Street (LA 27) south.2.6 mi
  2. Turn left on Granberry Road.0.3 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Directions go to Granberry Road, about 200 m north of the Bon Ami point, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Road and visiting notes

  • The routes end on Granberry Road. The townsite itself is pasture and woods, private as far as we know.
  • The routes are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

Questions

Common questions

Is Bon Ami a ghost town?

It is a vanished one. The sawmill town of about 1,500 people was dismantled after its timber ran out in 1925, and the site is now pasture and woods south of DeRidder.

Is anything left of Bon Ami?

Old maps show a small pond, probably the mill pond, which is still there. Historian W. T. Block thought an abandoned cemetery might remain, but we found no record of it, and no ruins have been reported.

Where was Bon Ami?

About two miles south of DeRidder in Beauregard Parish, beside the Kansas City Southern railroad and LA 27, near Granberry Road.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Bon Ami

Straight-line distance to other mapped sites in our Louisiana index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Bon Ami, Louisiana", retrieved October 2026: ghost town, King-Ryder and Long-Bell, ground broken in 1900, the mill from July 26, 1901, the 1904 figures, the 1925 cut-out and dismantling, the 1947 map, the two coordinate points.
  2. W. T. Block, "Bon Ami, Beauregard Parish: A Thriving Mill Town", LAGenWeb, undated (sources to 1954): the company and its officers, the name, mill output, population estimates, schools, hotel, commissary, the Walla log camp, the 1908 slowdown, 1925, "only another ghost town", the possible cemetery.
  3. "From Tree to Trade in Yellow Pine," American Lumberman, July 2, 1904, Texas Transportation Archive: ground broken October 1900, the July 26, 1901 start, 210 houses, schools, lodges, churches, the two hotels, 1,500 people, the mill rating and output, the two railways.
  4. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Louisiana", retrieved October 2026: Bon Ami listed, south of DeRidder.
  5. USGS The National Map, current topographic map and aerial imagery at the point, viewed October 29, 2026. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits