Stop #4. (Avoyelles) Small Port of Holmesville on Bayou Boeuf

 (pg. 24, cont'd) HOLMESVILLE, PORT ON BAYOU BOEUF - Note Marker #4 just before reaching the bridge over Bayou Boeuf. Turn left and continue along the bayou. The Marchive home, on the left, is an ante bellum structure that may have been a boarding house at the Port of Holmesville, according to local tradition.
Holmesville was a bustling port in the time of Northup's enslavement to Epps. Lumber, cotton, and raw sugar were shipped from Holmesville, and it was the scene of shooting matches and other sports. Dr. Windes, the doctor to whom Epps once sent Northup, lived near Holmesville on Watermelon Bayou.
Holmesville was the last major port going south where the Boeuf flows into Courtableu Bayou some fifty miles below. The historic inland port of Washington was the center of commerce which connected the inland plantations on the Boeuf and elsewhere with New Orleans markets.