Louisiana’s Hidden History – The Towns Under Toledo Bend Reservoir

(Toledo Bend, Louisiana) - If you’ve spent time near the Louisiana-Texas border, odds are you’ve heard stories of a town swallowed whole by the waters of Toledo Bend Reservoir. Some call it folklore. Back in my younger days when I was in the Boy Scouts, we stayed at a cabin on the edge of Toledo Bend where stories were told around the campfire. Others swear their grandparents remember when “you could walk down Main Street before it was a lake.”

Turns out, these stories are rooted in fact. According to TexasHighways.com, multiple communities along the Sabine River are now below the surface of Toledo Bend including Pine Flat, Robinson Bend and Fairdale, along with others.

In the 1960s, before the reservoir was filled, the state relocated hundreds of families and even entire communities to make way for what would become the largest man-made body of water in the South. While no one “forgot” a town beneath the water, some ghost towns and some family cemeteries were indeed submerged because no one was around to identify them. Other cemeteries were relocated prior to the project to properly honor the dead.

The communities of Barlake and Pine Ridge were some of the small settlements that were partially flooded. Remnants of homes, foundations, and even grave markers still lay below the lake’s surface — and yes, some fisherman claim to have snagged more than just catfish down there.

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Descendants of residents who lived in the communities have held gatherings and even have a Facebook group committed to the gone but not forgotten communities

Read More: Louisiana's Forgotten Ghost Towns

So is there a town under Toledo Bend?

While not a busy city by today's standards, several communities were absolutely lost to the waters — and their memory still ripples through local stories.