Ruston: The Railroad Town That Became a College Hub

Ruston sits in the piney hills of north Louisiana, and it owes its existence to a single railroad decision. In eighteen eighty-three, a man named Robert Russ persuaded the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Railroad to route its tracks through his land, and the town that sprang up along those rails was named for him. Lots sold for three hundred seventy-five dollars apiece, and within months the sound of sawing lumber could be heard across the new settlement.

Two years later, in eighteen eighty-five, Ruston was incorporated. It soon replaced Vienna as the seat of Lincoln Parish, a county created during Reconstruction and named for President Abraham Lincoln. Today Ruston is best known as a university town, home to Louisiana Tech, and the surrounding parish is known for timber and peaches.