Grand Cane Map
Grand Cane is a village in De Soto Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 191 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Shreveport–Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the hometown of women's basketball pioneer Linda Gamble.
Prior to the incorporation of the Village of Grand Cane in 1899, the settlement of four families (Thomas Abington, Israel Rogers, Wright Hobgood, and John Wagner) influenced the development of the area around two wagon trails that intersected in the sparsely populated area known as the Grand Cane Territory. In 1881, Amanda Hobgood (widow of Wright Hobgood) deeded land to the New Orleans & Pacific Railway and had the Village of Grand Cane laid out in lots and streets. By 1899, the Village of Grand Cane was incorporated and the first Mayor was E.R. Fortson. The first Village Councilmen were Paul E. Allen, Loderick Monroe Cook, and Dr. J.B. Johns. The population soon grew to almost 500. As the Village developed, spurred by the railway and the two crossroads (LA Hwys. 171 and 3015), a vigorous business community developed which included seven stores (Tidwell, Ricks Bros., Hicks & Richardson, Peyton, Hoell, Cook & Douglas, and George Parker), a dentist (Dr. Platt), bank, post office, blacksmith shop, livery stable, two hotels (Allen & Jackson), four doctors (Drs. Broadway, Leopold, Bannaman, & Curtis), three drug stores (Edwards, Leopold, & Allen), telephone office, newspaper, restaurant, two cotton gins, and various distinguished residential homes. The community was also enhanced by the first accredited public high school in the State of Louisiana, and a Presbyterian, Methodist, and two Baptist churches.
The Village continued to thrive until the Great Depression of 1929. The downward spiral continued with the demise of the Texas & Pacific Railway in the late 1950s. The steady decline of the agricultural industry, the lack of new businesses, the loss of the public school, and a general movement away from the rural area saw the end of the Village as a center for trade. The Village of Grand Cane, like so many small towns left behind by progress, simply went to sleep until 1993, when the Village used funds from a Rural Development Grant from the State of Louisiana to purchase the Hicks & Richardson Building.
Nearby cities include Logansport, Stonewall, Frierson, Joaquin, Mansfield.