1968 Map of Lamartine

About this map

Willisville Oil Field dominates the northern landscape of this Columbia County survey, signaling the petroleum industry's impact on this rural terrain during the late 1960s. The settlement pattern is characterized by small, dispersed communities and crossroads anchored by local institutions like Kendrick Chapel and Pleasant Hill Sch. In the southern reaches, the community of Lamartine sits near the Shiloh Cem and Columbia Cem, preserving a record of family names and early local history. The land is drained by a network of waterways including Dorcheat Bayou, Cypress Creek, and Brushy Creek, which cross through the heavily wooded Stockton Bottom. This map captures the region just as modern infrastructure began to weave through established rural pockets like Bethel and Stockton, where fine red dashed lines indicate field and fence lines visible from 1965 aerial photography.