Sue Eakin, a Louisiana historian, writer, and editor of Solomon Northup’s classic autobiography Twelve Years a Slave, has published an excellent online resource for those interested in the history of Rapides Parish– a truncated version of a 1976 publication.
The website, located here, offers extensive information on the colonial period, the birth of the lumber industry, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Bourbon Period.
Eakin and her sister Manie Culbertson authored the textbook Louisiana: The Land and Its People, which has been used as a teaching tool throughout the state for decades.
CenLamar 
In the interest of full disclosure, Sue Eakin is my great aunt.
If one has an interest in Professor Eakin’s works on Louisiana history, the Rapides Parish site of the Genweb project should also be looked at. Many local researchers have articles on this site which deal with local history, with an emphasis on the founding fathers. It is definately worth a look. See: http://www.rootsweb.com/~larapide/index.htm
Sue has long been one of the greta proponents to promoting and preserving our region’s history. It’s good to see more information on the web.
We’ve got such a rich history here. I was just doing some research the other night and learned that the first settlement of Alexandria was not the Post du Rapides as is commonly thought, but an Apalachee village that flourished for about 90 years before Fulton, Maddox and their lot laid out the actual city. This village was also home to the first church in Rapides Parish for anyon interested in the area’s religious history.
Another excellent source for local/state history is Jock Scott. His Louisiana History class was intense and illuminating when I took it as a Freshman in 2000.
Kudos to Sue.