Here's Why Shed Road in Bossier City, LA is Called Shed Road

Get our free mobile app

I'll never forget the summer we moved to Bossier City. It was 1980 and it was insanely hot... a far cry from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where we were moving from. Our family settled in Dogwood Park, a subdivision in Bossier near Louisiana Downs. I went to Meadowview Elementary and Cope Junior High from 2nd through 8th grades after spending 1st grade at Sun City Elementary in south Bossier.

Over the years, I spent a lot of time on a school bus going back and forth to school, up and down Shed Road. I was always intrigued by the story behind the road's name. Did you know that Shed Road was in fact, covered by a shed for roughly nine miles at one time?

Once upon a time, long, long ago, roads in Louisiana were actually worse than they are now. Shocker! As you probably know, Shreveport was a bustling port and farmers would transport their products from all around northwest Louisiana to the river for sale/shipping. However, getting their merchandise to the river could be a bit dicey at times. After all, Louisiana boasts a pretty serious rainy season. Combine that with the clay in our soil and just think of trying to get a horse-drawn wagon through that kind of muck! It doesn't sound fun now and I'm sure it wasn't then. Agriculture was a huge part of our local economy, but if you couldn't move your goods, you didn't eat. And that was how Shed Road became the first all-weather turnpike in the south!

Here's what I was able to find regarding Shed Road on Wikipedia:

Shed Road, the first all-weather turnpike in the American South, was constructed in the 1870s and operated from 1874 to 1886. It extended for 9 miles (14 km) from Red Chute to the Red River. There was a plantation at the end of the elevated and covered roadway, which was accessible by a ferry boat. The covered road made the transportation of goods easier before the arrival of the railroads.

Pretty cool, huh? In the words of the great Paul Harvey, 'And now you know the rest of the story!'