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History · Belcher

Belcher’s post office opened in 1900, and 22% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1921 on and the census since 1970.

1900first post office
0on the National Register
22%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Belcher began

When was Belcher founded?

1900

The Belcher post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Horseshoe (1899), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 482 in 19702020 census: 248126 years
Founding year: the first Belcher post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Belcher’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Belcher are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Belcher’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Belcher’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Belcher came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Belcher.

Read it all →

Previously named Horseshoe after the bayou that runs through the town, Belcher was renamed in 1899 after James Clinton Belcher, a former Confederate soldier and overseer of Wild Lucia Plantation.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Belcher, 1899 to 1986

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1899Post officeThe Horseshoe post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1900Post officeThe Horseshoe post office closes
  5. 1900Post officeThe Belcher post office opens
  6. 1986On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Belcher, decade by decade

Today1 recent
LAMap-doton-Belcher2004LAMap-doton-Belcher
On the map

Belcher on the map in 1986

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Belcher.

Belcher on the 1986 USGS map1986Shreveport North sheet · 1:100,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Belcher.

Every building

Belcher, building by building, 1921

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Belcher fire insurance map, 1921, sheet 11921Sheet 1 of 1
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

People over time

Belcher, census by census

0100200300400500198020002020Peak: 482

Between 248 and 482 people in every census since 1970.

6 censuses, 1970–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Belcher’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Belcher’s post office has been open since 1900. Another post office, Horseshoe, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Horseshoe
1899–1900
Belcher
1900–today
18901960today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Belcher’s history

What year was Belcher founded?

The Belcher post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.