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History · Campti

Campti’s post office opened in 1830

Most of Campti was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1987. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1921 on, and the census since 1880.

1830first post office
0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Campti’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Campti began

When was Campti founded?

1830

The Campti post office opened in 1830, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 101 in 18802020 census: 887196 years
Founding year: the first Campti post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Campti’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1830: 196 years of Campti.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Campti’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewFMIB 38228 Red River, near Campti La, a…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Timeline

Campti, 1830 to 1937

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1830Post officeThe Campti post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1922In the archiveFMIB 38228 Red River, near Campti La, a turbid stream with caving banks and shifting bott…
  5. 1931Born hereMaxine Brown is born here
  6. 1937On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story

How Campti came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Campti.

Read it all →

The rural parish was developed for large cotton plantations, and a majority of the population were enslaved African Americans in the antebellum years. But by the time of the American Civil War, a number of free people of color also lived in Campti and the area. They were known to be related to several of the longtime white families, who acknowledged them, and they were generally well accepted. According to one authority on this area, they lived nearly as white. At least nine men of color, and likely more, enlisted in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and "easily entered a predominately white military company."

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Campti, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1920s1 item
FMIB 38228 Red River, near Campti La, a turbid stream with caving banks and shifting bottom, quite unfavorable for muss…1922FMIB 38228 Red River, near Campti La, a turbid stream…
1930s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today5 recent
Campti January 2017 (Field) 012017Campti January 2017 (Field) 01Campti, LA, sign IMG 20522009Campti, LA, sign IMG 2052Sign at Campti, LA IMG 16402008Sign at Campti, LA IMG 1640Cattle grazing near Campti, LA IMG 16392008Cattle grazing near Campti, LA IMG 1639LAMap-doton-Campti2004LAMap-doton-Campti
On the map

Campti on the map, 1937 to 1996

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Campti. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Campti on the 1937 USGS mapCampti on the 1944 USGS mapCampti on the 1957 USGS mapCampti on the 1983 USGS mapCampti on the 1996 USGS map1937Campti NE sheet · 1:31,680

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

Every building

Campti, 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.

Campti 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.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

FMIB 38228 Red River, near Campti La, a turbid stream with caving banks and shifting bottom, quite unfavorable for muss…
Retake this viewFMIB 38228 Red River, near Campti La, a turbid stream with caving banks and shifting bottom, quite unfavorable for muss…, 1922

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Campti’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Campti, census by census

02004006008001,0001,20018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,078

Between 101 and 1,078 people in every census since 1880.

14 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Questions about Campti’s history

What year was Campti founded?

The Campti post office opened in 1830, 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 (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.