Discover the highest point in Louisiana

The highest point in Louisiana is Driskill Mountain at 535 feet.

Louisiana is a southern state bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Texas to the west. It is best known for its diverse mix of cultures and traditions, ranging from French and Spanish settlers to Creoles/Cajuns and Mardi Gras Indians.

Louisiana is also famous for the port city of New Orleans, a popular shipping destination and birthplace of jazz music.

Where is Driskill Mountain and is it a real mountain?

Driskill Mountain is located on private land in central northern Louisiana, just a short drive off the 507 freeway. Louisiana is divided into parishes rather than counties, a tradition that stems from its French and Spanish heritage. Part of the community of Bienville, Driskill Mountain is close to Shreveport (Louisiana’s largest city) and Ruston and Grambling, two popular neighboring college towns.

The municipality of Bienville is popular for its fishing and hunting as it has many lakes and forests in the area. Their forest raw material alone is valued at over 47 million dollars.

The easiest way to find Driskill Mountain is to go to Mount Zion Presbyterian Church in the town of Arcadia. If you follow the dirt road past the church cemetery and into the pine forest, you can follow the signposts that show the way.

Although Driskill Mountain is not public land, the owners of the area allow visitors so long as they leave no footprints on the mountain and refrain from loud or rowdy behavior.

While an elevation of 535 feet would normally be considered a hill in most states, Louisiana as a whole is one of the lowest places in the nation with an average elevation of just 100 feet above sea level. Its highest area is the third lowest in the United States, while its lowest point (in New Orleans) is 8 feet (2.5 meters) below sea level.

Accordingly, Driskill Mountain qualifies as a mountain for the state of Louisiana, and the only mountains lower than Driskill are Ebright Azimuth in Delaware and Britton Hill in Florida. The terrain in the area is mostly forest, which is common for this section of Louisiana and Northeast Texas, with a significant amount of ferrous sandstone in the soil. You will also find many dogwood and azalea plants in the area.

There are several buildings in the city of New Orleans that are taller than Driskill Mountain, including the Hancock Whitney Center (formerly known as One Shell Square) and the skyscrapers of Place St. Charles in the city’s downtown area.

How was Driskill Mountain formed?

Driskill Mountain is the result of the erosion of fine silt during the Paleogene Era, a relatively recent geological occurrence (the first of three during the Cenozoic) representing less than 1% of geological time. The developments of this shift can thus be observed much closer to the earth’s surface. The Paleogene period stretched from 66 million to 23 million years ago.

The summit of Driskill Mountain consists of non-marine silica sands dating back to the Cockfield Formation, a geologic formation originally found in Mississippi during the Paleogene Period.

Most of the Driskill Mountain was created by the Cook Mountain Formation (also of Paleogene origin) and consists of coastal/marine mud and clay.

Who is Driskill Mountain named after?

Driskill Mountain is named for James Christopher Driskill, a retired soldier from Henry County, Georgia. He was born on June 27, 1817. He sold his land in Macon, Georgia in October 1859 and moved his family of eleven (including his wife Eugenia, a daughter and eight sons) to Louisiana where he had purchased 800 acres of lumber and farmland from Nathan P. Smith. His property eventually grew to total 960 acres, but part of his original purchase included what is now known as Driskill Mountain.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, James Driskill joined the Home Guard, a Confederate militia tasked with serving as the last line of defense on their respective home fronts. The Home Guard consisted of every man between the ages of 18 and 50 who could not serve in the Confederate Army. William, the eldest Driskill, died in the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia on May 5, 1864, and another of his sons disappeared in the war.

Driskill sold two acres of land to the Mount Zion community trustees on June 26, 1883 for $5. They joined forces with a local Presbyterian church and built Mount Zion Presbyterian Church, which still stands today, and the Driskill Memorial Cemetery.

With the exception of one daughter and one son, James Christopher Driskill’s family remained on their land after the war. Most of his family line currently resides in the township of Bienville.

What are the five highest points in Louisiana?

The five highest points in Louisiana are Driskill Mountain (535 feet), Athens Lookout Tower (500 feet), Sabine Parish High Point (490 feet), Vernon Parish High Point (484 feet), and Webster High Point (480 feet).

Athens Lookout Tower is located in the city of Athens in the municipality of Claiborne. It is one of six lookout towers in the parish including Antiock Lookout Tower, Blackburn Lookout Tower, KLVU-AM, KWHN-FM and Rocky Hill Lookout Tower. Athens is named after the capital of Greece and was reportedly the capital of Claiborne Municipality in 1846 before a fire two years later destroyed the courthouse records. The city of Homer is the current municipal seat.

Sabine Parish High Point is made up of five mountains, with Eagle Hill being the tallest. Eagle Hill reaches an elevation of 456 feet and heads north to Arkansas’ Ouachita Mountains. This mountain is also five miles west of the pine forests of the Kisatchie National Forest, the only national forest in Louisiana.

Eagle Hill is currently home to a radio tower and an abandoned artillery lookout tower (Eagle’s Roost), but it is also known for being the site of many excavated Native American artifacts. There was also a temporary Air Force station at Eagle Hill during the Vietnam War.

Vernon Parish High Point is the colloquial name for an unofficial land high point jointly owned by the Fort Polk Wildlife Management Area and the Fort Polk Military Reservation. Vernon Parish was founded in 1871 during the Reconstruction Era and today has a population of over 50,000, making it the largest parish in Louisiana.

This area was a viable location for the lumber industry due to its abundance of pine trees and a railroad built in 1897 to aid in the transportation of lumber and workers. Leesville is the parish seat of Vernon Parish, but the parish itself covers 1,341 square miles (14 miles of which is water). The construction of Fort Polk in the midst of World War II created significant employment opportunities for the area, and the local population increased more than fivefold in the years immediately following its founding.

The fifth and final high point in Louisiana is Webster Parish High Point. This is part of four mountains in Webster Parish: Indian Mound (144 feet), Big Mound (194 feet), Bull Hill (423 feet), and Duncan Hill (the tallest at 427 feet). This area is considered part of the Kisatchie National Forest and the community was named in honor of Daniel Webster, a US statesman and Secretary of State under President Harrison.

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