Zwolle, Louisiana
| Zwolle, Louisiana | |
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 Old Zwolle Train Station on Main Street
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| Country | United States |
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| State | Louisiana |
| Parish | Sabine |
| Elevation | 203 ft (61.9 m) |
| Coordinates | 31°38′06″N 93°38′33″W / 31.63500°N 93.64250°WCoordinates: 31°38′06″N 93°38′33″W / 31.63500°N 93.64250°W |
| Area | 3.7 sq mi (9.6 km2) |
| - land | 3.2 sq mi (8 km2) |
| - water | 0.4 sq mi (1 km2), 10.81% |
| Population | 1,783 (2000) |
| Density | 552.6/sq mi (213.4/km2) |
| Mayor | G.J. "Pie" Martinez |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Area code | 318 |
  Location of Zwolle in Louisiana
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 Location of Louisiana in the United States
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Zwolle (Za-wall-ee) is a small town in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,783 at the 2000 census.
The first inhabitants of the bowl-shaped area of land upon which the town of Zwolle is situated were the Mound Builders. Lured here for protection from storms, the "bowl" offered them protection. Prehistoric people built the dome-shaped mounds that line the banks of Bayou Scie and Bayou San Miguel, which form a hollow circle around the townsite. As Mound Builders, they were ancestors of North American Indians who owned and inhabited the territory when the Europeans arrived.
Later, the area was colonized by Spain, which sent the earliest non-Indians to the territory. A Spanish mission church was built at Bayou Scie. Spanish soldiers and Native people intermarried over many generations, and colonial Spanish (not Mexican Spanish) was still spoken in the area until the 1970s.
The first English-speaking settlers arrived in Sabine Parish in 1824, via . These pioneers came chiefly from Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. In 1871, many more of these settlers moved in and acquired land under the homestead act.
Arthur Stilwell built the Kansas City Southern Railroad from Kansas City to Port Arthur, Texas. He had reached Van Buren, Arkansas in 1893 when he ran out of funds. Stilwell went to Zwolle, the Netherlands and met with a rich coffee merchant Jan De Goeijen. De Goeijen was impressed with St. Joseph Catholic Church, a product of the early Spanish missionaries which stood overlooking the town. De Goeijen sold a $3,000,000 stock issue for Stilwell's railroad and he was permitted to name the place after his hometown and birthplace of Zwolle, a riverside city of currently over 120,000 population in the Netherlands. The charter for the town of Zwolle was granted June 12, 1898.
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Wikipedia