FERRIDAY &8212; From its beginning as a booming railroad town, Ferriday has seen its share of crippling events. But nevertheless, the town still stands today.

Leon Doles, 84, is a Ferriday resident and has made the Mississippi River his hobby.

Doles said the Miss-Lou, including Ferriday, endured five floods from 1913 to 1945.

Probably the most devastating flood was the flood of 1927, Doles said, in which Ferriday was covered in over 10 feet of water.

Even though he was five-years old at the time, Doles said he remembers vividly one trip he made with his father to the town.

&8220;He (Doles&8217; father) owned a general store in Jonesville and used to travel to Natchez for supplies,&8221; Doles said.

Doles said one day he, his older brother, father and two passengers were returning from Natchez when their bateaux boat (a flat hulled skiff), equipped with a model-T engine-motor, broke down in Ferriday.

&8220;It was dark and there was no way to get back,&8221; Doles said. &8220;So we paddled to what was the Kings Hotel and the passengers stayed in a room on the second floor for the night.&8221;

Doles said he and his father and brother spent the night on the boat to guard the supplies.

&8220;I can still remember that night because the mosquitoes ate us up,&8221; Doles said.

To fix the flood problem once and for all, Doles said, in the 1950s the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers put a ring levee around Concordia Parish.

The town has also been plagued by a number of fires.

According the town&8217;s official Web site, Ferriday had hardly gotten started before the great fire of 1908 destroyed all but one house within a square block.

This was a great loss because the owners carried little if any insurance.

According to the Web site, a second fire gutted another block of buildings adjoining the earlier destroyed block and a third fire in 1916 swept the black section of town out of existence and destroyed a large portion of the white section, demolishing 80 houses.

Ten years later, on the night of Jan. 14, a blaze started in the Johnson Hotel on First Street and took the entire block with a heavy loss of life and property.

Eight people were found burned to death and many more were injured.

According to the Web site, the hotel guests were trapped on the second floor, and those who were not burned to death were injured by jumping from the burning inn.

For more information on the history of Ferriday, visit the Web site at www.townofferriday.com.