Dying LOUISIANA Towns Where Yearly Incomes Are Less Than A Cheap Used Car

I visited these small, rural Louisiana towns: Haynesville, Homer & Bernice.
Joe's Instagram: / joeysroadtrip
Travel Vlog 355

[@rangers7259]

As a Brit, your videos on small town rural USA are absolutely fascinating… my favourite KZbin channel…👏👏👍🇺🇸🇬🇧

[@asrr62]

Well as an American, I can't tell the difference between anywhere. it all looks like run down small towns to me.

[@roneagle8038]

That was a volunteer fire alarm in Homer! Unusual, but effective!

[@mikefreeman9251]

We have one of those in my town in utah, once had my family from out of town freaked out that it was a nuclear war alarm

[@jeffthompson4911]

As Wille would sing...........On The Road Again..... I Really enjoyed your seven-part series I previously watched...............thank you Joe and Nicole....................be safe

[@armandogutierrez5212]

I was hoping you would continue 🙏👍🫵 Thank you joe & nic love your videos enjoying my lunch.

[@titusllewelyn]

I am a Haynes. I do have ties to the Haynes' from Haynesville. One of the founders is my great uncle. I am told that there were actually three Haynes families that came at different times and were not known to be related. The story goes that two Haynes brothers signed up for a homestead in what is known as the Louisiana Purchase which much of was the Missouri Territory. The families left Georgia and came west on a wagon train. One brother came to what is now known as Haynesville. The second brother (Henry Haynes) continued on to the area of Patmos Arkansas. Henry is my grandfather. Haynesville was actually formed and located about two miles south of present day Haynesville. When the railroad came through they moved the town north to the present location. They left behind the cemetery which is still there today. Homer was pretty much destroyed when a Wal-Mart was built there and then closed down and a Super Wal-Mart was built in Minden Louisiana. It would be interesting to know how far a person would have to go to get a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread in any of these towns. Anyway, another great video. Thank you.

[@ruxrox]

Amazing story! Tits!

[@RobOlgatree]

@Titus - Admiration for keeping up on family history. Love stories like this. Thanks.

[@clautildadaniel9744]

Love travelling with you and nic thanks for taking me along❤❤❤

[@alisawooten]

Thanks Joe and Nic, Happy travels 😀

[@marshmallows5641]

A Piggly Wiggly and an old train station now that's some great rural town aesthetics right there.

[@nadiaborzacchini1987]

I love lousiana there are wonderful people God bless be safe your travel joe and nic keep up the good work

[@christiansgrandma6812]

Hun, I've worked as a caregiver for the state for many years. The highest pay was $14 per hour. After Katrina, the facility was closed, and I had to survive off minimal wage. Living within poverty is nothing new in Louisiana. During covid, fast food staff were making more than us. I guess caring for the physically and mentally disabled is the least important.

[@KungFuFighter-h3k]

Always good to have a cat sighting! Thanks for the video.

[@everydaypresent444]

What a treat to find a brand new upload today! I first saw the notification at work today, but I did not want to start watching it there because I would be interrupted. Could not wait to get home tonight to watch, and as usual it did NOT disappoint! The sirens you heard going off: was it a Wednesday at noon? They were probably doing their periodic (probably weekly) testing of the emergency alarms. I live in a small town in Wisconsin, and every Wednesday at noon the civil defense alarms go off. Ours don't sound nearly as annoying as what you were forced to endure in Homer. I was surprised at how many of the homes in these small towns are very nice and well maintained. It makes me think that what is a poverty level in the high-cost-of-living areas is actually very comfortable in these towns.

[@TheShoutingGrasshopper]

Ah, Piggly Wiggly! I remember my grandfather took me to one somewhere in LA in the early 60s. I thought it was the greatest name for a store ever.

[@Reese8531]

Up here in southern Illinois it’s no piggly wigglys!! In fact my first time hearing about them was in these videos

[@mariesheppard3750]

Was it 12 noon for the sounds, some towns ring church bells at noon , thanks for nice video

[@bayoumanbryan]

yeah thats what i thought. instead of the church bell ringing at 12 times at 12 it seems they now have that weird buzzing sound.

[@q.doneit]

Good to catch up on some of these towns I passed through when I was over the road. Bernice was on the way from El Dorado, AR to the interstate. I'm not sure where I went from there but likely to Shreveport. I miss El Dorado. There was an Asian lady who ran a gas station right outside the town near a chemical plant. She was happy to see me since I cleared out all the food she sold.

[@bella_bella85]

Cat cat cat 😺 👏🏽 I live in Baton rouge la, and ive never heard of Homer or hainesville.. So peaceful and green!!! 💚

[@jamesmyers9285]

Haynesville and Homer have some nice, well-taken-care-of cars considering the annual income levels.

[@jeffmead4670]

After watching all of your compilation videos it became clear to me that you probably have one of the most important logs of socioeconomics records in the USA, I can't help but think there must be some office of our government that would buy this data and use it to study and find out who best to help with social services. I also think it would be valuable to National Geographic in the human drift project. Certainly no one else has ever come close to thedata you have sought out and cataloged .

[@PassingThroughProductions]

You realize he gets this info from other sources right? 😂

[@xochitlgonzalez2941]

​@@PassingThroughProductions "sought out and categorized" meaning he looked it up and organized it. Information may exist that doesn't mean it's all in one place and organized. Additionally who knows when the last time there was any updates video/image data collected.

[@jeffmead4670]

@@PassingThroughProductions Yes, I do realize that, however there is no government agency that has both the readily available data that is also represented with both data and film that combines to make a very accurate picture of rural America.

[@RobOlgatree]

It does take a lot of time to research after you've planned an itinerary and then go out and explore it. A little more interesting than a google check. Joe's awesome

[@ramanjitsingh3683]

i am watching all your videos, very informative, love it.. Thanks

[@yourname06]

Watching from Cheyenne Wyoming. Shoutout to Louisiana. 🤘

[@rorschachmanhattan9612]

You provide gems for people who may want to live somewhere where crime and price of living is low as long as there's internet *GEMS*

[@sharoncampeaux1860]

Shout out back to you Cheyenne wyoming from louisiana

[@LarryHeagren]

A very nice video. I guess female led towns are more peaceful led ones. It was indeed very green. We haven't had moisture here in the Texas Hill Country for quite a while now so as a result even the weeds shrivel up. Peaceful and Green are good reasons to live in towns like these.

[@winstonsmith478]

That 50 cent gas price makes the closing date of that gas station about 1974. That weird horn followed by sirens might have been to call in a volunteer fire department.

[@DeborahMansor]

The sirens are probably calling volunteers for an emergency of some kind. Maybe a medical emergency or maybe a vehicle accident of some kind. We have a similar thing in the small town I live in in New Zealand.

[@dewuster8885]

I wonder when these guys are going to head into Appalachia & visit small towns in Southern West Virginia & Eastern Kentucky. Cause I know the towns in those areas would make for some compelling videos.

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

Got an eastern Kentucky video coming up, featuring the near ghost town of Lynch. It's a really amazing place!

[@dewuster8885]

@@JoeandNicsRoadTripI know it’s gonna be a good one

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

@@dewuster8885 I think it’ll be one of my best ever. This town has incredible history, and is full of beautiful ruins.

[@Yawndave]

Always enjoy these visits to the main streets and neighborhoods of rural America. The odd sound in Homer sounds a little like the alien ships from War Of The Worlds (Tom Cruise version) 🙂

[@TinkerTailor4303]

It does!😮

[@cecoya]

Thank you for sharing these small towns with us. You talk about the $$$ they bring into the household being so little but you do realize that the Federal minimum wage is only $7.25 an hour, and $2.13 an hour for people that make tips. It is amazing that they survive in this world on that, but they have learned to and still make a living. They are probably happier there in their small town as well. Have a great day and safe travels

[@HughWells-i4q]

One thing I remember about Homer and Haynesville are the beautiful old neighborhoods.

[@tudo8412]

Louisiana my home town but have NEVER been up North, because there are not have many Crawfish and CRABS up there 😅. Thanks JOE and NIC for sharing.

[@bosse641]

So much poverty and misery in rural America. ...is it like this in all the nation? Like all the small towns are dying. Very sad to see.

[@baljitsingh-ce5rf]

don't take him seriously.

[@JunkerDriver999]

Its not that bad. Most of these people are homeowners, and debt free. Plus I didn't see any tints, and homeless.

[@xochitlgonzalez2941]

It's not like this in all smal towns, he happens to find the worst ones😅. They seem more like MicroTowns. The title of the video does say Dying Town

[@joebehrdenver]

North-central/NW Louisiana is a particularly depressed part of the state, and the state is poor by US standards. Look at Joe and Nic's videos of small towns in eastern North Dakota and Nebraska. Totally different experience.

[@jjred233]

@@joebehrdenver The state is very poor. Wealth is in the capital city and southern coastal area near the ports. The income range varies greatly. As in the rest of US, cheap global imports have reduce wealth in rural areas. The imports helps the East Coast so I don't see that stopping anytime soon.

[@RobinGerhart]

Sad and beautiful, thank you!

[@usmcmos0317]

Glad to see ya back on the road again. LoL Great video Joe. As always love these small town videos. And especially the stats, even though some are a little hard to figure out. Pretty high poverty numbers but some nice houses to. I don’t know what it is but there’s still a quiet beauty to towns like these even though people are leaving. When trucking I have been through Homer but not the rest. Thanks for showing them to me. I would have probably never saw them otherwise. Great job as usual. Safe travels my friend. Keep videoing and I’ll keep watching.

[@ES-mc3cc]

Siren could have been an alert for the local volunteer fire department. I remember those from when I was a kid a long time ago!

[@CosmicPrison]

Yep I was expecting him to revisit Louisiana.

[@gatorgogo2742]

Yea! We're back to bumbling around. Thanks.

[@JAMESPATTERSON-mk9sr]

At 4:25 the sign says 09/25/2024, this is new material . At 18:43 the old gas price sign really stood out to me, I am old enough to remember sub one dollar prices per gallon . The percentage of cents listed at 3/100 . i guess things could be different in LA . This is the real wheelhouse of Lord Spoda vids . Not the big cities or state capitals or fancy resorts . These small towns unknown to all except the ones who live near there .

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

Thank you. These are my favorite places to visit.

[@JAMESPATTERSON-mk9sr]

@@JoeandNicsRoadTrip No Joe , you deserve all the thanks .

[@commonsense5193]

Thanks Joe once again. Breaks my heart to see once thriving and prosperous urban towns now biting the dust in such a devastating way. Is it all due to automation or the great country has been sold out or hijacked by copycats who have stolen its technologies and is making it redundant? So sad.

[@RobOlgatree]

Like - Subscrbe. How anyone can watch your channel and hasn't subscribed yet is beyond me. 🤣 lets get Joe the 1/2 million. Almost there. . Keep filming Joe.

[@barblenzen2198]

Another great video thanks so much be safe God bless

[@briancisco1176]

The monument honoring the 1,564 Confederate dead of Claiborne Parish was removed in 2020. Maybe that made somebody feel virtuous, but the stats show actual 21st Century problems remain.

[@trudylynch6750]

thanks joe

[@Tracer112]

Love your videos, keep up the good work!

[@NativeNYer]

Ty Joe 4 the vid. More nuggets of info and sights and sounds(buzzer sound)😅. B safe

[@MrMilwaukee]

Many of these low income communities could use an Aldi grocery store

[@bayoumanbryan]

In a bar in Toledo , across from the depot 19:56, are lines to the song Lucile by Kenny Rogers.

[@davidmorris4826]

Four hundred children and the crops in the fields😅😅😅😅 😮.

[@TinkerTailor4303]

​@@davidmorris4826He didn't have four HUNDRED children, he had four HUNGRY children!

[@gypsyboomer]

I think the Homer horn is the call for the volunteer fire department. Have heard similar assembly calls before. Stay safe and far off the freeway.

[@PhilomenaMerritt-e5e]

You always surprise us!

[@michaelblanks4284]

Most small towns still to this day do a tornado siren test

[@michaelblanks4284]

It's usually at 12:00 on Wednesday I'm not saying all towns are that way but most towns it's usually 12:00 on Wednesday

[@sarahdearborn9191]

Don't know if this is new, but I enjoy it as always. Are you and Nicole ever going to make new vidios? What a source of information you have.❤😊

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

This is a new video, posted today!!

[@REB65]

👍👍 God bless y’all ✌️

[@JAMESPATTERSON-mk9sr]

With a lot of nice large homes shown at 17:44 the family in generations may have lived there for many years. Then the children moved elsewhere and the old parents died therefore the house has stood abandoned .

[@trith72]

I have lived in Louisiana all my life. These small towns are dying due to the suppression of the oil industry, especially in North Louisiana. During the 60's and 70's and even into the early 80's they were full of folks, families working the oil fields and other families supporting that industry all being highly successful. With draconian federal laws against drilling our own oil now, many families have just up and left over the years to places they can try and make a living. Blight moves in afterwards, and then it just rots. I've been friends with retired Geologists that live up here for years and they all have told me time and time again there is enough oil in North Louisiana alone to run this country for 40 years, we just aren't allowed by the fed to get to it.

[@steady3459]

Not to mention so many Companies moved over seas to get away from paying Taxes,MO MONEY, MO MONEY, MO MONEY ! HAVES. AND HAVE NOTS . 👹🤡☠️✌️

[@RandyFelts2121]

The noise sounds like the the siren in the1960 movie "Time Machine."

[@normasnyder6177]

I love your videos of the South. My favorite. So beautiful.

[@cindyhewitt3358]

Thank you!❤

[@lepetitprince2188]

That sound was outright creepy.

[@dulamame1]

Would you think about doing city’s and towns that are featured in movies next ???

[@annjacobs7764]

Why aren't you viral yet?!

[@SERBIAZ]

Antibiotics 😜😉

[@johnbuterbaughsr.933]

Build factories and many will come . Made in America. There's no reason these deserted towns cant be repaured and filled with new American businesses !

[@kdegraa]

As an Australian who grew up in a rural area i can see similarities and differences. The main difference is in my youth in the 70s and 80s there was a bit of decay in some towns. However since the 90s real estate prices have grown exponentially. As a result if a town was dying sooner or later people see this, compare the prices where it expensive and where it is cheap. People then move there. Back twenty years ago you could buy a house in town near my farm for $70k. Today you need $400k to buy in. I don’t understand why people pay huge amounts of money to buy a house in certain areas of America while in others you can basically walk into a house for nothing. In the laptop generation, working from home, why don’t people who can earn a living with an Internet connection and a laptop buy into these towns and start saving money instead of giving it to landlords or banks?

[@donaldperson948]

I can tell you everyone in small towns will know your business quickly! Drugs are a fact in those small towns! And those big houses are very hot or cold! Expensive to cool or heat most old houses don’t have insulation! Especially Victorian houses uses!

[@tcvideosennistexas]

Interesting video,,,,I notice your using a DJI little cam,,,,I use a DJI action 3 and I love it,,,,super 4K with decent audio, and stable thing is Great! Of course,, if it had some sort of decent zoom it would be the perfect camera, I also use a panasonic lumix fz2500 that has a super 20 zoom lens on it, which is superb for long shots! ( it also has the 'stable' thing,,,but not as good as the DJI and of course bigger and bulkier ) keep up the good work !

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

Thanks! I keep a DJI action cam for back-up. :)

[@paintbrushful]

Love your channel---you're showing us the hidden underbelly of what's happening to amerika...

[@Westhamsterdam]

When those church bells ring like that it´s normally a sign someone has just died! Do you just use felt for your roofs? In Europe we use clay or cement roof tiles. The humidity must play havoc with roofs. Why has that roof caved in????? Look at the quality of build might explain it.

[@delstanley1349]

15:09 The alarm reminds me of the 2006 movie "Silent Hill" starring Radha Mitchell. When you heard that alarm at darkness, brother you'd better take cover. The Dark Dimension was taking over in a ghost town, and the nightmare was beginning with all of the strangest creatures roaming the streets led by Pyramid Head. These cursed creatures were old citizens burned to death by a fire that still rages from coal fires beneath the ground. The days are filled with ashes...and the nights with ghouls. There was only one place of refuge. And it was led by a witch figure who was responsible for the hell. I think in one of his video Joe has actually been to the town that still burns from a coal mine fire, Centralia, PA. Anyway that horn sounds like the one in the movie. RUN!

[@michaelhaiden6718]

That's the sound on the day the earth stood still

[@WhittyPics]

Hey Joe and Nic. Back on the poverty tour today? I guess I don't have to tell you to stay out of Florida this week and anywhere they may be fleeing. And there is the mess still in Western NC

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

We're going to head there in about a month.

[@HA-rp9dz]

You can always tell who the thieves of small towns like this are….. they’re the ones stealing the tax $$$ & driving the nicest cars in town & living in the nicest homes…..

[@waynehatfield1166]

I would like to say I always enjoy your videos although sometimes I think you show too much of the poverty area. I happen to know about Hayesville and Homer as I live in those communities. There are really some nice parts of the town that would surprise you that you didn’t show. Closer to the lake just east of Homer are😂 beautiful neighborhoods even in Hayesville and Homer there are beautiful neighborhoods that you missed. Sometimes as I said earlier, it appears that you’re one-sided, but I still watch it just the same as far as the horn in Homer, that was the fire horn there was probably a fire, and the fire department was called out to see about it if I knew the date and time I could probably tell you where they went. Two weeks ago I almost think I can pinpoint it to a bad car wreck, but not sure. Keep up your work as I said I enjoy it just the same. Oh, more thing if I had known you were coming, I would have been glad to show you around. You would have been amazed at our communities.

[@catlover614]

An awesome video, very interesting and relaxing! Always nice to have a cat sighting, too!! Thanks so much, Joe and Nic.😊💚

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

Thank you, CL!!!!

[@danielburke4113]

Amazed at your research that make your vids so interesting. Glad to see a new vid.

[@beverlypatout4326]

Are you coming anywhere new iberia, come see us in Patoutville.

[@johnboggan4390]

Good video and thank you much 😊

[@eltsennestle998]

Joe, are you preferring the Jeep over the Bronco these days ?

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

It's roomier and more powerful.

[@donaldperson948]

Go to Marion South Carolina! 10.00 is about all you make! It’s poor and other small towns there! I use to live there for 10 years and back in California!

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

Heading there in November.

[@orientalvision]

Best of wishes from China

[@cindyproctor6415]

Enjoy your videos. I saw date on bank in this video. So my question- do you usually post videos 2 wks after recording?

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

A week to two weeks.

[@bfdee1603]

U could have certainly asked a local what d sound is. I noticed that u dont interact with any local which is just sad... unless u dont include them in your videos😅

[@edlee2336]

I live in New Orleans and rarely get to see what this part of the state looks like. I hope you get to explore the bayou communities way down at the bottom of the state. Near Cameron and anything under Houma, maybe even check out Grand Isle or Venice.

[@simonhenry3815]

Hey Joe & Nic! New stuff lights me up!

[@JeredtheShy]

I think after all these videos, it's worth pointing out that actually, most of small-town America is doing okay. Just okay, many towns have seen better days, but the Federal interstate system allows small cities to have enough economic activity to keep plugging along. It's obviously not difficult to find towns in a shocking state, but there are thousands of towns. Situations like East Cleveland allow some real disaster areas even within a larger city that's doing well enough to invest in public transport a bit, the things that really kill towns are always a bit abnormal. If you live in a major metro and have been watching these videos, you probably think it's a wasteland out here, but that's not what's happening, either.

[@jonathanlee5185]

Thanks 👍

[@erictorow250]

Wegans stores 🏬 are one of the best food stores in the country today folks 😊

[@yelapa999]

I like almost all your travelogues. But ones like this (and ones showing thriving small towns, too) are your niche in my mind. Hardly anybody does these with proper respect, if I dare put it that way.

[@kirktinsley5397]

Did you ever learn what that siren was for? I’m with you, that was seriously creepy sounding.

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

Apparently they were testing the tornado siren.

[@JeffreyOdom]

Just looked up notables from Haynesvillw , the fashion designer Geoffrey Beene

[@PassingThroughProductions]

Yes so much more to point out about the town.

[@siphomogale779]

They should cooperate this small town so they can be one they might grow economically

[@ranjankumarbhattacharyya9941]

I am one of your subscriber from INDIA.

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

Awesome!!

[@Julie44Inlouisiana]

That first town Haynesville, has me worried. Like whats that about?

[@empressvogt]

8:35 I think that's a cat under the white car.

[@stephenthomas8648]

Cool video man , good to see you back on the road again 😊

[@lindaburns4890]

You make me laugh with that frickin sound, it really sounded scary ... Not knowing what was it???

[@Slick2462]

One cat sighting? Been awhile I think?

[@Ttoe280]

Thanks

[@JoeandNicsRoadTrip]

Thank you!!

[@emilyhubbard1510]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@eileenspamer-kw3kz]

great video from housebound uk granny thankyou

[@TaterTots380]

That was a tornado siren.

[@mekkler]

That's what I was thinking. If it was exactly noon, they were probably testing it.

[@peterrobino9383]

Biggest employer in these towns is the U S Goverment ( welfare ). Welfare and poverty go hand in hand

[@playdohsrepublic3562]

Too many commercials.

[@davidhayter8516]

Just returned from a visit to the US. Met some great people in the mid-west: Missouri, Alabama, Kansas, Arkansas and Louisiana. I was truely shocked by what the ordinary citizens of these mid-west towns endure and tolerate in the way of poverty, health care and working conditions. In any ordinary population that was aware of what the outside world (non-US) is about, conditions like what these people tolerate would result in a overthrow of the government, but having experienced the isolation of Americans through the media I understood why these people are helpless. Trump is not going to make these peoples lives better, yet they adore him. There are people that actually believe Fox News is a real news network.

[@patrick8513]

🎯 exactly. This is their brains on FOX. I feel sorry for them, but it's up to them to wake up and smell the coffee.

[@OdySlim]

Could the alarms be for volunteer firemen?