Ball: History and Festivals

Ball combines a long history with recurring events and a specific park destination. This gives you several reasons to visit: you can explore the town’s history, plan your trip around a festival, or include the Walking Trail Park in your itinerary. If you’re looking for a vacation rental, it’s best to first decide what brings you to the area and choose travel dates to match. For festivals whose dates or programs may vary, it’s worth checking the relevant announcement before booking.

The Town’s History in Several Stages

The earliest documented settlers in Ball date to the period between 1840 and 1863. Captain Chittenden Edwin Ball was from Union County, Kentucky, and piloted steamboats on the Red River as far as Alexandria. In the late 1880s, he settled in Rapides Parish and founded Sweet Home Mill there. In 1893, he named a sawmill settlement after himself.

These dates do not describe a single founding moment. The period of the earliest settlers predates Chittenden Edwin Ball’s settlement and the later naming. This allows the early settlement and the naming of a sawmill town to be understood as separate stages. The place name is linked to a person whose story also includes steamboating and mill operations. For history-minded travelers, this timeline offers a specific point of entry: the name Ball does not refer to the earliest settlement period, but is connected to the story of a person who came later.

Festivals and Their Dates

Ball hosts an annual Mardi Gras parade and Christmas festival events. The parade date and route may vary, and the dates and program details of the Christmas events may change. If you’re traveling for one of these festivals, check your travel dates against the announcements for that year’s event. This lets you take the event date into account when choosing a vacation rental, rather than basing your plans on a previous edition.

The planned route for the 2025 Mardi Gras parade was to run through Ball and end at the steps of Ball Town Hall, in the Ball Food parking lot. This describes the plans at the time; later editions may have different routes. The planned endpoint makes the route for that edition more concrete, but it does not indicate the route for a future parade.

The Moon Pie Festival is held annually. The 2025 edition was the second, and a third edition was announced for 2026. Reports on the festival from 2025 and 2026 mention a “Moon Pie Cooking Contest” with music by Avery Michaels. Live music by “The Eighties Experience” is described as the finale to the day’s events. The contest, accompanying music, and musical finale give an idea of different program elements. The lineup and program may change with each edition. So check the announcement for the year of your trip if the festival is a deciding factor in your booking dates.

Park Destination and Accommodation Planning

Walking Trail Park is located at 100 Municipal Lane. If you include the park in your plans, confirm the location locally before traveling. When choosing a vacation rental, it may help to first decide what brings you to the area: for a festival, the dates are key, while other interests may guide your choice for a stay focused on local history or a visit to the park.

Discover More Destinations

Discover more destinations: Alexandria, Boyce, Pineville.

Return to the main travel overview: Rapides Parish.