Gibsland, Louisiana’s memoryscape of Bonnie and Clyde: Putting the past in the present

Abstract

A memoryscape is a place where memories are anchored in space. One cannot travel back in time to when an event occurred, but one can travel in space to where an event occurred. On 23 May 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed near Gibsland, Louisiana, by a posse of law enforcement officers. There is a monument at the ambush’s location, and since 1993, there has been the Authentic Bonnie and Clyde Festival commemorating the ambush and culminating with its re-enactment. The re-enactment demonstrates putting the past into the present, and while watching it, one feels being taken back in time to when the ambush occurred and experiences living history. The ambush’s re-enactment commemorates not only the end of Bonnie and Clyde’s crime wave but also the beginning of the end of the Public Enemy Era.