Bunkie, the city said to be named after a toy monkey, is now a tourist destination.

Yes, the same Bunkie that bordered either side of U.S. 71 with shuttered buildings not so long ago — the same place whose name was mocked by people throughout the state.

Now those same people are stopping for Instagram shots and selfies in front of the city's downtown mural, eating homemade cakes in the cafe at Griffin's Antiques & Main Street Market and parking their RVs at Gator Grounds while their kids swim the lazy river in the resort's water park.

That's right. There's an RV resort in Bunkie, and it also has a golf course. As for the downtown, everything's open for business these days.

And one of the major businesses flowing through Bunkie is tourism.

The city isn't the butt of anyone's joke anymo

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