[2] The town is best known for its connecting railroads, as the birthplace of the defunct historically black Coleman College, and for being the place where notorious criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed by Texas Rangers on May 23, 1934.

Gibsland native John McConathy was a champion basketball player at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, who later was the superintendent for the Bossier Parish School Board, in which capacity he was the guiding force behind the establishment of the $57 million Bossier Parish Community College.

First incorporated in 1889, the Louisiana & North West Railroad Company operates 62 miles (100 km) of shortline between Gibsland and McNeil, Arkansas.

The LNW interchanges on both ends of the line: with the Union Pacific (former St. Louis Southwestern) in McNeil; and with Kansas City Southern (former MidSouth, ICG) at Gibsland.

For many years the road was well-known among railfans for its unusual stable of F7 "covered wagons"—unusual motive power of choice for a backwoods southern shortline.

The LNW shops are located at Gibsland, a few hundred yards from one of the busiest interchange diamonds in all of the state.

On May 23, 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, an infamous pair of bandits, were killed by law enforcement officers off Louisiana Highway 154, south of Gibsland toward Sailes.

The Jonquil Jubilee and Historic and Garden Tour and the Bonnie and Clyde Festival are celebrated annually.

Gibsland is home to the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum located in the former Ma Canfield’s Café where the outlaws ate their last meal, a breakfast.