About Us

The Crawfish Crossing was organized by Bill Holmes and his reluctant wife Bonnie in January 2005, building on an image from the decade before when Bill erected caution signs on the highway beside their property to warn vehicles of crawfish crossing the highway.

Bill and Bonnie wanted to build their home on the 30-acre tract of land on their farm that had been a cow pasture for many years. The tract was generally low heavy soil that didn’t drain very well. The tract was also home to a good number of large bald cypress trees that made good shade for the livestock when used as a pasture. Cattle were no longer part of our farm operation plans but it didn’t make good sense to row crop the area without clearing the property of the beautiful stand of cypress trees. We wanted a plan that would be the best use of the area and preserve one of the last surviving bald cypress stands in the area that had once been so common to the southeast Missouri region. The property had one higher corner for a possible house site but not enough space for the home we planned to build and have the structure above the 100-year flood plain.

The decision was made to rob dirt from the lowest parts of the tract and build up the higher area to form an adequate building site above the flood plain without disturbing the cypress trees. Another challenge was to end up with a natural looking site. The resulting site was pretty cool looking and was going to hold water but not deep enough for a fishpond. That is when crawfish came into the plan.

Now back to the caution sign on the highway that became the inspiration for The Crawfish Crossing. After the land forming operation was finished, Bill couldn’t wait to get the crawfish started. After reading a few articles about crawfish and talking to a couple crawfish farmers from the deep south, Bill made the 9-hour drive to Eunice, LA planning to buy the prescribed number of crawfish to stock the 12-acre crawfish pond he had developed. It was late May or early June and the only crawfish that could be found were wild basin crawfish. All the rice field crawfish operations had finished for the year. He was advised that rice field crawfish would be a better choice, but it would mean waiting another year.

By now you probably know that Bill didn’t wait another year to get started. He brought home the basin crawfish and introduced them into the new crawfish pond. When I say basin crawfish, I’m talking about crawfish from the Appalachia Basin, a large set aside area for flood water being diverted from a flood relief canal on the Mississippi river to the gulf. Crawfish from this area are some of the last available for the season. Anyway, after being introduced into the pond, it is the crawfish’s job to mate and then burrow underground and wait for the fall to reemerge with their young consuming the vegetation grown in the dry crawfish pond during summer. In the latter part of the wet cycle of the crawfish pond, the crawfish are burrowing around the edge of the pond and it is well known by crawfish experts (Bill not one) for crawfish to move out of the pond onto the bank and may at times travel long distances in search of fresher water, a boyfriend,  or who knows what other strange force compels them to do what they do. After seeing many dead crawfish on the highway and getting calls from neighbors asking what was going on with all the crawfish on the road, Bill as a joke put up the “Caution, Crawfish Crossing” signs on both ends of the crawfish pond. These caution signs would turn up missing from time to time and it was speculated that college kids were using lifted highway signs to decorate their dorm rooms. The “Crawfish Crossing” signs were certainly unique and must have been a prized possession. It is easy to forgive someone like that with an appreciation for fine art.

In January 2023, Bill sold his farm equipment and rented the row crop farm of corn, cotton, soybeans, and rice to some good neighbors. He still has his excavator, land grading equipment, and skid steer to occupy his time. Bill has upgraded his crawfish handling facility where he purges and bags his Missouri grown bugs starting mid-April through June.

For the first time in 2025, The Crawfish Crossing will bring in crawfish starting as early as practical in the new year from Louisiana until his Missouri crop becomes available along with all the other gulf coast sea food available. This will be a new learning experience. The Crawfish Crossing has a good reputation for its locally grown crawfish regarding quality, cleanliness, size, and price. There will be new challenges bringing in the southern crawfish and still maintaining the high standards my customers have come to expect. There is that 9-hour ride on a truck where the crawfish must be cooled down with ice to put them in a dormant state and then re-handle when they arrive. We plan to work with the most reputable growers possible that understand our needs and will always strive to put the highest quality product on the truck headed north. The product must start its journey in the best condition and highest quality possible. Then it will be The Crawfish Crossing’s job to properly handle the product until picked up by the customer.  My goal will be to provide you, the customer, with the highest quality product available at the lowest cost allowable and still have Miss Bonnie not send me packing.

Another thing new for 2025 is this web site where you found this bio. Keeping track of my orders on a yellow legal pad was a bit overwhelming. My fear of letting an order fall through the cracks was realistic and making an exact change on pickup day was always a problem. Many people wanted to pay with a card, and I was not set up to do that. With the new website a customer can go onsite and place their order, select a desired pickup time, make payment with card, and receive a paid invoice through their email. Finally, I can track the orders until they are filled and know exactly how much product to bring in for the week.

And finally, if you are enjoying your experience on my new web site it was all my idea. Now, I would never throw anyone under the bus, but If on the other hand you find your experience lacking then it must be that the web factory that built it for me didn’t listen close enough.