Ouachita Parish, Louisiana facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ouachita Parish, Louisiana
Parish
Parish of Ouachita
Ouachita Parish Courthouse in Monroe was built in the 1930s by the contractor George A. Caldwell
Flag Seal
Location within the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location within the U.S.
Country	United States
State	Louisiana
Region	North Louisiana
Founded	March 31, 1807
Named for	Ouachita people
Parish seat (and largest city)	Monroe
Area
• Total	1,640 km2 (632 sq mi)
• Land	1,600 km2 (610 sq mi)
• Water	50 km2 (21 sq mi)
• percentage	9 km2 (3.4 sq mi)
Population  (2020)
• Total	160,368
• Rank	LA: 8th
• Density	97.97/km2 (253.75/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code	318
Congressional district	5th

Ouachita Parish Public Library in downtown West Monroe

Ouachita Parish (French: Paroisse d'Ouachita) is a parish located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 160,368. The parish seat is Monroe. The parish was formed in 1807.

Ouachita Parish is part of the Monroe, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located here is Watson Brake, the oldest indigenous earthwork mound complex in North America. It was built around 3500 BCE, making it older than the Ancient Egyptian pyramids or Britain's Stonehenge. It is on privately owned land and not available for public viewing.

History

Prehistory

Ouachita Parish was the home to many succeeding Native American groups in the thousands of years before European settlements began. Peoples of the Marksville culture, Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture and Plaquemine culture built villages and mound sites throughout the area. Notable examples include the Filhiol Mound Site, located on a natural levee of the Ouachita River.

Historic era

The parish bears the same name as the Ouachita River, which flows through southern Arkansas and northeastern Louisiana. Beginning about 1720, French settlers arrived in modern Ouachita Parish, and they established a plantation on Bayou DeSiard that utilized African slave labor. Natchez Indians destroyed the Ouachita plantations during the Natchez Revolt of 1729-1731, and the French did not move back. Choctaw Indians began hunting in northern Louisiana, including the Ouachita country, beginning in the 1750s, with only a few French families moving north from the Opelousas Post.

In 1769, Alejandro O'Reilly, the first Spanish governor to rule successfully in West Louisiana, claimed Ouachita Parish for Spain. Following the Seven Years' War, France had ceded its territories in North America east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain in 1763, which had been victorious. Spain took over French territories west of the Mississippi, including nominally in Louisiana. A census of the parish that year recorded 110 white people. In 1769 Spain abolished the Indian slave trade and Indian slavery in its colonies. Even in the later 19th century, some mixed-race American slaves were able to win freedom suits by proving Indian ancestry in their maternal line; under slave law, children were born into the status of the mother. Thus a child of an Indian mother or grandmother, free people since 1769, even if partially ethnic African, was legally free from birth.

In 1783, Don Juan Filhiol (born Jean-Baptiste Filhio and Protestant near Bordeaux, France), was among Frenchmen who worked for the Spanish colonial government in Louisiana after it had taken control. He was assigned that year to establish the first European outpost in the area of the Ouachita River Valley, called Poste d'Ouachita. With his wife, a few soldiers and slaves, his small party made the slow, arduous journey by keelboat up the Mississippi, Red, Black and Ouachita rivers to reach this area. The European population of the entire Ouachita District (which extended into present-day Arkansas) was only 207 in 1785.

Originally based in Arkansas, Filhio surveyed his grant and settled in 1785 at Prairie des Canots (in current Monroe). He gradually organized settlers, including trying to train some military skills. He built Fort Miro on his land to provide protection for settlers from the Indians. At the same time, he worked to establish trade with the Chickasaw people and others of the area. He was tasked with organizing the settlers in the Ouachita River Valley and establishing good relations with the Native Americans. Filhio served as commandant of Poste d'Ouachita until 1800, when he retired. He continued to live on his plantation here.

Other settlers and merchants were attracted to the trading post, which became known as Fort Miro, with a town developing by 1805, two years after the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase from France. The US took over the vast former French territory (France had reacquired it from Spain for a brief period) west of the Mississippi and outside the Southwest and California, which were still Spanish territory. In 1819 the Americans renamed Fort Miro as the Ouachita Post. A year or so later, they changed the town's name to Monroe, after the first steamboat to reach it in travel up the Ouachita River. The arrival of the powered paddle wheeler was a landmark event, as it connected the town to much easier travel to and from other markets and stimulated its growth.

On March 31, 1807, the Territory of Orleans was divided into 19 sub-districts. The very large Ouachita Parish was one of these original 19; later it was broken up into eight other parishes (Morehouse, Caldwell, Union, Franklin, Tensas, Madison, East Carroll, and West Carroll), as settlers entered the area and developed towns and plantations. Some brought slaves with them, but others bought slaves at markets. In the early 19th century, a total of one million slaves were forcibly moved to the Deep South to the plantation districts, brought from the Upper South.

Following the Reconstruction era, as white Democrats regained control of the state government, they increasingly worked to establish dominance over the freedmen in Ouachita Parish. Elections were often won by intimidation and fraud, and they worked to establish white supremacy.

In 1883, the first railroad bridge across the Ouachita River was built, improving connections for the town with other markets.

In 1916, the Monroe natural gas field was discovered. The field stretched over 500 square miles (1,000 km²) and was estimated to have 6,500,000,000,000 cubic feet (180 km³) of natural gas in it. This is what caused the city of Monroe to be known for a time as the natural gas capital of the world. The new industry generated many jobs and from 1920 to 1930, the population of Ouachita Parish increased by more than 79 percent, to 54,000 people, as migrants arrived for work. (see Demographics section and table.)

The town of Sterlington was incorporated in August 1961, and in 1974 the town of Richwood was incorporated. Ouachita Parish's boundaries have changed 23 times during its history, mostly due to the formation of other parishes.

Geography

The Ouachita River separates Monroe from West Monroe near the parish courthouse.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 632 square miles (1,640 km²), of which 610 square miles (1,600 km²) is land and 21 square miles (54 km²) (3.4%) is water.

Major highways

• Interstate 20
• U.S. Highway 80
• U.S. Highway 165
• Louisiana Highway 2
• Louisiana Highway 15
• Louisiana Highway 34
• Louisiana Highway 143

Adjacent parishes

• Union Parish (north)
• Morehouse Parish (northeast)
• Richland Parish (east)
• Caldwell Parish (south)
• Jackson Parish (southwest)
• Lincoln Parish (west)

National protected areas

• Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge
• D'Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Communities

Map of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana With Municipal Labels

Cities

• Monroe (parish seat)
• West Monroe

Towns

• Richwood
• Sterlington

Census-designated places

• Bawcomville
• Brownsville
• Calhoun
• Claiborne
• Lakeshore
• Swartz

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 160,368 people, 57,835 households, and 34,816 families residing in the parish.

Economy

The top employers in the parish, according to the North Louisiana Economic Partnership, are:

Law enforcement

The Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office (OPSO) is the primary law enforcement agency of Ouachita Parish. It falls under the authority of the Sheriff, who is the chief law enforcement officer of the parish. Since the formation of the Sheriff's Office, six deputies and one Sheriff have been killed in the line of duty, the most common cause being gunfire. The Ouachita Correctional Center (OCC) was opened in 1963, presently houses a maximum of 1,062 offenders, and employs 124 full time deputies.

Education

Ouachita Parish School Board serves areas outside of the City of Monroe with primary and secondary schools. Monroe City School System serves areas within Monroe.

Monroe is also the home of the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Media

A documentary entitled The Gift of the Ouachita by filmmaker George C. Brian (1919–2007), head of the Division of Theater and Drama at the University of Louisiana at Monroe is a history of Monroe as the "gift of the Ouachita River".

National Guard

1022nd Engineer Company (Vertical) of the 527th Engineer Battalion of the 225th Engineer Brigade is located in West Monroe, Louisiana. 528th Engineer Battalion (To the Very End) also part of the 225th Engineer Brigade is headquartered in Monroe.

Notable people

• Joseph A. Biedenharn
• Samuel B. Fuller
• James D. Halsell
• Dixon Hearne
• Alton Hardy Howard
• Newt V. Mills
• Willie Robertson
• Phil Robertson
• Si Robertson
• Jase Robertson
• Edwin Francis Jemison

See also

In Spanish: Parroquia de Ouachita para niños