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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in West Carroll Parish, Louisiana.
Before being divided, Carroll Parish was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence and the last surviving signer of the document. It was organized by European Americans after the Louisiana Purchase.
West Carroll Parish has a long history of inhabitants who predated the formation of the United States by thousands of years. On the south end of West Carroll Parish is Poverty Point, a nearly square-mile complex of ancient major earthwork semi-circles and radiating lanes, plus additional platform mounds. This is one of the largest Native American earthworks in North America. Archeologists have determined that the site was built in the Late Archaic period beginning about 1500 BCE, and it was the central trading grounds for the Poverty Point culture that occupied the lower Mississippi River Valley. It has been referred to as the New York City of more than two millennia ago. Artifacts show trading reached to present-day Georgia and Great Lakes states such as Wisconsin. Later historic tribes in the area included the Choctaw and Chickasaw.
Though the area was explored by many French and Spanish in the 16th through 18th centuries, they did not establish permanent settlements, favoring areas on rivers with more direct access to the Gulf and major markets.
Adjacent Parishes & Counties
Towns, Villages & Communities
- Bear Skin
- Chickasaw
- Concord
- Darnell
- Epps
- Fiske Union
- Forest
- Goodwill
- Green
- Kilbourne
- Oak Grove (Parish Seat)
- Old Floyd
- Pioneer
- Red Wing
- Terry
Links
Poverty Point World Heritage Site
