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Office: Beauregard Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness (OHSEP) – operates under the Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office/Police Jury; sets forth preparation, response, and recovery programming per parish, state, and federal statutes.
Sheriff: Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office – 120 South Stewart Street, DeRidder, LA 70634 | (337) 463-3281 (24 hours) or (337) 462-2400 (civil) | Fax (337) 463-9952; Sheriff Mark Herford, in office since 2020; 95 regular deputies plus 39 part-time deputies. Beauregard Parish Jail – 412 Bolivar Bishop Drive, DeRidder, LA | (337) 460-5520 | Fax (337) 463-6347.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-171 and LA-8 serve DeRidder, the parish seat, in Southwest Louisiana near the Texas border.
Notes: Beauregard Parish is named for P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general; the town of Merryville is the parish’s other incorporated municipality.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Beauregard Parish Courthouse – 201 West 1st Street, DeRidder, LA; a 1914 Beaux-Arts structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983, the parish’s largest building and the only one with colossal-order columns and a domed clock tower.
Notes: ⚠️ InmateAid-relevant: The Beauregard Parish Jail, built in 1914 in Collegiate Gothic style directly adjacent to the courthouse, is genuinely known locally as “the Hanging Jail” – it was even celebrated in a folk song of that name – and was the site of a double execution in 1928. The jail and courthouse were connected by an underground tunnel used to transport prisoners out of public view. Both buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (the jail since 1981).
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Beauregard Parish Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/beauregard-parish.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Beauregard Parish Library (main branch, DeRidder) – confirm current address/phone via the parish library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The historic DeRidder downtown district (courthouse and jail), Burk’s Log Cabin (traditional West Louisiana mud-daub chimney construction, via the Merryville Museum), and the surrounding piney woods are the parish’s premier attractions.
Notes: The genuine “Hanging Jail” history and its underground prisoner tunnel are among the more distinctive and InmateAid-relevant local facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Beauregard Parish Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/beauregard-parish.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office Animal Control – 440 Bolivar Bishop Drive, DeRidder, LA 70634 | (337) 460-5511 or (337) 463-3281 (outside DeRidder city limits) | Email: [email protected]; serves the parish outside DeRidder city limits, mandatory spay/neuter policy.
City of DeRidder Animal Control – 720 Carter Street, DeRidder, LA | (337) 462-8911; serves within DeRidder city limits only; after-hours emergencies (dog bites, injured animals, loose vicious/dangerous dogs) routed through DeRidder Police Department.
Louisiana Lifeline for K-9’s – P.O. Box 1052, DeRidder, LA 70634 | (337) 825-9333; a volunteer, foster-based no-kill rescue serving Beauregard and Vernon Parishes.
Humane Society of West Louisiana – P.O. Box 1751, DeRidder, LA 70634.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Beauregard Parish Police Jury Public Works – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/beauregard-parish.
NOTES: Beauregard Parish is the sixth and final parish in the first batch of the Louisiana v2 A+ sourced standard. The genuine “Hanging Jail” history and its underground prisoner tunnel are among the more distinctive and InmateAid-relevant local facts covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Beauregard Parish County
Beauregard Parish is southwest Louisiana’s longleaf pine and lumber heritage parish – the vast forests that supported the early 20th-century timber industry and the remaining Kisatchie longleaf communities define a southwest Louisiana parish navigating the transition from timber to energy and military service economies.
DeRidder (the parish seat, population ~10,000) serves the parish’s communities near the Texas border and Fort Johnson’s economic sphere of influence.
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Beauregard Parish Assessor at 201 W. First Street, Suite 100, DeRidder, LA 70634, phone 337-463-8852. LA residential assessed at 10% of fair market value; $75,000 homestead exemption.
Courts & Legal
Beauregard Parish Clerk of Court at 201 W. First Street, DeRidder, LA 70634, phone 337-463-8595, handles successions.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURT (Records, Vital Records, Mortgages)
201 W. First St., DeRidder, LA 70634
(337) 463-8595
Genealogy
Parish-level record sources
Beauregard Parish Clerk of Court (succession/estate case files – see Succession section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Beauregard Parish genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
A NOTE ON LOUISIANA LAW: Louisiana is the only U.S. state built on a civil-law tradition (rooted in the Napoleonic Code) rather than English common law. Louisiana doesn’t use the word “probate” – the equivalent process is called a “succession,” and its 64 parishes are the equivalent of counties elsewhere. Community property and separate property rules also work differently here than in common-law states, which can affect what’s actually part of the succession.
Where to go
Beauregard Parish 36th Judicial District Court, Clerk of Court 201 West First Street (P.O. Box 100), DeRidder, LA 70634 (337) 463-8595 Beauregard Parish is in southwestern Louisiana near the Texas border, seated in DeRidder.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Small Succession Affidavit – under La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 3421 et seq., available for estates with a gross value of $125,000 or less at the date of death (or of any value if the decedent has been dead more than 20 years). No court proceeding is required. At least two people must sign – typically the surviving spouse (if any) plus one or more heirs, sworn before a notary. If the estate includes immovable property (real estate), the affidavit can’t be recorded until 90 days after the date of death, and it must be recorded with the Clerk of Court/Recorder in every parish where the decedent owned real estate.
Succession Without Administration (“simple possession”) – used when there are no debts to pay and all heirs agree; commonly resolved in 30 to 90 days via a Petition for Possession.
Administered Succession – required when a court-appointed succession representative needs to inventory assets and pay debts before distribution; typically takes 3 to 9 months, longer if contested.
Important: for anything beyond a small succession affidavit, Louisiana courts generally require a licensed Louisiana attorney to represent the succession – self-representation and generic online forms are not accepted the way they are in many other states.
Step 2: filing a regular succession
File a Petition for Possession (simple cases) or a Petition for Administration (if a representative and formal administration are needed) in the district court of the parish where the decedent was domiciled at death.
The court admits any will and, where needed, appoints an executor (testate) or administrator (intestate), issuing Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
In an administered succession, the representative prepares a sworn descriptive list of assets, pays valid debts, and accounts to the court.
The court issues a Judgment of Possession, which must then be recorded in the parish conveyance/land records and with the parish tax assessor to clear title.
What it costs
Filing fees vary by parish and case type; publication costs apply when legal notices are required.
A full administered succession typically requires attorney representation – flat fees for straightforward matters often run in the low thousands of dollars, more if contested or complex.
A small succession affidavit is far less expensive and, when no real estate is involved, can often be handled without an attorney – though even small errors can cause a bank, title company, or the Louisiana OMV to reject the affidavit.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
100 W. First St., DeRidder, LA 70634
(337) 463-3281
SHERIFF / TAX COLLECTOR
100 W. First St., DeRidder, LA 70634
(337) 463-3281
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (Elections)
201 W. First St., DeRidder, LA 70634
(337) 463-6246
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Beauregard Parish Health Unit
(337) 463-6524
LA DCFS — Southwest Region
(337) 491-2000
LA Medicaid
(888) 342-6207
Beauregard Health System
beauregardhealth.org (DeRidder — quality community hospital)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Beauregard Parish Health Unit – confirm current contact via Louisiana Department of Health regional office listings.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
Population: 38,000
Area: 1,160 sq mi
Established: 1912
Public Records
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