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Office: Caldwell Parish 911 Communications and Permit Department – 219 Main Street, Columbia, LA 71418 | (318) 649-6446.
Sheriff: Caldwell Parish Sheriff’s Office – 201 Main Street, Suite 2, Columbia, LA 71418 | (318) 649-2345 | Fax (318) 649-5226; Sheriff Clay Bennett, in office since 2016, a former Caldwell Parish deputy and Columbia Police Chief; 25 regular deputies plus 6 part-time deputies. Caldwell Parish Jail – (318) 649-5600 | Fax (318) 649-5652.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: US-165 serves Columbia, the parish seat, in North-Central Louisiana. Caldwell Parish Airport (F86) – public-use airfield near Columbia, owned by the Caldwell Parish Police Jury.
Notes: Caldwell Parish, formed in 1838 from parts of Ouachita and Catahoula Parishes, is bisected by the Ouachita River, splitting it into delta farmland/wetlands on the east and piney-woods hill country on the west.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Caldwell Parish Courthouse – 201 Main Street, Columbia, LA.
Notes: Columbia, founded in 1827 at a natural crossing of the Ouachita River, genuinely became a major steamboat-era cotton and timber port – the only settlement between Monroe and the Black River towns noted for its port and steamboat captains. Italian immigrant entrepreneurs built much of the town’s surviving Main Street architecture, including the 1916 Schepis Building (now the Louisiana Artists Museum, listed on the National Register of Historic Places), and the Watermark Saloon on Main Street is recognized as the oldest saloon on the Ouachita River. In July 1995, Columbia became an official Main Street Community, prompting a wave of landmark restorations.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Caldwell Parish Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/caldwell-parish.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Caldwell Parish Library – 211 Jackson St, Columbia, LA 71418 | (318) 649-2259.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Louisiana Artists Museum (Schepis Building), the Ouachita River Steamboat Era historical marker and riverwalk, and the Boeuf Wildlife Preserve (roughly 65,000 acres) are the parish’s premier attractions. The parish has hosted the Louisiana Art and Folk Festival on Main Street in Columbia since 1956, held annually the second weekend of October.
Notes: The genuine steamboat-era river heritage and the annual folk festival’s near-70-year history are among the more distinctive local facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Caldwell Parish Tax Assessor – 201 Main St #3, Columbia, LA 71418 | (318) 649-2636 | Email: [email protected].
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Saving Paws of Caldwell (SPC) – 106 Tranquility Lane, Columbia, LA 71418 (mailing: PO Box 1623, Columbia, LA 71418); a 501(c)(3) no-kill rescue founded 2011, incorporated 2012; runs the SVT program offering fee-waived adoptions of mature, spayed/neutered dogs to low-income seniors, disabled veterans, and those needing therapy dogs; also offers low-cost spay/neuter assistance; operates a transport van sending dogs to shelters in northern states. ⚠️ Note: the shelter’s original facility, built adjacent to the Caldwell Correctional Center, closed in January 2021 – the organization has since relocated to its current Tranquility Lane site and, as of recent updates, has limited intake capacity during ongoing repairs/restructuring. Contact ahead for current hours and intake status.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Caldwell Parish Police Jury Public Works – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/caldwell-parish.
NOTES: Caldwell Parish is the fifth parish in the second batch of the Louisiana v2 A+ sourced standard. The genuine steamboat-era river heritage and the annual folk festival’s near-70-year history are among the more distinctive 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 Caldwell Parish County
Caldwell Parish is north-central Louisiana’s Ouachita River corridor parish – the river’s fishing and wildlife and the surrounding timber and agricultural economy define a rural north Louisiana community between Monroe and Natchez.
Columbia (the parish seat, population ~400) is one of Louisiana’s smallest parish seats, serving Caldwell Parish’s rural communities along the Ouachita River.
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Caldwell Parish Assessor at 200 Main Street, Columbia, LA 71418, phone 318-649-2272. LA residential assessed at 10% of fair market value; $75,000 homestead exemption.
Courts & Legal
Caldwell Parish Clerk of Court at 200 Main Street, Columbia, LA 71418, phone 318-649-2272, 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 Main St., Columbia, LA 71418
(318) 649-2272
Genealogy
Parish-level record sources
Caldwell Parish Clerk of Court (succession/estate case files – see Succession section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Caldwell 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
Caldwell Parish 37th Judicial District Court, Clerk of Court 201 Main Street, Suite 1 (P.O. Box 1327), Columbia, LA 71418 (318) 649-2272 Caldwell Parish is in northeastern Louisiana, seated in Columbia.
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
201 Main St., Columbia, LA 71418
(318) 649-2345
SHERIFF / TAX COLLECTOR
201 Main St., Columbia, LA 71418
(318) 649-2345
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (Elections)
201 Main St., Columbia, LA 71418
(318) 649-2444
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Office: Caldwell Parish Health Unit – 501 Collins Rd, Columbia, LA 71418 | (318) 649-2393 | Fax (318) 649-0969.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
Population: 10,000
Area: 532 sq mi
Established: 1838
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